Social Scoreboard will not “heal the social scars” without generating action

Today the Commission adopted its Communication on the Social Dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) that included a Social Scoreboard. Social Platform welcomes the inclusion of the Scoreboard but without it triggering preventive and corrective action to change economic governance rules there will be no real social dimension.

Heather Roy, President of Social Platform states “Without the Social Scoreboard triggering action (as happens when there are excessive macroeconomic imbalances) we will never “heal the social scars left behind” by the crisis and the effects of austerity measures. We “owe it to the 26 million unemployed and to the most deprived in our society” as well as to the 120 million people living in poverty to take action and not simply watch and monitor their distress.”  

The Scoreboard and the indicators put forward on household income, inequality, poverty, unemployment and youth unemployment are a minimum requirement to begin to balance the social dimension of the EMU and its economic and financial dimension. However without any binding mechanism to trigger action economic and financial policies will continue to damage the social tissue of our societies and erode peoples support for the European project.

“We hope that when the Council discusses the Social Scoreboard it will call on the Commission to develop a system that triggers preventative and corrective actions once the social indicators reach a certain value” said Heather Roy.