Principles for effective and reliable welfare provision systems

Key points

The EESC finds that social policy principles could provide a substantive basis for the Commission's recommendations. It proposes the following principles for welfare provision systems:

• Principle of a social protection floor: guarantee of basic welfare provision, including subsistence protection/minimum income for people without an adequate income;
• Principle of need: provision of modern social/healthcare services for different problem situations;
• Principle of a precise definition of aims: development of clear social policy goals;
• Principle of accessibility: welfare provision must be affordable, accessible, non-discriminatory;
• Principle of proportionality: services and benefits should be appropriate in their form and extent;
• Principle of solidarity: funding of welfare provision should essentially be supported by solidarity-based social insurance systems and fair, solidarity-based tax systems;
• Principle of personal responsibility: job-seekers should be supported through social services to subsist through their own efforts;
• Principle of participation: services and benefits should help people to play their part in society;
• Principle of structure: rational configuration of the legal and financial relationship between users, welfare providers, welfare authorities and social insurance bodies;
• Principle of the user's right to decide: users are not passive recipients, but partners in assistance and citizens with entitlements;
• Principle of legal certainty: services and benefits should be legally guaranteed, for instance under social legislation or similar democratic legal instruments of the Member States;
• Principle of public interest: in particular, third-sector and participatory forms of undertaking and organisation should enjoy appropriate financial and legal conditions;
• Principle of transparency: the use of public funds should be transparent;
• Principle of a joined-up approach: new family constellations, ageing and immigration call for integrated and joined-up services;
• Principle of a level playing-field: users, welfare authorities and welfare providers should have legally enshrined and enforceable rights and duties;
• Principle of quality: social services should be backed up by quality assurance measures;
• Principle of coordination: management of cross-border issues relating to social security and social protection should be improved.