Commission adopts a Communication
on Modernising Social Protection
The European Commission has adopted on 14 July a
communication (com99-347) on
a European Union (EU)-wide strategy for modernising social protection. The
communication is a contribution on the part of the Commission to an ongoing
process which sets out to address the major challenges facing all Member
States in this area. The communication establishes an agenda for collective
reflection on four key objectives: to make work pay and provide secure income;
to make pensions safe and pension systems sustainable; to promote social
inclusion; and to secure high quality and sustainable health
protection.
Commenting on the communication, Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner, Padraig Flynn, said, 'The European social model is something we can be proud of and today's proposals are a bid to ensure that it continues to keep up with the fast pace of change in the economy and society at large'.
Social protection systems throughout the EU are all faced with the need to adapt to the changing world of work, new family structures and the dramatic demographic changes of the decades ahead. Current economic and political developments are making this modernisation more urgent than ever. These developments include the macro-economic disciplines required for stability and growth within EMU; commitments to making social protection systems more employment-friendly under the European Employment Strategy; and the need to confirm the important place of social protection as part of the common values of the European Union ahead of enlargement. These factors only serve to reinforce the value of the ongoing process of joint discussion between the Member States and the EU institutions.
Joint deliberations have been underway at EU level throughout the 1990s. They led to the Council's 1992 Recommendation on the convergence of objectives and policies, which stated firmly that the organisation and financing of social protection systems lie in the hands of Member States. As a follow-up, the Commission launched a debate in 1995 on the "Future of Social Protection" and two years later presented its communication entitled "Modernising and improving Social Protection". This debate established a consensus among Member States and the EU institutions that, given the changing nature of European society, social protection systems need to be updated if they are to continue playing their traditional and valued role.
With this Communication, the Commission proposes to take the debate a stage further. The strategy it outlines will be supported by enhanced mechanisms for exchanging information and monitoring policy developments in order to give the process a higher public and political profile. To this end, Member States will be invited to designate senior officials to act as focal points in this process.
In future, the Commission will issue an adapted report on social protection, on an annual basis, drawing on contributions from the Member States and the other EU institutions. This will be the basis for a debate (and conclusions) within the Council each year.
