On Wednesday 25 October, the Presidents of the European Council and the Council of the EU, Charles Michel and Pedro Sánchez, the acting Spanish Prime Minister, and the European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, together with the European social partners, reiterated the importance of “social dialogue” in making the dual green and digital transitions a success.
This new Tripartite Social Summit was an opportunity to say “how much we believe in social dialogue”, said Charles Michel, and to discuss what needs to be done “to consolidate Europe's industrial base”. The Green Deal “must be our growth strategy, and we are making sure that this transition is also a social one”, he added.
The strengthening of industrial and innovation capacities in Europe and the very important issue of labour shortages are the subjects of discussion with the social partners.
For his part, the Spanish Prime Minister placed great emphasis on strengthening the social dimension and the need to support transitions in terms of pensions and gender equality. He welcomed the fact that several texts had been adopted under the Spanish Presidency, such as the conclusions on mental health at work and the social protection of the self-employed, and promised that Spain would do its utmost to reach an agreement on the directive on platform workers, as well as to improve the situation of people with disabilities.
The conclusion of this Summit is “that there is a consensus on this European approach of combining social justice and competitiveness, and this was repeated during the Summit”, commented Nicolas Schmit.
Recalling that the EU will lose a million workers every year between now and 2030, this phenomenon needs to be mitigated and the solutions also involve bringing into the European market people who are still excluded, such as women.
The General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, Esther Lynch, warned European leaders against associating decarbonisation with deindustrialisation; she supported calls for investment in the green and digital transitions and warned against a reform of EU fiscal governance which, depending on the rules defined, would allow or prevent Member States from investing in these transitions.
For BusinessEurope and its Managing Director, Markus J. Beyrer, “Europe needs investment and the business environment in Europe is not at its best; 90% of companies say that the situation has worsened over the last three years compared to our competitors”.
“We need to decarbonise the continent, but not de-industrialise it”, he also said, and the “Green Deal, for us, is in any case not a pro-growth policy”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)