Birth of a new EU agency

© Belga Image Guarantee and further implementing and developing the New Skills Agenda for Europe. Environmental dimension “The strength of the European model is to reconcile economic and social issues and to fully incorporate the environmental dimension”, Nicolas Schmit stated when he addressed the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee for his hearing as Commissioner-elect, on 1 October. His two main goals will be to boost employment and promote a well-skilled workforce, responsive to the digital and climate transition, and to put social rights for all and social inclusion at the centre of his priorities. “I will promote a European labour market that guarantees access and good opportunities for everybody and in particular for persons with disabilities, migrants, Roma communities and the most deprived”, he said. In addition to drawing up an action plan implementing the Pillar, he will do his utmost to fight poverty and in particular “to break the poverty cycle affecting children and to improve the support to youth. I will work to promote a fairer Europe. In a sustainable economy, social rights have a central place”, he stated. He will present a legal instrument to ensure that every worker in the EU has a fair minimum wage: “It is not about setting one single EU wage level and I will pay particular attention to the social models of the different Member States”. European Child Guarantee He will reinforce the Youth Guarantee and lead the work to develop a European Child Guarantee. He will also make sure that the directives on work-life balance and on predictable and transparent working conditions, adopted in 2019, are fully implemented. The Commissioner-elect called for “a new reflection on occupational health and safety”, an area that he considers “an absolute priority”. “We have to look at the new forms of health dangers (…) the more psychosocial ones [such as] stress, burn out and musculoskeletal diseases. It has to be first of all a question of awareness”. After the adoption of the Accessibility Act in March 2019, “our employment policies have to be much more focused on what we call vulnerable populations (…) We have to make sure that disabled persons can indeed get exactly the same opportunities and chances on the labour market and there we have to dedicate more means and resources – also from the ESF – into policies which include all categories of persons who have greater difficulties on the labour market, and disabled persons are one of them”. “I am a big fan of social economy”, Nicolas Schmit pointed out. “I have been a minister of social economy (see box). I really believe in the important role social economy [plays] already now. And certainly there is still more potential to develop [it], especially given the challenges we have – environmental, social, poverty, exclusion: all these issues can be well tackled, sometimes better (…) if we have a strong social economy”. Free movement “‘Commisioner for Jobs’ also means ‘Commissioner for free movement of workers’”, the Commissioner-elect insisted. “We should resist any attempt to limit the opportunity for EU citizens to move freely within the EU. We should rather tackle the underlying issues. Nicolas Schmit: " The strength of the European model is to reconcile economic and social issues and to fully incorporate the environmental dimension". SOC I A L AG E NDA / NOV E MB E R 2 0 1 9 / 7