European Semester
Social aspects of the country-specific recommendations have been approved.
VS – 07/2024
On
16 July, the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council
(EPSCO) approved the social and employment policy aspects of the country-specific
recommendations as well as the employment
policy guidelines. This year's social policy was focused on upward social convergence – a core element of the
European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR). The Council also approved a joint opinion by the Employment Committee (EMCO) and the Social Protection Committee (SPC).
It identified the challenges facing upward social convergence. An initial
evaluation of a pilot project that will analyse how convergence will be
developed on a country-by-country basis was also undertaken. The two committees
are in favour of continuously incorporating such analyses in multilateral
monitoring mechanisms.
European Semester
The European Semester provides the
framework for coordinating and monitoring economic and social policies within
the EU. The cycle begins in November, when the Commission defines the
priorities for the coming year. It ends in October of the following year, when
the national governments submit their draft budgets.
The Joint
Employment Report for the 2024 European Semester includes, for the first
time, a new country-specific analysis covering upward social convergence, which
was prepared as part of the pilot project. The basis for this was the analytical
framework jointly agreed upon by the EC and the Council. The first step was
to identify the risks to upward convergence for all 27 member states and to
name the countries for which an in-depth analysis is needed. They are Bulgaria,
Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Romania and Spain. The results of this
analysis have been incorporated in the country-specific recommendations for
these seven countries.
Results of the analysis
Gender,
age, socio-economic background, nationality and ethnic origin often determine
access to educational and training opportunities, fair working conditions and
high-quality social, care and health services. This applies in particular to
the countries that were analysed in-depth. However, the factors listed above
also represent major barriers to the progress of social and employment policies
for the remaining member states. In their statement, SPC and EMCO emphasised
that the resilience of member states to current and future challenges will
depend on social and employment policies encompassing everyone.
Guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States
The
spring package also included adopting the employment
guidelines. This year, they were supplemented by education and training
issues, new technologies, artificial intelligence and algorithmic management.
Recent policy initiatives such as platform working, affordable housing and
tackling labour and skills shortages have also been incorporated in the
guidelines.
Country-specific recommendations for Germany
The country-specific
recommendations for Germany recommended that measures be implemented in
2024 and 2025 to reform the financing of statutory pension insurance. The
projected future increase in pension expenditure as a proportion of gross
domestic product would reduce the scope of the fiscal policy. The proportion of
pension expenditure financed by tax revenue has now risen to over 100 billion
euros. Introducing generational capital would not provide any substantial
relief here as the projected capital accumulation would have to be financed by
public debt. At the same time, the spread of company and private pension
schemes is stagnating.
What's next?
SPC
and EMCO will conduct another evaluation of the social upward convergence pilot
project during the second half of the year.