In the position, CESI welcomes an announced initiative of the European Commission to take stock of challenges pertaining to access to essential services for all European citizens and notes in this respect that:

• The succession of recent crises – the Covid pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine – combined pressure on labour markets with disruptions on global production and supply chains and scarcity of food and energy resources. The result has been rising unemployment and/or lower incomes coupled with rising prices and financial instability of increasing numbers of low- and middle-income households. More and more people become vulnerable. This means that many public services are under additional pressure.
  
• The EU and the Member States should step up their efforts and commitments for an improved access to essential services which guarantee a decent level of healthcare, education and well-being for all citizens and in particular for the most vulnerable that cannot buy in private substitutive services, in line with the European Pillar of Social Rights.
• A strengthening of essential services is all the more important as a lesson learnt against the experience of the multiple unpredictable crises that Europe has been facing during the last years: Essential services must be sufficiently prepared and resourced to be performing to also deliver in difficult times.
• This necessitates adequate levels in public investments at the EU and national Member State level. The costs of the digital and green transitions must not be borne by the most vulnerable. Rather, the opposite is true: They are in need of support and assistance to face these transitions, including through and improved provision of essential services.
  • In particular, the EU’s new Recovery and Resilience Facility should be mapped considerably more against social considerations (which includes access to essential services) next to its two priorities on climate change mitigation and digitalisation.
  • Moreover, the funding of essential services should be taken into consideration in the context of the current review of the EU’s economic governance. The EU should make it easier for Member States to pursue necessary adequate investments in essential services without being penalised straightaway by the EU’s fiscal deficit rules of the Stability and Growth Pact.
  • A improved essential services can also be counter-financed by increasing capital taxation and VAT for high consumption and luxury products, as well as by the closure of loopholes for tax avoidance and tax evasion by investors and multinational companies. This remains an important playing field for the EU to deliver, together with Member States and further international actors such as the OECD.
• For high accessible, available and high quality essential services, these investments must target both facilities and infrastructure as well as equipment and, above all, human resources. Many essential services are understaffed while working conditions are precarious and pay for personnel is often inadequate. As long as these shortcomings persists, quality services cannot be delivered. This is confirmed by a recent study commissioned by the European Parliament on ‘Revaluation of working conditions and wages for essential workers’

The full position of CESI is available here.