AEIP has submitted its response to the public consultation on the Pillar of Social Rights
AEIP welcomes and supports the European Pillar of Social Rights initiative. We consider that it provides a good opportunity to take a holistic approach to the present acquis in reviewing its relevance to face complex societal challenges, economic changes and aftershocks of the crisis that have led to new fragilities in the European society.
Such an approach is the only way to identify possible areas for action in the context of a process of social innovation. A structured dialogue with the Member States and the social partners will be key in identifying the issues and possible solutions.
Against this background, AEIP considers that the EU Pillar can represent a unique opportunity for strengthening the social dialogue and for further developing and spreading the paritarian model across Europe. AEIP believes that social protection has to be based on the concepts of solidarity, risk sharing, efficiency, good governance and transparency of costs, as the values shared by all our members. Therefore AEIP urges the EU Institutions to actively promote and support these principles and we welcome the European Pillar of Social Rights as a tool that could effectively contribute to the actual implementation and enforcement of the social dialogue and of the paritarian model and its underlying principles.
Guiding principles in the AEIP response
In the context of promotion of the general principles in the design and implementation of social protection policies, we believe the provisions of the Pillar of Social Rights should be based on several considerations, to be mainstreamed across all domains:
- Any EU initiative that will aim to add to the existing EU social acquis, should carefully and adequately take into consideration the different social and labour laws of the Member States and the principle of subsidiarity.
- Services, provided as part of the European welfare systems, have to be linked and integrated within a comprehensive framework, allowing for optimal system efficiency in terms of costs and added-value. The principle of services integration and development of links in the provision of social benefits has to be seen as horizontal and mainstreamed in all provisions of the Pillar.
- Austerity and fiscal consolidation measures at EU level need to be complemented by investment in adequate and sustainable social protection.
- In the process of addressing economic deficits, the priorities in social policy design should be placed on ensuring the right balance between sustainability and adequacy of social protection systems.
Besides these general remarks, AEIP has structured its response to the consultation in its key priority fields of operation: pensions, healthcare, employment and social dialogue.
For our full response click here and you can find the summary of our key points on the consultation here.