This year’s edition focused on the European Pillar of Social Rights implementation

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’s edition was focused on the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, also known as ‘Social Pillar’.

The Social Pillar was proclaimed and signed jointly by the Commission, Council and EP at the Social Summit which took place in Gothenburg (Sweden) last November 17th 2017. EU leaders from all member states endorsed the Proclamation of the Social Pillar.

The European Pillar of Social Rights sets out 20 key principles and rights to support fair and well-functioning labour markets and welfare systems and addresses three main topics: equal opportunities and access to the labour market; fair working conditions; and social protection and inclusion.

It should serve as a reference framework for the future development of EU labour markets and welfare states. The pillar builds on the existing EU social acquis but extends them also to new categories of workers, such as the self-employed.These principles bring, in several cases, an added value regarding the existing Charter of Fundamental Rights and EU Treaties and reflect and update social standards for several target groups.

Even if the final document approved was not as ambitious and concrete as the European Parliament I led, the Proclamation was an historical moment because it meant a fundamental first step: put social rights back in the EU agenda. It was a political commitment at the highest level.

Nevertheless, the Proclamation is just the beginning, the first stone of the Pillar. To implement the Social Pillar, we need to act at three levels: a set of legislative initiatives and concrete measures, financial instruments and redirect economic policies.

In this sense, we have some key moments happening already now or soon; therefore, opportunities to held leaders accountable for their commitment.

The Social Pillar implementation is needed more than ever. Since 2008, inequalities in the EU are on the rise. Years of blind austerity and hard and wrong budgetary and economic policies led to alarming growing of socio-economic inequalities. Besides, globalization and the digital revolution have created new and atypical forms of employment, where social rights and employment conditions are at stake. This situation has led to waves of populism and euroscepticism in our continent.

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More info about the event here