EAPN, represented by delegates from 11 EU countries, attended the Annual Convention for Inclusive Growth 2018 (#ACIG2018) on 27 April, and put forward 4 Key EAPN Messages (see below).
The Annual Convention for Inclusive Growth (ACIG) is an action-oriented platform bringing together civil society organisations and policymakers to discuss how to achieve truly inclusive growth. This year, 2018, the event focussed on the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights. The ‘Social Pillar’ establishes a series of principles and rights to improve people’s lives, and all actors now have a joint responsibility to deliver.
EAPN’s participation in the ACIG
EAPN’s 4 Key Messages to the Annual Convention for Inclusive Growth 2018, under the following titles:
- Political ambition to put social rights first, including in economic policies!
- Concrete proposals to raise living/working standards!
- Increased EU funding for poverty!
- Priority to participation for effective solutions!
The European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) is the most important EU social initiative of the Juncker Presidency, and the main instrument proposed to achieve a more Social Europe. However, the context is worrying. Although poverty has slightly declined there are still 118.7 million people (2016) at risk of poverty and social exclusion and no progress made towards the Europe 2020 poverty target. In-work poverty is increasing at an alarming rate to 9.6%. Migrants continue to flee war, violence, poverty and hardship but fail to meet a humanitarian response to the provision of basic rights.
If the Social Pillar is to be credible, it cannot remain a paper exercise, but progress towards social rights that lead to tangible improvements for people’s lives, reducing poverty, exclusion and growing inequality as well as promoting participation and empowerment of the people most affected.
Participation of people with direct experience of poverty is a pre-requisite to getting effective policies and results for poverty reduction. EAPN’s 16th European Meeting of People Experiencing Poverty ‘Let’s tackle in-work poverty’ underlined the importance of concrete actions to ensure progress in living and working standards.
EAPN’s participation in workshops
The enabling and supporting role of social services
Quinta Ansem from EAPN Netherlands spoke in this workshop (5).
- See here for a full description of the workshops.
EAPN’s participation in side-events
THE FUTURE OF WORK AND THE EUROPEAN PILLAR OF SOCIAL RIGHTS
This side event, organised by EAPN, the European Economic & Social Committee, the ETUC, and Solidar, looked at new ways of work, and changes brought to labour markets by an increase in atypical, insecure contracts, not least brought about by trends such as digitalisation and robotisation, the ‘platform economy’, and globalisation – crucial topics for the policy debate around the future of Europe. It explored the key role the European Pillar of Social Rights can play in responding to these new trends and associated challenges, to ensure quality and sustainable work and the fight against poverty and inequality. It was a timely and crucial discussion in light of the Social Fairness Package, while also looking at the European Semester as key framework for implementation.
Questions:
– What are the main trends shaping the present and future labour markets?
– What implications for decent work, poverty, and inequality? What role for social protection?
– How to best use the tools the EPSR (including the SFP) provides to respond to these challenges and foster inclusive labour markets?
– What fruitful partnerships can be established, at national and EU level, to meaningfully implement the EPSR in this context?
For more information about this side-event, or about EAPN’s work on the future of work, please contact Sian Jones in the EAPN Europe staff team.
EAPN Key Documents
- EAPN Position Paper: Make Social Rights the Beating Heart of EUrope!: on the European Pillar of Social Rights;
- Report of the 2017 EU Meeting of people experiencing poverty;
- Analysis Paper: The Future of Work – Labour market trends and their implications for risks of poverty & social exclusion
The proceedings of the Annual Convention for Inclusive Growth will be available on the Convention website (Related Documents), and will be webstreamed here.
The Convention on social media: #ACIG2018
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