When it comes to mental health, the EU is focussing on precarious employment.

Improving mental health is a social and economic imperative for the European Union (EU) and its Member States, which has become even more apparent since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the European Commission, scientific findings have shown that 27 per cent of European workers have suffered from stress, pressure, depression and anxiety in precarious as well as low-paid and unprotected employment in the past year. The trend is rising.

The European Commission has taken this up as part of its political activities and published a Communication on a comprehensive approach to mental health (see News 06/2023) as early as 7 June.

Mental health more important than ever - Council calls for measures

On 9 October, the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) also discussed mental health and precarious employment as part of its conclusions.  In doing so, the Council calls on the Member States to promote high-quality employment policies in order to combat precarious employment. The aim is to strengthen public systems to protect mental health in the workplace and support research into the effects of precarious working conditions on the well-being of employees. The European Commission is invited to consider appropriate policy development to address psychosocial risks in the workplace. National initiatives for dealing with psychosocial risks in the workplace should be promoted in order to strengthen psychosocial well-being and combat precariousness. The Council’s conclusions were the first to address the link between mental health and employment conditions.

Conclusions of the European Parliament

MEPs also emphasised in an unsolicited report adopted on 27 October that initiatives to promote mental health are necessary to foster an inclusive, cohesive and mentally healthy society in the EU. The European Parliament therefore welcomes the EUR 765 million made available under the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programmes for research and innovation projects on mental health and calls on the European Commission to further develop the mental health strategy and to lay down specific objectives and initiatives. The European Parliament considers information systems on mental health to be necessary in order to collect and measure data and the effectiveness of measures in this area. MEPs call on the EU and Member States to raise awareness of the importance of mental health and to strengthen mental health systems as healthcare systems.

Background

With the Communication presented in June, the European Commission aims to support Member States and stakeholders in responding promptly to the challenges in the area of mental health, including precarious employment. To this end, 20 guidelines and financial support totalling EUR 1.23 billion will be provided to promote a comprehensive approach. The Communication makes it clear that an improvement in the current situation can only be achieved by focussing on combating precarious working conditions and appropriate prevention of psychosocial risks in the workplace. Reducing psychosocial risks in the workplace leads to a stabilisation of physical and mental health in the long term and to an associated increase in the performance of all employees.