The European commissioner for employment and social affairs, Marianne Thyssen, has called on member states to make a financial contribution to the objectives set out in EU social policy. This has come after the second day of the informal meeting with social affairs ministers devoted to the European pillar of social rights, on Wednesday 18 April.
“For our planes to fly we need fuel. Lots of fuel”, the commissioner said addressing the ministers. She announced that there were difficult decisions to come in the next multiannual financial framework. “We ask for your support - to make sure – as much as possible – not a cent less for social”, she said, going on to point out that all member states had taken a commitment by adopting the European pillar of social rights in November 2017 (see EUROPE 11907, 11906).
During her closing speech, the commissioner reiterated the Commission’s key actions in the social area, notably the Youth Guarantee, the Youth Employment Initiative, and the Upskilling Pathway. Long term unemployment has fallen to 3.3% compared with 5.1% in 2013, and 2 million young people have come out of unemployment since 2014, she pointed out. “It is too easy to put these figures down to economic recovery alone. It is certain that, if we had done nothing, the figures would be very different”, Thyssen hammered home.
Furthermore, the commissioner invited the member states to present their projects and ideas by July for the Upskilling Pathway and underlined that member states should continue to implement the Youth Guarantee and the recommendations relating to the integration of long-term unemployed into the labour force. Thyssen took the view that such measures are not just for the “rainy days”.
During the meeting of the working group on the fourth principle, the commissioner stressed that the Youth Guarantee in particular should “last through time” and for the measures and policies undertaken to be maintained over the longer term by highlighting the role of the public services. The commissioner called on member states to “considerably” speed up implementation of the Youth Employment Initiative given the risk of disengagement (act consisting of settling a budgetary commitment) in 2018.
Social action should be investment, not expenditure. During the press conference, Biser Petkov, the Bulgarian minister for employment and social policy, insisted that money injected by member states into the improvement of education and training systems should be counted as investment, not expenditure.
These discussions and those held the day before (see EUROPE 112003) aim to fuel the European Commission’s reflection as it prepares to present its proposal for the next multiannual financial framework post-2020, on 2 May (see EUROPE 11999). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)