CESI on future scenarios of a social EU
2018-01-19 12:00
At its last meeting of the old year in December 2017 the Presidium of CESI adopted a new position paper on priorities for a more social Europe. The position follows up the European Commission’s White Paper on the Future of the EU and its accompanying reflection papers as published in the course of 2017.
It its position the CESI Presidium calls, most importantly, for:
- A deeper involvement of all social partners in the discussion on the future goals and pathways of European integration such as in the European Semester, and generally speaking, more transparency in EU decision-making processes and plurality in the social dialogue;
- A recognition of the equal value of social-political goals of the EU compared to the single market and its fundamental freedoms;
- An understanding of subsidiarity, especially in terms of social policy, which should not only require Member States’ competence or action on the lowest levels, but should focus on solving problems in an increasingly-integrated EU;
- The design of the future of work and new forms of work via the establishment of socially-fair policies tailored to the digital age, especially by means of a clear definition of the concept of ’employee’, as the basis for social and labour regulations applying to atypical forms of work, e.g. measures for social security of all employees and freelancers;
- The deepening of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), with the inclusion of fiscal policy buffer measures in order to make up for the national adaptation instruments lost by states when adhering to the EMU; and
- A move away from “a slim state at any cost”, towards public services that are sufficiently financed and staffed, without which social policies cannot be implemented for the benefit of the citizens, employees and consumers.
The full position is available here.
