On July 8, Conny Reuter, President of Social Platform and Sian Jones, member of the management committee, addressed the 27 ministers of employment and social affairs. We called on the EU to focus on tackling the social consequences of the crisis, after it had supported banks and countries in debt. You can read our full contribution to the meeting.

We made the case for for ministers to adopt our proposals for a new consensus: a European Social Pact to balance the focus on the austerity plans. We believe this should take the form of a Council commitment to make social progress central to the EU project, reassuring the social objectives of the EU during the crisis and confirming the rights of those most harmed by these plans.

At a time when 80 million people are living in poverty and 23 million people are without a job, public authorities across Europe are cutting their budgets for social services or putting plans for development on hold. The EU and member states have worked extensively through several Summits on the financial crisis (supporting banks in difficulty). They have also worked on the economic crisis (supporting countries in difficulty like Greece). However, the social consequences have not yet been tackled at EU level (supporting people in difficulty).

Our contribution to the meetings includes the following specific proposals:

• Design and implement the current budget consolidation in line with the new Article 9 of the Lisbon Treaty
• Adopt a framework directive to guarantee an adequate minimum income for all fulfilling the obligations under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, based on the Council recommendation of 1992 on minimum income and on the Commission Recommendation on Active Inclusion.
• Adopt the Article 19 Antidiscrimination Directive on implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation (2008/0140) to enhance the protection of the victims of unfair treatment, no matter where the discrimination takes place.

On July 7, we also met for one hour an a half with the Trio presidency (Belgium, Hungary and Poland), as well as with Commissioner Andor.