Editorial by Conny Reuter, SOLIDAR Secretary General

Solidarity back at the heart of Asylum, Migration and Integration

5 December 2014

There is not one day that the issue of asylum, migration and integration is not in the headlines. Last Wednesday a large net of corrupt, “Mafiosi” politicians and civil servants was unveiled by the Italian police in Rome as having exploited migrants for profit: through indecent housing and modern work slavery among other means. This is only the tip of the iceberg as the enduring failure to tackle the root causes of migration pave the way for unacceptable exploitation and violations of human and economic, social and cultural rights. Violations like in Greece, where Syrian refugees have started a hunger strike over the failure to resolve their situation. They have become the target of public aggression because, as always happens in times of crisis and in destabilized systems, people turn on those even weaker than themselves to convince themselves of their supposed superiority.

With no signs that the push factors for migration will be eliminated any time soon, there is an urgent need for humanitarian action and investment in integration. Strengthening humanitarian action requires more support for those who take care of the new arrivals, providing at least a minimum of health, care and social services. Proposals to create humanitarian corridors are particularly urgent.

There are heartening signs, nonetheless, of some people and politicians demonstrating political courage in the face of fear and exclusion. Therefore we call for public support for the social NGOs who work on the ground to offer a practical, humanitarian response to the most urgent needs and give a positive example of crisis management and integration.

Investment also means that Member States must invest in education and training programmes allowing migrants and asylum seekers who come here to find decent work and a life in dignity with opportunities to integrate. Leaving it up to individuals and the whim of local authorities to find marginal solutions will create an explosive situation for populists and right wing forces to exploit politically. To that end, some politicians from the centre and even the centre-left must end their discourse on insecurity and social benefit abuses, because it only serves to fuel hatred and discrimination. The rise of the Front National in France would not have been possible without pandering to these populist sentiments and the British PM should be warned: in the end, those who are afraid will always vote for the original extremist forces rather than for the copy-cats.

Last week, during the round tables in the European Parliament to define the ‘The Ingredients for an Inclusive Jobs, Growth and Investment Agenda’ several speakers pointed out that austerity driven policies have pushed migrants further into social exclusion and poverty. In order to counteract this, SOLIDAR demands that more attention be given to these marginalised groups and that the root causes of migration be tackled. To that end, we are working to launch a new cooperation programme between members and partners to put Solidarity back at the heart of Europe’s Asylum, Migration and Integration policies.

It is time to act for the sake of the human beings concerned and for the sake of the integration capacity of our democratic societies, of our Social Europe.

SOLIDAR Silver Rose Awards – Call for Nominations

Deadline has been extended

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 19th 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.

The Ingredients for an Inclusive Jobs, Growth and Investment Agenda

4 December 2014

On 2 December 2014, SOLIDAR organised a one day event in the European Parliament entitled ‘The Ingredients for an Inclusive Jobs, Growth and Investment Agenda’ that featured three roundtable debates; Together for Social Europe, Economic and Social Futures and Building Learning Societies covering the key elements expressing our vision for a more inclusive jobs, growth and investment agenda. Investment in social progress and lifelong learning is crucial if Europe is to move beyond its current precarious state. We need to work together to set a constructive agenda that promotes social justice in Europe and worldwide, as stated by Conny Reuter, Secretary General of SOLIDAR.

Summary of the debates

Quality Employment
The global financial and economic crisis has created new forms of inequality that affect the labour market, noted Maria Joao Rodrigues (S&D, MEP) during the round table. Duncan Tree (CSV UK) underlined that equality should be about giving individuals an equal start in society and stressed the enormous impact of health inequalities on the cohesion of societies. Employment can be considered as one part of the equation to fight the current situation. The problem is not the actual creation of jobs, however, but rather the types of jobs that are being created. European Labour Mobility is becoming more and more a matter of necessity, and no longer a matter of choice or of fair mobility. Addressing this concern, many speakers and participants during the various meetings spoke of the need for a greater focus on social and labour standards. This will not be easy to achieve, however, according to Egbert Holthuis (DG EMPL, European Commission), especially in the fields of employment and social protection. Ania Skrzypek (Senior Research Fellow, Foundation for European progressive Studies, FEPS) asked why ‘Austerity is European, Unemployment is national and poverty is individual’? SOLIDAR continues to demand social investment in jobs, insisting that these must be quality jobs, with decent working conditions, equal pay for equal work and equal access to education. The answer lies not simply in the creation of jobs and decreasing the unemployment numbers, it is about making sure that European standards are met, in all Member States, in an equal manner.

Inclusive Growth
Growth always has a positive connotation. The new Juncker team aims at accomplishing growth in the upcoming five years through its investment plan. Throughout the three roundtables there were demands for more attention to be paid to the type of growth sought. The overall message was the need for social, inclusive and sustainable growth. Joβ Steinke (Head of Social, Employment, Europe for SOLIDAR member organisation Arbeiterwohlfahrt Germany) asked for social targets to be on an equal footing with economic targets. Jutta Steinrück (S&D, MEP) supports this, calling for “setting the social targets of the EU 2020 agenda as top priorities of Member States’ policies as well as improving the binding power of the social scoreboard in the European Semester”. A rise in GDP is an economic achievement, but is this rise reflected in all layers of society, is it inclusive? Lord Roger Liddle and Patrick Diamond (Chair and Vice-Chair, Policy Network) underlined in their presentation the correlation between employment, exclusion and the effects it has on the current state of divergence within Europe (see their presentation). SOLIDAR calls for social growth, based on solidarity, in which the benefits are not restricted to a select group of stakeholders, and which includes a redistribution mechanism allowing for the firm establishment of social standards and hence real growth shared by all.

Social Investment
The European Commission’s investment plan recently unveiled by its new President, Jean-Claude Juncker was discussed in detail during the different roundtables, where participants questioned several elements of the ten-point plan. Firstly, it was pointed out that the social dimension is missing. Philippe Lamberts (Greens/EFA, MEP) questioned the political will to bring about a shift in policy making to ensure a social dimension as a recurrent feature. Dirk Van Damme (Head of the Innovation and Measuring Progress Division of the Education Directorate Skills, OECD), reminded the audience of an important aspect related to investment: “The social return of education is always higher than the public investment in education”. Jonathan Hill supported Van Damme’s conclusions, saying “Education is where people can grow to their full potential”. The investment plan seems to have bee n designed for one particular target audience. Private investment is stimulated and secured, in order to stimulate the economy, which in theory should lead to growth. Our concern, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, is about the form this growth takes, and when it comes to investment we are question whether the shared risks are to be balanced by an equal sharing of profits. What we don’t want, as Conny Reuter (Secretary General, SOLIDAR) puts it is “Socialisation of risks, privatisation of profits”.

Investing in education and training
Education and Lifelong Learning are being redesigned with a greater focus on the labour market, but is this a case of “parking” our young generation, suffering from the current state of the labour market, in education and training, just to keep unemployment figures low asked Ben Ansell (Professor of Comparative democratic Institutions, Oxford University) or is the aim to prepare them as much as possible to meet current labour market needs, to make them employable? This development brings its own problems, as it is allowing education to determine life opportunities within society. Therefore, SOLIDAR insists that to combat early school leaving and to meet diverse learning needs, there has to be investment in inclusive learning societies and a guarantee of equal access to education and training for all, as well as recognising and valuing skills and competences acquired in non-fo rmal and informal learning.

The background information for these debates can be found in the SOLIDAR Statement on Juncker’s Investment plan and the two policy recommendations that have been constructed in the light of the Europe 2020 Strategy Consultation, the one on social affairs can be found here, the one on education and lifelong learning you can read here.

The conference was recorded as it happened on twitter #4InclusiveEU.

Photos of the conference can be found here.

Together for Social Europe

Investing in Social Progress

3 December 2014

The first round table in the morning entitled “Together for social Europe – Investing in social progress” hosted by MEP Maria Joao Rodrigues, vice-President of the S&D group. In her key note speech, Mrs Rodrigues highlighted that fighting inequalities should be one of the main goals of the EU growth strategy. In her view, there are new forms of inequalities which have emerged and need to be tackled: the number of working poor is increasing, while the middle classes are shrinking. Mrs Rodrigues called for a greater focus on basic social rights such as the rights to access decent housing, social services, adequate social protection, life-long learning opportunities and equal treatment in employment and in society.
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Economic and Social Futures – Social Investment in Europe

3 December 2014

In the second session, organised together with Policy Network and titled “Economic and social futures of Europe”, hosted by MEP Philippe Lamberts (Greens/EFA, Belgium), two panels took place. The first one titled ‘Europe’s post-crisis social reality and policy responses’ looked at the protracted economic recovery that Europe has been experiencing since the 2008 financial crash which has exacerbated pre-existing social trends. The panel was chaired by Conny Reuter, Secretary General of SOLIDAR. Speakers discussed the main economic and social developments undergone by European societies today and reflected on whether national welfare policies have adapted effectively to this new environment.
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Building Learning Societies

Investing in Education and Lifelong Learning

3 December 2014

The roundtable on 2 December brought together policy makers, civil society organisations, government representatives and researchers to discuss the timely topic of investment in education. As a background document for the roundtable discussions SOLIDAR launched its new publication, “Building learning societies: investing in education and lifelong learning” with its country monitoring reports of 12 Member States and recommendations for both national and European policy makers, on contributing to improving the quality of and investment in education and lifelong learning.
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Organising International Solidarity

International Cooperation Forum

Next week SOLIDAR is holding its International Cooperation Forum, bringing together over 20 SOLIDAR Members involved with our projects and activities in the framework of Organising International Solidarity. There will be a wide range of debates, meetings and activities taking place from 8 to 12 December in Brussels, including several meetings with among others the Mogherini and Hahn cabinets in the European Commission, roundtables in the European Parliament on trade and European neighbourhood policy organised in collaboration with SOLIDAR Member Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) and a full day of discussions at the European Endowment for Democracy in collaboration with CONCORD and ANND.

One of the main objectives of the week is to present the results of the briefing titled ‘Taking Stock for a New European Neighbourhood Policy: Decent Work, Social Protection and Freedom of Association’ which is a compilation of monitoring reports compiled in the MENA Region. The findings underline the need for a policy that can promote social justice in the region through contributing to the progressive realisation of economic, social and cultural rights; freedom of association and an enabling environment for civil society and trade unions; access to universal and comprehensive social protection systems; and inclusive socio-economic development and public investment. The start of a new European leadership after the 2014 European Elections, with the appointment of the new Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement negotiations, represents a renewed opportun ity to take stock for a revised European Neighbourhood Policy.

Despite progressive changes after the Arab Spring, the paper points at several enduring challenges: women’s rights remain under pressure; violations of freedom of expression and media freedom persist and the enabling environment for civil society and trade unions is shrinking. The region is faced with one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world and reforms are needed in the fields of healthcare and education. In addition, the pressing question of migrant workers remains – both in terms of domestic workers working under extremely precarious conditions and of the role of the EU and its approach to migration.

SOLIDAR International Cooperation Forum (ICF)

• 10 December 2014 | Roundtable Debate – ‘EU Trade and investment policy: Between Development goals and access to developing markets’
  09:00-12:00 European Parliament
  Programme

• 10 December 2014 | Roundtable Debate – ‘Designing a New European Neighbourhood Policy’
  18:00-20:00 European Parliament
  Programme

• 11 December 2014 | Civil Society Dialogue ‘Taking Stock for a Revised European Neighbourhood Policy (South)’
  09:00-18:00 European Endowment for Democracy
  Programme