Debate: A strong social Europe for Just Transitions
Date: MONDAY, 14 DECEMBER 2020
Speaker: Nicolas Schmit
Language: EN

We are facing a crisis of unprecedented scale with massive social consequences. We could preserve jobs and income with our support for a short-time work-schemes culture, yet six million jobs have been lost and we are losing human capital and this impairs our potential for growth in the medium-term. Certain groups are hit disproportionately: women and young people, but also self—employed people. Many never thought they would one day fall into poverty. Now they are queuing up for food aid. Inequalities are deepening further. Low-skilled and low-paid workers, but also temporary workers, were the first ones laid off. We have millions of children and young people whose life prospects have worsened. Against this background, strong and coordinated action at European and national level is needed. The Commission has committed to presenting an action plan to implement the European pillar of social rights and its political guidelines, and we will do so early next year. Eleven months ago we launched a wide consultation reaching a great number of stakeholders across Europe and which delivered thousands of contributions. This shows how the pillar contains key political goals that citizens want to see implemented. With the current crisis, implementation of the social pillar is even more needed. If anything, the pandemic has shown the importance of resilient health and social protection systems. The European pillar of social rights is a key tool to accompany our recovery efforts in the short and medium-term. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated existing trends. This is why we need to take decisive action to tackle the socioeconomic consequences of this crisis, as well as to face long—term challenges.  We need to support people and our workforce through the green and digital transitions. We are simply not sufficiently equipped today for tomorrow’s labour market, economy and society. Employment is key. We have to support job creation, taking full advantage of the ongoing transitions and the renewed industrial strategy, ease job transitions based on skilling, re- and up—skilling, and enhance actively labour market policies and help young people enter the labour market. We have to create more convergence between and within Member States. Europe must be the same promise of equal opportunities and social progress for everyone. This means reassessing the value of work, a concept President von der Leyen mentioned in her first speech to this Parliament, and ensuring decent working and living conditions.  We have to adapt our social welfare states to the digital age. We have to find the right balance between an innovative economy, led by technological process, the key of our European social model, and modern, inclusive and sustainable social protection systems, and we have to invest in our social resilience. This virus painfully underlines the vulnerability of many sectors, like education and healthcare. Therefore our action plan should define shared objectives at EU level and put forward concrete actions delivering the priorities of the social pillar, ensuring equal opportunities and access to the labour market for all, supporting for working conditions and strengthening social protection and inclusion.  We are giving full consideration to your call, as to that of other stakeholders, for setting strategic, social and employment targets. We share a common understanding that the implementation of the social pillar and the resilience and recovery plans should complement each other. We have to build a future in a sustainable way, in an innovative way, but also in a fair and inclusive way. This is fundamental if we want to put people at the centre.  We are also looking at how to improve our monitoring of the implementation of the social pillar, including the social scoreboard, and how countries coordinate implementation of the pillar at national level. The Commission’s action plan must pave the way at European level, but we will only reach our common destination if Member States, regions and local authorities turn commitment into action. We will only get there if social partners and civil society organisations do their part, and Europe must be there to support them.  Finally, the adoption of the social pillar action plan will be a very important step in view of the social summit which will take place in Porto in May 2021. The Commission’s social agenda has only gained in importance. We have already come forward with ambitious proposals on youth employment, on skills, on fair minimum wages, and you can count on us to continue to deliver on our child guarantee, on platform workers, on the social economy. Your strategic resolution will be crucial to feed into the preparations of our action plan. This action plan will not land in a vacuum. It must give direction to our recovery strategy and it must be plugged into the Commission’s overarching 2030 growth strategy for a green and digital transformation.