The Presidents - of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, and of the European Council, Charles Michel - insisted on Monday 22 February on the capacity of the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan to reduce the social inequalities that have increased since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The resources will come from Europe, but the ideas will come from your country”, said Ms von der Leyen, addressing representatives of the European Parliament and national parliaments during the European Parliamentary Week 2021 devoted to the European Recovery Plan.
In addition to the expected investments in the climate and digital transitions, she called for this unprecedented financial windfall to benefit all European citizens, in particular by stimulating investments in skills and equal opportunities for women and young people.
“Some have described the pandemic as the ‘great equaliser’. This is so untrue!”, she pointed out, noting that women had lost their jobs more easily than men.
She cited initiatives already taken at EU level after the outbreak of the pandemic, such as the strengthening of the ‘Youth Guarantee’ (see EUROPE 12517/6) and the ‘Pact for Skills’ (see EUROPE 12518/1). And “more proposals will come in early March, when we will present our action plan to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights, ahead of the Social Summit in Porto”, planned for the beginning of May.
In the same vein, Charles Michel mentioned “the ‘Covid Generation’, those who are 20 years old around 2020 and 2021”, as “the same people who have stood up to awaken our climate awareness”, and whose lives have been totally turned upside down since the spring of 2020. “It is for them that the European project must be built, day after day”, giving them “horizons” through the aim of climate neutrality for the EU and the digital agenda of the European Recovery Plan, he said.
Opening the debates, David Sassoli had stressed that the fight against climate change could not be dissociated from social justice and the fight against inequalities. “Inequalities and poverty are indeed fuelling the ecological crisis, while we see that more egalitarian societies [...] have a better environmental situation and a greater capacity to become more sustainable”, he added. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)