Social Agenda Issue 54

SOC I A L AG E NDA / J U LY 2 0 1 7 / 1 5 The key is “skills, skills skills!” says Marianne Thyssen, who launched the Skills Agenda for Europe in 2016: Acquiring skills, re-skilling and up-skilling throughout life. But she warns that people will only opt for such a new educational culture if they feel that their fears are being taken into account and if they are confident that the EU, its Member States, the regions, the local authorities and social partners act proactively together in the face of the unprecedented speed of change. With the European Pillar of Social Rights that was adopted and proclaimed in 2017, Marianne Thyssen is confident that all levels of governance, from European to local, now have the right framework of principles and values within which to cooperate. Using the Pillar as a compass, decision-makers are now in a position to adapt the EU social and economic model to the twenty-first century challenges, in a way that preserves what the EU stands for and therefore protects people. The EU should aim to qualify for a “social triple A”, Jean- Claude Juncker stated at the beginning of his mandate as European Commission President. Five years later, is the EU on track in this respect? We have come a long way but you should never be too happy in politics. You can celebrate positive developments and still be aware that it is never good enough, because things keep on changing and you have to keep on adapting. Since 2017, growth is back, not just on average but in every single EU Member State. More than 240 million people are employed, a record since our monthly statistical information was launched at the beginning of this century. Unemployment has gone down, on average, to 6.6 % of the EU working-age population, and to 14-15 % of young people: We have almost 2,5 million fewer unemployed young people and fewer “NEETs” (young people neither in employment, education or training). Of course, unemployment is still too high but 12 million jobs have been created since 2014. And the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion has been falling each year since 2012. By 2016, it had fallen almost to its 2008 level. So are you nevertheless happy with those results? Yes, but within reason. Take employment: It has never been so high but we must look at the quality of many of those jobs. If we look at the earnings of households, we see that they are not totally following the rise in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) or productivity. We cannot be happy so long as we do not see everybody benefiting from the recovery. The gender pay gap is still there and we know that a gender pay gap of, say, 15 %, leads to a pension gap in the future of probably twice as much! We are not totally out of the financial and economic crisis, as we are still addressing its social consequences. And yet we also have to prepare our people and institutions for what is coming up: digitalisation, the fourth industrial revolution, our ageing society, climate change and its challenges that are coming in, faster and faster. Has the balance between economic and social policy been restored? Economic growth and social progress go together: If people do not benefit from growth, this growth will not be sustainable in the long- run. If people are not motivated because they see that the benefits are not for them or that there are no benefits at all, then they will not invest in themselves. It is all about skills, skills, and skills! It is not for nothing that we have put skills on top of our European Pillar of Social Rights! It’s the essence of our social market economy. It's not just because it is in the EU Treaty that we are promoting it but because we really believe that this is the only way things work. Was the proclamation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, in November 2017, a sign that social affairs are back on top? Absolutely. At the initiative of the European Commission President and together with the Swedish Prime Minister, we Record number: 240 million people are now employed in the EU, where 12 million jobs have been created since 2014, including 2.5 million for young people. © Belga Image SOC I A L AG E NDA / MA R C H 9