eu4journalists

Employment - Social affairs - Health

3. Social Affairs

Issues

• Social Agenda 2005-2010
• Factors of globalisation and demography
• Reorganisation of Labour Law and Corporate Responsibility
• Social Security

The Social Agenda 2005-2010 was launched to reorganize Europe's social model to achieve the Lisbon Strategy's growth and employment targets. The Agenda seeks to provide more and better jobs and an equal dissemination of opportunities provided by international competition, technological advances and changing population patterns, all while protecting the most vulnerable of the Union's citizens.

The Agenda engages public authorities at every level from local to national, employer and worker representatives and NGO’s to create a truly European labour market, where portability of pension and social security entitlements works and permits true worker mobility. It also gives tools to manage restructuring through social dialogue. Member states are supported in reforming pensions and health care, fighting poverty and the employment and social issues rising from aging populations, fostering equal opportunities and eradicating discrimination.

Perhaps one of the greatest factors in the Social Agenda is the changing demographic of not only the globalised world but also a more unified and integrated Europe, including the impact of declining birthrates. To address this, the DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities launched the Green Paper on Demographic Change in 2005 to address several issues: increase in longevity as a result of progress in health care, the ageing of the population until 2030 and low birth rates due to a variety of factors.

Additionally, the Commission published a Green Paper on Labour Law launched to stimulate public debate on current labour law systems. Currently 4 our of 10 workers in the EU are on non-standard contracts or self-employed, and the Green paper aims to ask member states, employers and workers how law at the EU and National level can make the job market more flexible while maintaining worker security (Flexicurity).

2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities for All

In honour of the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Treaties of Rome, the year of equal opportunities for all celebrates the fundamental European values of egalitarianism and equal opportunity regardless of one's individual circumstances. In modern society, there is increasing solidarity and sensitivity to minorities and an ever more sophisticated concept of equality, hinging on the ideal of “inalienable human dignity.” The Year is an opportunity for extra-governmental organisations to make recommendations on achieving three aims:

• to better inform the populace of their rights
• to demonstrate the imperative of diversity
• to move closer to actualizing equal opportunity for all.

The Year of Equal Opportunities is important to all minority groups, but special attention must be paid to gender equality and to the concept of “active ageing” for an ever-older population.

Social Security

While member states have long had social security schemes in place, the exercise of free movement within the Union has added a new dimension. Without adequate coordination, families that move between member states might be disadvantaged. The EU has passed some measures to address this issue, although these measures do not merely coordinate existing member state programs. The EU has also put into place social protection systems against unemployment, illness and disability, child rearing, old age and the death of spouses or parents. Although member states maintain these social protection systems, the EU coordinates these systems for mobility through the same legal framework that governs social security and pensions. In March 2006, the Council adopted a new social framework with a set of Common Objectives for social inclusion, pensions and health. Information on the coordination of social security is compiled by Mutual Information System on Social Protection (MISSOC).