Towards a more resilient and sustainable European economy (own initiative opinion)

Key points:

• The absence of economic and social convergence among Member States and regions is a threat to the political sustainability of the European project and all the benefits it has brought to European citizens.
• Developing economic and labour market resilience with economic, social, environmental and institutional sustainability should be the principle guiding policies.
• This will foster upwards convergence and fairness in the transition towards a climate-neutral economy while managing the challenges posed by digitalisation and demographic change. To enable economic policies that increase economic, labour market and social resilience, the drive towards strengthening the institutional architecture of EMU should be kept up and reinforced.
• The establishment of a fiscal capacity at eurozone level, the reform of current fiscal rules in order to preserve public investment during downturns, the establishment of a common safe asset and the completion of the Banking and Capital Markets Unions should be carried forward.
• Measures to avoid unfair tax competition among Member States should be promoted.
• Measures must be adopted to reverse the current trend towards growing inequality both in terms of opportunities and outcomes.
• The concept of a just transition must be developed and applied when striving to reach the objective of a carbon-neutral EU economy by 2050. This includes ensuring that the effects of climate policies are shared out equally and managing labour market transitions in a forward-looking way with the full participation of the social partners.
• The Member States should take initiatives to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights.
• Strengthening the competitiveness of the European economy that is its capacity to increase its productivity and living standards in a sustainable manner, should go hand in hand with these initiatives.
• Given the interconnection between the different facets of a resilient and sustainable economy, the participation of representative organisations of the social partners and civil society in policy-making and in the implementation cycles should be placed on a formal footing and reinforced wherever necessary at national and European levels.