Editorial by Conny Reuter, SOLIDAR Secretary General

Not just another European Year

16 January 2015

In the shadow of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, the European Year for Development was launched officially in Riga last week under the slogan “Our World, Our Dignity, Our Future”.
On a positive note, there is a certain enthusiasm for this European Year.

Development cooperation shall be a driver for inclusive development, but cannot be considered only from the point of view of economic effectiveness. In particular, in these times of crisis when development budgets are being reduced and cut, there will be an emphasis on global cooperation when discussing aid effectiveness. It will however always entail a donor – recipient relation, mostly a North-South relation.

Development cooperation is not charity for the poor although poverty remains a major global issue (according to the World Bank, in 2011 just over one billion people lived on less than $1.25 a day and some 1 billion people will still live in extreme poverty in 2015).

Increasing inequalities prevent people from participating in their communities and from contributing to the development of their countries, bringing them increasingly often under conditions of modern slavery in their work relations. But there is now an opportunity for a paradigm change, a paradigm based on sharing wealth to increase people capabilities, a paradigm that reminds us that no-one is too poor to share.

Universal social protection systems generate growth and the possibility of redistribution. This is the lesson learnt after the devastating IMF and World Bank policies of the 1970s and 1980s. It is time to invest in protection schemes, social benefit systems and even cash transfers. Do we remember where 30 million people were lifted out of poverty? No not in Europe, it was in Brazil.

With the UN Social Protection Floor initiative perceptions are changing, with a growing understanding that social protection schemes are not a costly luxury for developing countries, but can be the way forward to enable developing countries to become self-sustainable.

The ongoing negotiations on the post-2015 international development cooperation framework aim at setting global goals while providing a unique opportunity to push for the full realisation of the right to social security for everyone by 2030.

SOLIDAR, together with its members is engaged in a partnership cooperation within more than 80 countries in the world. They are drivers in the national cooperation platforms. We were amongst those who contributed to the creation of CONCORD and are pleased to see CONCORD coordinating the Civil Society Alliance around European Year 2015. During this year, many events will be labelled and will, hopefully, contribute to awareness raising on the social outcome of a sustainable development policy and programmes.

Next step: The post 2015 agenda and the move from MDG’s to SDG’s. Sustainable development is the pathway to political stability and a strategy to counter-act terrorism. It would increase well-being through the redistribution of wealth and offer an opportunity for prosperity and security. This is not wishful thinking, it is just a reality. Let’s go for an active, productive, creative EYD 2015! Or as Mahatma Gandhi reminded us ’”The world has enough for everyone’s needs, but not enough for everyone’s greed”.

SOLIDAR Silver Rose Awards – Call for Nominations

Deadline – 19 January 2015

Have you already submitted your nomination? Everyone is welcome to make a nomination, especially member organisations or other organisations and individuals who actively support SOLIDAR’s work. The new deadline for the submission of your nominations is 19 January 2015. The nomination can be made using the nomination form or through the online nomination form. A more detailed explanation of the procedure can be found here.

Together for Social Europe

Health and social services are a motor for job creation in Europe – but good maintenance is needed

14 January 2015

On 8 January 2015, the European Commission published its “Employment and Social Situation Quarterly Review: December 2014” giving an overview of developments in employment and social conditions in the EU over the last three months. As Commissioner Thyssen stated: “Though the employment growth we witness now is positive, it is still too small and too slow. Especially long-term unemployment remains a crucial challenge for the EU.” “The unemployment rate of young people has fallen significantly in the EU but remains very high. Long-term unemployment is a growing problem. In the second quarter of 2014, a total of 12.4 million people (5.1% of the labour force) had been unemployed for more than one year, and more than half of these had been unemployed for more than two years. In Greece a nd Cyprus, long-term unemployment rates have reached historic highs. Fragile economic recovery and challenges in the labour market have impacted on the modest developments in the situation of households and individuals. The easing in financial distress in low-income households, observed in the first half of 2014, appears to have halted in recent months”, the report adds.
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Latvian Presidency: A vision of Europe for its people – a version of competitiveness

16 January 2015

Competitiveness is a word that reappears frequently in the Latvian programme. It still seems to be key to many of the current problems the EU is facing. SOLIDAR stresses yet again the importance of an inclusive and cohesive European society around a real social ambition and agenda, in which a more competitive, digital and engaged Europe should bring prosperity and even security to all of its citizens. Therefore, we are calling upon the Latvian Presidency to work in the coming six months for a more social dimension when it comes to the investment plan, through which not only profit but social progress should be the barometer. Social progress achieved through social protection and maintaining workers rights, not geared solely to the goal of economic gain.
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Building Learning Societies

Available now: ‘European Strategic guide to fostering participation and raising awareness about the validation of learning outcomes of non-formal and informal learning’ in multiple languages

16 January 2015

In 2014 SOLIDAR together with its partners developed a campaign calling for the development of validation arrangements for non-formal and informal learning by 2018 in the EU Member States. The campaign was launched at the project’s final conference “Achieving validation of learning outcomes – best practices and the way forward” on 14 October 2014 hosted by Julie Ward MEP. In the framework of the project “Building Learning Societies: Promoting the validation of non-formal and informal learning” www.buildinglearningsocieties.org campaigning tools and the publication ‘European Strategic guide to fostering participation and raising awareness about the validation of learning outcomes of non-formal and informal learning’ in multiple languages]’ was launched, aiming to raise awareness of the validation of learning outcomes of non-formal and informal learning. We encourage your organisations to join the call for achieving validation and to use the prepared publications now also available in Bulgarian, German, French, Greek, Spanish and Swedish.

Organising International Solidarity

Extension of social protection to migrant workers is key to EU migration, development and neighbourhood policies!

16 January 2015

In the light of the European Commission Work Programme for 2015 and the Council Conclusions on Migration in EU Development Cooperation , SOLIDAR is co-organising a round table on “Rights-based approach to EU migration policies: the role of the Trade Union Network for Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan Migrants”, on 10 February in Brussels. The round table aims to give support to the network and to give the representatives from trade unions from Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan countries the opportunity to engage in dialogue with the European Commission in the light of the revision of its Migration policy.

SOLIDAR strongly calls for the EU to establish a human-rights-based, coherent, comprehensive and common migration policy where access to social justice is its central asset. To do this, the promotion of decent work and social protection for migrants should become the basis of EU migration, cooperation and development policies. The European Year for Development 2015 and the revision of the European Neighbourhood Policy represents an opportunity to urge the EU to put solidarity at the heart of its migration, development and neighbourhood policies.
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