In an opinion adopted on Thursday 19 April, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) calls for the principles set out in the European pillar of social rights to be implemented with adequate funding. For this, it calls for application of the budgetary agreement to be more flexible.
The opinion put forward by Anne Demelenne (Workers, Belgium) targets the budgetary rules set out in the Stability and Growth Pact and calls for socially-oriented public investment through European structural and investment funds (ESI), mainly for low income member states, and the European fund for strategic investments (EFSI). It thus calls for the EFSI mission to include an explicit social dimension.
MFF on the rise
Generally speaking, the EESC considers that correct implementation of the social pillar presupposes strengthening of financial resources, recalling that, at the present time, EU spending in the social area accounts on average for only 0.3% of total public spending.
The EESC therefore supports the European Parliament’s request to increase the current ceiling of EU spending from 1% to 1.3% of gross national income. The EESC considers that a rise in VAT to finance this increase would be “extremely unfair” from a social point of view.
The EESC finally calls for the budget for the European Social Fund not to be reduced ahead of the next multiannual financial framework.
Social scoreboard
EESC members consider that the social scoreboard presented by the European Commission in connection with the European pillar of social rights contains “clearly inappropriate” indicators, especially as far as closing the gender gap for pay and employment is concerned. Closing the gap would mean a reduction in the hourly time worked by men and not an improvement in the situation of women. The EESC criticises the differences in the reference periods. On this basis, the EESC calls for review of these indicators with the social partners. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)