The event, “What’s next for Social Europe?”, focused on the main features of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), particularly fair working conditions and quality jobs, social protection and inclusion, and access to high quality and affordable services. It underlined the need for social policies not to become an afterthought in the face of rising geopolitical tensions and the EU’s commitment to increase competitiveness, and identified the upcoming review of the EPSR Action Plan as a key initiative for responding to social issues.

The high-level stakeholders gathered to discuss the future of Social Europe included Members of the European Parliament – MEP Maria Ohisalo (Greens/EFA), MEP Estelle Ceulemans (S&D), MEP Leïla Chaibi (The Left), MEP Jana Toom (Renew Europe) –, representatives from the European Commission, such as Miron Podgorean, member of cabinet of European Commission Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu, and members of Social Platform, including CECOP Secretary General Diana Dovgan.

During the panel discussions, the speakers pointed to the key challenges, such as growing social inequalities, lack of binding legislation, and different budget priorities, all of which are necessary to address in order to stay true to the EU core values and strengthen Social Europe. To this end, the speakers underlined the importance of stronger social legislation and protecting and reinforcing social investment funds, such as the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+).

“If we want a competitive Europe, we must invest in people and not just jobs, but quality jobs.” – Miron Podgorean, member of cabinet of European Commission Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu

As part of the panel discussions, CECOP Secretary General Diana Dovgan elaborated on the priorities related to fair working conditions and quality jobs under the new Action Plan for the EPSR. She pointed out several aspects that must be considered when developing the Action Plan, for instance in some sectors, such as the care sector, poor working conditions are leading to massive labour shortages; that youth unemployment is three times higher than for the rest of the population; that digitalisation and new ways of working, such as platform work, have brought a shift towards more on-demand work and have normalised precarious jobs and the concept of the “working poor”; and that barriers to quality employment for persons with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups remain.

Cooperatives continuously demonstrate that it is possible to improve working conditions and quality of work, with their commitment towards achieving more equity, inclusion and democracy at work. Among the cooperatives represented by CECOP, more than 70% of the workers are members of the cooperatives, meaning they actively participate in the decision making and strategic planning of the cooperatives, which has a direct impact on the quality of work and workers’ satisfaction.

To tackle the challenges Europe faces in terms of working conditions and quality jobs, the Action Plan should:

  • promote models that enhance meaningful and quality jobs, such as democratically managed and collectively owned cooperatives
  • address specific sectorial needs in terms of quality working conditions, such as in the care sector
  • ensure that skills strategies are not separate from quality jobs creation and job retention strategies, nor are they focused only on technical upskilling and reskilling, but also on democratic and civic skills
  • propose legislation on regulating algorithmic management, workers’ rights and control over their data, and enforcing human oversight on key managerial actions
  • provide a framework to deliver fair working conditions, decent wages, and better access to childcare and long-term care to free up workers that carry on such care duties, and that are mostly women.

In this regard, CECOP is looking forward to the European Commission’s Quality Jobs Roadmap but calls on the Commission to include social economy representatives and civil society representatives in the elaboration of the roadmap. We expect results and concrete policies, not just declarations of good intentions.