The European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) highlighted the importance of the current period for the future of the EU's social dimension on Tuesday 11 December 2018 during a debate organised at the occasion of the presentation of the annual report on European social policy, prepared jointly by the two organisations.
As an introduction, Philippe Pochet, ETUI's Director General, gave an overview of the EU's social policy over the past 20 years. "While it developed until the mid-2000s, the European social dimension came to a sudden halt with the Barroso Commission," he said.
After a "complex but interesting" period following the 2008 financial crisis, social policy has regained a certain "normality", according to Mr Pochet, who welcomed the establishment of the European Foundation for Social Rights (see EUROPE 11907) and "proposals in areas that have been forgotten such as health, safety or carcinogens".
"Eco-social policies”
"The European Social Rights Foundation is a good basis for the construction of a European Social Union," according to Dalila Ghailani, researcher for the OSE, who nevertheless stressed the need to add "eco-social policies".
“For the time being, environmental concerns are ignored in the social debate, while the two issues are eminently intertwined," she said, noting a "double injustice" at the international level: “On the one hand, the groups most affected by climate change are those least responsible for it; on the other hand, the poor are the most affected by environmental policies, yet they cannot bear the financial burden.”
This desire to combine social progress and the fight against climate change is reminiscent of the line taken by the members of the S&D Group in the European Parliament in the run-up to the European elections (see EUROPE 12147).
Following the announcement of the British withdrawal following the June 2016 referendum, the "existential debates on the future of Europe" in 2017 led to “the strengthening of the EU's social dimension, but also to the highlighting of divisions between states", placing Europe “at a crossroads" for the time being, according to Ms Ghailani's analysis.
Annoyance
“This Commission is still much more ambitious than those that preceded it!” said Marcel Haag, Director of the Employment, Growth and Investment Section at the Commission's Secretariat General.
Angry by Mr Pochet's remarks, the Commission representative nevertheless shared Ms Ghailani's observation, admitting that links had to be made not only with environmental policy, but also with Economic and Monetary Union and the Single Market.
"Climate justice is a fundamental point," Mr Haag also conceded, highlighting the European Commission's recent decarbonisation strategy (see EUROPE 12148) which is "an element, but certainly not a whole," he said. (Original version in French by Mathieu Solal)