Today [8 June 2020], Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission Executive Vice-President for an Economy that Works for People, and Nicolas Schmit, Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, organised a hearing with the EU social partners on the upcoming Action Plan on the EU Pillar of Social Rights.

Speaking on behalf of CEEP in the opening roundtable, Valeria Ronzitti, General Secretary, said:

“CEEP strongly supports the objective of building a resilient, sustainable, and fair Union, while fostering upward convergence. In order for the Action Plan on the Pillar of Social Rights to reach that objective, its principle 8 on social dialogue needs to be further developed to ensure that national, regional, and local social partners have full ownership of initiatives taken. The Pillar should be less about new EU legislation, but more about fostering national ownership and implementation of its principles via the European Semester.”

“This consultation, and the upcoming ones on the priorities for the Action Plan, are very timely as they will allow to operationalise the principles in a way that fully takes into account the COVID-19 outbreak and its economic and social consequences. For our members, this should translate into full and effective implementation of the principle on access to services: that would be the only way to create coherence between the Action Plan, the revised MFF and the Next Generation EU which identify essential services such as long term care, healthcare, and housing as matters of priority for the social dimension.”

Read the full article here.