The Semester Alliance was launched on 07 April 2014 in the EESC. Highlighting the failure of the Europe 2020 Strategy commitments and official targets in the social, environmental, employment and equality fields, the Alliance members called together for progress on the Europe 2020 Strategy’s commitments and for reviving the involvement of civil-society organisations and trade unions in the shaping of European policies.
Follow the Alliance’s blog http://semesteralliance.net
Follow us on Twitter #semesteralliance
Who we are
The European Anti-Poverty Network coordinates the work of the alliance, which currently includes 14 major EU networks/organisations as members including:
- Age Platform Europe
- Caritas Europa
- CECODHAS Housing Europe
- Eurochild
- Eurodiaconia
- European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN)
- European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD)
- European Environmental Bureau (EEB)
- European Federation of Food Banks (FEBA)
- European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless (FEANTSA)
- European Public Service Union (EPSU)
- European Women’s Lobby (EWL)
- Green Budget Europe
- Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM)
It is supported by:
- European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)
- Social Platform
All European Organisations involved are committed to engaging their national members in the Alliance’s work and in the European Semester.
National Pilots:
- Bulgaria
- Denmark
- Ireland
Why have an Alliance?
In 2010, the Europe 2020 Strategy broke new ground by establishing five concrete targets for delivering on smart, social and sustainable growth by 2020, which include:
- reducing poverty by at least 20 million
- achieving a 75% employment rate for women and men
- reducing early school leaving to 10%
- a 20% reduction on greenhouse gas emissions and increase in energy efficiency to 20%.
The ‘European Semester’, the annual coordination cycle with Member States, is the main instrument to deliver these targets, but it is primarily driven by economic governance goals.
Stakeholders including civil society and social organisations are supposed to be key partners in the delivery.
However, as the European Commission recognises*, progress has been extremely limited:
- 8 million more people are now in poverty (124 million), a shortfall of 28 million (in 2012).
- The Employment rate has declined to 68.4% leaving a shortfall of nearly 7%.
- Early school leaving has reduced to 12.7% in 2012 leaving a shortfall of 2.7%.
- There has been an 18% reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2012, but national projections show 13 Member States will not achieve their national targets by 2020.
- Very limited progress has been made on involving stakeholders, particularly of civil society and with low impact.
*EC Communication (5 March 2013): Taking stock of the Europe 2020 strategy, for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.
For the Semester Alliance members, delivery on the Europe 2020 targets, the development of a rights-based approach including progress on gender equality, through real dialogue with civil society, is crucial. Only in this way can we ensure a sustainable recovery a viable vision for the future of the EU, and restore democratic legitimacy and credibility.
What the Alliance aims at
The overall aim of the EU Alliance is to achieve progress on a more democratic, social and sustainable EU Strategy, by improving civil society and social actors’ engagement in the European Semester.
Our main objectives are therefore to:
- Ensure that all policies, including macroeconomic, contribute to the social, environmental/climate targets and equality commitments of the European Union’s Strategy (EU 2020 Strategy).
- Improve the legitimacy of the EU Strategy through strengthening the engagement of environmental, social, equality organisations and trade unions in the EU decision-making process, (The European Semester) starting at the national level.
The Alliance has received funding from the European Commission under the framework of a Joint Action, for an initial period of 1 year (1 year project funding supported by the EU Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity PROGRESS/EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation call VP/2013/006).
What we do
- The Alliance has developed its EU advocacy strategy to engage with the EU institutions and progress on our objectives and joint EU-level events.
- A key voice . The work of the Alliance makes it a key voice to hear and follow. Informing, disseminating, and raising awareness is of course another pillar of the Alliance, which will be maintaining a blog and will be present on social media and in all members’ visibility tools.
- A key added value of the Alliance is brought by the national level. 3 National Pilot Alliances will carry out cross-sectoral joint working on the European Semester to achieve social, sustainable and equality policy outcomes.
- The Alliance will also be strengthened by providing capacity building to its national members, notably the national alliances, with a related toolkit.
- Joint reports will bring together learning from the national level, on 1) Providing proposals on the Country-Specific Recommendations and 2) Assessing the European Semester delivery.
More Information
The Alliance welcomes you on http://semesteralliance.net
You will find there all the information related to the Alliance, its activities, publications, events, members, contacts, to the European Semester and Europe 2020 Strategy.
Enabling civil-society to participate in the shaping of EU policies and to contribute to progress on the Targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy concerns us all!
You can also contact: Sian Jones, Project Coordinator, EAPN: sian.jones@eapn.eu.
Follow the Alliance on Twitter #semesteralliance
and all the members’ Facebook pages.
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