notes that the EU and Member States shall aim to promote a high level of employment, improve living and working conditions and achieve proper social protection, including under comparable conditions, for the self-employed;
encourages the EU and Member States, within their respective competences and in keeping with national practices, to adapt social protection systems to cover non-standard work, ensuring sufficient benefits for decent work and a decent life for all workers;
calls for Member States to shift the focus of social protection from workers alone to all Europeans, offering a minimum income for those unable to work, while promoting a return to employment for those who can work.
Whilst several actions have been taken at EU level in favour of gender equality, inequalities still prevail, with Roma women facing additional challenges as a result of poverty and social exclusion. The hearing will discuss measures that could help empower Roma women and how their participation in employment, which is still very low, can be reinforced. It will address the question of early marriages, the extent to which this is still predominant amongst the Roma community and measures how this phenomenon can be curbed.
With the launch of the 2025 European Semester cycle the European commission has published the "2025 European Semester - Autumn package" in December 2024. The 2025 European Semester - Autumn Package outlines economic and social policy priorities for the EU to ensure sustainable prosperity and competitiveness. It highlights the EU’s recent resilience while emphasizing the need to address structural barriers to growth. The EU is committed to ensure sustainable prosperity and competitiveness while strengthening its social market economy and safeguarding its sovereignty, economic security and global influence. The EESC's opinion on the 2025 European Semester - Autumn package is due to be adopted at the EESC plenary session of February 2025.
