Social issues are an important component of European policy and are omnipresent in national public debates.
Compared to the rest of the world, Europe is an exception in the social field. Social rights, including labour law, are generally more important here than anywhere else. The right to sick leave, for example, is often more developed on the European continent than elsewhere. There are significant disparities between Member States in terms of social protection. Unemployment rates in the Member States and the lack of a European minimum wage are further evidence of European disparity on social issues.
Social policy has had a European dimension since the 1980s.
In 1985, with the arrival of Jacques Delors at the head of the European Commission, the EU launched the “European Social Dialogue”, with European trade unions and employers meeting for the first time. In 1989, the Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights was adopted, enabling the implementation of binding framework agreements, such as on parental leave, part-time work and fixed-term contracts. The fight against unemployment in Europe also becomes an EU priority. In 2017, the European Social Rights Framework was adopted, reaffirming the EU’s commitment to ensuring better living and working conditions across the EU.
The European institutions are seeking to address the lack of a social Europe. In October 2020, the European Commission proposed the introduction of an adequate European minimum wage in comparison with the cost of living. France has made this proposal one of the main objectives of the EUFP 2022.
The Covid-19 pandemic has put the social issue at the heart of Europe’s priorities. 750 billion, funds economic and social resilience.
EU funding and initiatives
The European Social Fund (ESF) is designed to support the creation of jobs in the European Union and to improve the employment prospects of citizens. The ESF always co-finances other public and/or private funders.
The level of ESF co-financing varies from one region to another. Regions are classified in 3 categories :
- More developed regions where the share of ESF funds in the co-financing of projects can reach 50% of the total project cost
- Transition regions where the co-financing rate is up to 60%.
- Less developed regions where the co-financing rate is up to 85%.
Every year, the Fund helps some 10 million people find a job or improve their skills to find a job later on.
The new 2021-2027 programming ESF+ will be a merger of several funds (ESF, EYP, EAFRD, the Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation and the EU Health Programme). And it will have a budget of €101 billion.
The specific objectives of ESF+ are to :
- support the policy areas of employment and labour mobility, education and social inclusion, in particular by contributing to the eradication of poverty and thereby contributing to the implementation of the European Social Rights Framework
- support the digital and green transition, job creation through smart specialisation skills and improvements in education and training systems;
- support temporary measures in exceptional or unusual circumstances (e.g. funding short-time working schemes without requiring them to be combined with active measures, or providing access to health care, including for people who are not immediately socio-economically vulnerable).