Employment, training, poverty: the main objectives of the Twenty-Seven for a social Europe

With the appearance of the Covid-19 pandemic on its soil, Europe is experiencing its most serious economic crisis since the Second World War. A crisis with devastating social consequences, although European social protection systems have made it possible to cushion it in part. A sign of their effectiveness in the face of the shock caused by the paralysis of the economy, the average unemployment rate in the European Union fell from 6.5% in February 2020 to 7.4% a year later. An increase of less than one point allowed in part by the partial unemployment schemes put in place by the Twenty-Seven. But this general observation should not mask the social distress with which certain categories of the population are particularly confronted.

Among them are young people. Their unemployment rate increased by 2.2 points from February 2020 to February 2021: while it already affected 15% of those under 25 in the Twenty-Seven, a share which had however constantly fallen since 2013, 17.2 % were concerned one year later. The pandemic has also pushed many Europeans into poverty, as noted by the United Nations in October 2020. At that time, charities estimated that the crisis had plunged a million people into poverty in France, reported the organization. During the first confinement, 45% of Secours Populaire beneficiaries were previously unknown to the association.

Social issues, which were among the priorities of the European Commission before the arrival of Covid-19, are therefore more topical than ever, in particular through the Next Generation EU recovery plan of 750 billion euros. If these questions fall above all within the competence of the Member States, the EU only having a supporting competence in the matter, social Europe has been experiencing a new breath since November 2017. The reason? The adoption of the European Pillar of Social Rights by EU institutions and countries, a set of 20 principles to guide Community and national social policies. Three and a half years later, the Porto social summit, which was held on 7 and 8 May, made it possible to draw up an initial assessment of the implementation of these principles while defining the objectives to be achieved in the longer term. .

Ahead of the summit, the European Commission presented on March 4 an action plan relating to the European pillar of social rights. Its goal: to specify the concrete implementation of the intentions stated in the base. It has therefore defined a legislative timetable combining proposals for directives, revisions of existing texts and new recommendations to the Member States. In this document, the Commission listed three major objectives to be achieved by 2030 and invited the Twenty-Seven to adopt them, which they did at the Porto summit:

Given the limited competences of the EU with regard to social issues, the political will of European countries will be a determining factor in the application of these objectives. These three headings linked to employment, training and poverty will be integrated into the European semester, which coordinates the economic and budgetary policies of the Member States. And these will set targets at the national level. Where are the EU countries in relation to the ambitions they have set themselves?

Employment rate: progress threatened by the crisis

Before the start of the economic difficulties caused by the spread of the virus, the employment rate in the EU27 had increased by almost 5 points during the 2010s, from 68.2% in 2009 to 73.1% in 2019. But in 2020, the rate is falling to 72.4%, a trend that could worsen if the economic crisis were to intensify. This has led the EU to commit significant financial resources to this front.

Among them is the European Social Fund, which alone accounts for almost 10% of the Community budget and supports employment at different levels throughout the EU. To this financial windfall is added that of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, central pillar of Next Generation EU for an amount of 672.5 billion euros. In its recommendation of 4 March to the European Council, the Commission urges Member States to put in place “active and effective support for employment (EASE)” measures to deal with the Covid-19 crisis and specifically mentions these two sources of European funding.

To benefit from Next Generation EU funds, national recovery plans must also promote, in addition to ecological and digital transitions, economic and social resilience. National plans will prove to be crucial in limiting the social impact of the crisis and leading in the long term to an employment rate higher than that observed before the pandemic, as implied by the target of 78% by the horizon. 2030 adopted by EU countries.

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With regard to young people, specific systems have been, among other things, introduced by the Member States within the framework of the Youth Guarantee, initiated in 2013. Through the latter, reinforced in October 2020, these have been committed to guaranteeing all young people under the age of 30 an offer of employment, continuing education, apprenticeship or internship within four months of losing their job or completing their studies. Since its creation, more than 24 million young Europeans who have used it have accepted an offer, indicates the website of the European Commission.

Training: a long way to go for Member States

“Everyone has the right to quality and inclusive education, training and lifelong learning in order to maintain or acquire skills to enable them to participate fully in society and manage transitions successfully. in the labor market". This is the first principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights, a sign of the importance attributed to training in EU social policy.

The need to train at all ages of life is felt even more strongly with the pandemic. Before it happened, the economy was already in a phase of profound transformation, “a movement of creative destruction which was changing jobs a lot”, explained economist Nicolas Bouzou during a debate organized by the think tank Confrontations Europe in early April. Due to the rise of certain technologies, many workers had to acquire new skills to adapt their jobs to economic developments, or even to retrain following the gradual disappearance of their profession. Among these technologies and innovations of the “third industrial revolution” are “digital, robotics, artificial intelligence, 3D printers, renewable energies, biotechnologies”, lists the researcher. These have seen their use grow with the crisis, which “has played a role in accelerating this structural transformation”, as Nicolas Bouzou points out, and which has therefore accentuated training needs.

Faced with these changes, the Twenty-Seven want 60% of adults to be able to take training each year, an ambitious objective given the latest rate observed in this area: in 2016, only 37% of adults had benefited from it. Progress in this area will depend on the mobilization of the Member States themselves, who are primarily responsible for legislating on this issue.

On the European side, many actions are nevertheless carried out to promote and expand training. In June 2016, the European Commission adopted a Skills Agenda for Europe, a set of ten goals to improve the match between job demand and supply by “equip[ing] people with better skills”. A consolidated agenda in November 2020 with new quantified objectives to be achieved by 2025, with the aim of better taking into account the ecological and digital transitions.

This creative destruction at work on the job market and the training needs it generates have been taken into account in the European Next Generation EU plan: the payment of funds to the Member States is conditional on their plans national recovery plans are devoted for at least 37% to the ecological transition and 20% to digital. Funds that can also finance training programs.

Risk of poverty or social exclusion: an ambitious but tenable objective

In terms of the fight against poverty, EU countries want to see the number of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion reduced by 15 million by 2030 on a continental scale. An objective which, if met, would lead to a significant improvement in the situation. This ambition seems achievable because it is in line with the trend observed over the last decade. Between 2011 and 2019, Eurostat reports that the number of individuals affected by this situation fell by 29.4 million. Taking into account the current economic crisis, a decline of 15 million people seems possible. However, the extent of the damage caused by the Covid-19 crisis in this area remains to be measured, as data on people at risk of poverty and social exclusion for 2020 is not yet available.

If poverty as such, and not the risk of experiencing it, is not directly targeted by this third major quantitative objective, it should be noted that the number of people considered poor had not known a improvement over the past decade. From 71.5 million individuals in a situation of monetary poverty in 2010, i.e. earning less than 60% of the median income after social transfers (threshold used by Eurostat), the EU had fallen to 72.1 million in 2019.

Here again, competences relating to the treatment of poverty belong in the first place to the Member States. This does not prevent the EU from investing in the issue through certain programs, such as the European Fund for Aid to the Most Deprived, which participates in the financing of associations fighting against poverty. With regard to the EU-27, progress on the objective of reducing the risk of poverty or social exclusion will also be achieved thanks to policies promoting employment and training, which are closely linked to this third ambition.