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On the 21^st of October 2020, Social Platform President Piotr Sadowski delivered an opening statement at a virtual Strategic Dialogue meeting, organised by the European Commission, on the European Pillar of Social Rights (Social Pillar) Action Plan.

Following opening remarks by Ms Katarina Ivankovic-Knezevic, European Commission Director “Social Affairs” and Mr Joost Korte, Director-General, Directorate-General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Mr Sadowski presented Social Platform’s key messages on the Social Pillar from a Social Platform report serving as input document to the European Commission consultation “Have your say on reinforcing Social Europe”. This report will be officially launched in the framework of a virtual event Social Platform is organising on the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan on the 18^th of November.

Mr Sadowski underlined that the Social Pillar, proclaimed by EU leaders in November 2017, is an important commitment by EU institutions and EU countries to improve people’s working and living conditions across Europe. As progress in implementing the Social Pillar has been rather fragmented to date and a comprehensive European vision and approach on how to implement the Social Pillar in its entirety over time has been missing, Social Platform very much welcomes the initiative for an Action Plan. The success of the Social Pillar is reliant on the political will to make full use of all existing and potential implementation tools available at EU and national/regional levels. As we highlighted in our 2018 position paper, this must involve fully and ambitiously implementing all 20 principles of the Social Pillar at EU and national level through policy & legislative initiatives, socio-economic governance, funding and civil and social dialogue.

Mr Sadowski described how the Action Plan is now more important than ever in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, it has significantly exacerbated socio-economic challenges and inequalities that existed well before this crisis, most strongly impacting people in vulnerable situations and people who were already at risk of or experiencing poverty and social exclusion. He said:

“An ambitious and comprehensive Action Plan that is properly implemented at all levels of governance will be key to ensuring Europe’s social recovery in the short term and the building of a more socially inclusive and sustainable Europe in the longer term.”

He furthermore emphasised that to ensure full implementation of the Social Pillar, the Action Plan must combine legally binding measures with strengthened, more coherent and more effective EU soft coordination mechanisms, backed by EU funds. It must also ensure coherence and synergies with existing and future thematic strategies of the European Commission. Moreover, he underlined that as the roadmap to implementing the Social Pillar, the Action Plan must follow in its structure the Social Pillar and its principles. Indeed, it must address under each of them the policy & legislative action foreseen to implement the principle in question, with clear timetables for their implementation and mechanisms to monitor and measure progress made. It must also put people, their rights and needs at the forefront, which would be facilitated by binding guidelines on quality participation and the structural involvement of civil society organisations in EU and national decision-making processes.

Finally, he highlighted that the effective implementation of the Social Pillar through the Action Plan will depend on the coherence of its role within the overarching political strategies at EU level. In our view, a proper coherent and ambitious social and sustainable long-term strategy post-2020 is indispensable to ensuring a comprehensive approach to setting and reaching the EU’s objectives for the next decade. He emphasised that such a strategy must  aim at fostering inclusive and sustainable development by integrating all the different proposed initiatives and priorities: the United Nations SDGs, a European Green Deal that is truly inclusive, the European Pillar of Social Rights and its Action Plan as well as all other policy and legal initiatives foreseen by the European Commission. It also needs measurable objectives and targets using a variety of indicators disaggregated by various key characteristics that build on the Europe 2020 strategy and that are taken seriously.

Following a second opening speech by Mr Maciej Kucharczyk, Secretary General Age Platform Europe, participants discussed in various interventions as well in the meeting chat the main gaps they see in the implementation of the Social Pillar at EU and national level, their tip 3 priority actions that should be included in the Action Plan and how the follow-up of the Action Plan be organised, in terms of monitoring, reporting, stakeholders’ engagement.