Droits sociaux

EESC key points:

• An ageing society faces distinct challenges compared to a society with a more balanced age distribution. Upholding the right to age with dignity, along with a life-cycle approach is essential to addressing these challenges;
• The EESC’s proposals for achieving more sustainable societal development include: striving for higher birth rates, exploiting the full potential of the labour market, making work pay by having high-quality, well-paid and productive jobs, improving working conditions, reforming pension and care systems to ensure accessibility for everyone, enhancing legal migration pathways to attract in particular foreign talent supported by bold integration measures, working towards upward regional and social cohesion and analysing the factors driving people to leave the EU;
• The EESC recommends that the European Commissioner for Demography be supported by an appropriate structure within the European Commission, and that a European agency for demography be set up to ensure research and statistics in this field, while at the same time ensuring collaboration with and sufficient financing for existing agencies like Cedefop and Eurofound. This would facilitate the integration of demographic consideration in all relevant policy areas and impact assessments.

The EESC:

• believes that Member States and higher education institutions (HEIs) should enhance quality, fairness, equality, and social inclusion in higher education, adapting recommendations to their contexts;
• urges the EU to safeguard academic freedom and institutional autonomy;
• supports fostering joint programmes among HEIs within and beyond European University Alliance projects, ensuring quality assurance and including all relevant stakeholders in their implementation;
• emphasises the need for broad collaboration among stakeholders to effectively implement the initiatives, particularly highlighting the fundamental values of student and staff participation following the Bologna Process.

The EESC:

• underlines that youth participation mechanisms need to be transparent for every stakeholder and that the interests and concerns of young people need to be considered at each stage of the policy-making cycle;
• points at the importance of having monitoring and dissemination strategies in place in each youth participation mechanism to inform young people of the impact that their participation has had, including in EU Youth Dialogue (EUYD) processes;
• suggests that information on EUYD outcomes should be compiled at pre-agreed intervals and focus on all cycles of the EUYD to be able to track policy and other outcomes linked to particular EUYD cycles.

The EESC:

• regrets that exclusion from the labour market is still a widespread issue, especially affecting women with disabilities and people with the most severe disabilities and believes that solutions such as  sheltered employment  often end up perpetrating segregation;
• urges Member States to promote policies and measures that strengthen access to the open labour market and the Commission to implement the related policy actions under the Disability Employment Package;
• calls on the Member States to step up the employment of persons with disabilities, for example through a joint fund for reasonable accommodation. Such fund would be financed by private and public employers who fall short of any set quotas.

The EESC:

• asks the Commission and Member States to adopt policies reducing economic and educational inequalities, as these factors hinder cultural participation, particularly in rural areas. It also recommends creating and strengthening programs to eliminate various barriers (physical, economic, linguistic, etc.) to ensure inclusive cultural participation, with a focus on marginalized and discriminated groups;
• proposes that the EU and Member States adopt budgetary strategies for supporting cultural policies in sparsely populated rural areas as a key pillar for sustainable development. It recommends integrating public investment and infrastructure development into a broader strategy to revitalize rural regions, attracting private investment and increasing cultural participation;
• recommends integrating more cultural and artistic training in school curricula, and encourages specialised cultural professionals to settle in rural areas to drive local development.

The EESC:

• calls on the European Commission to adopt a coordinated, cross-cutting EU approach to intergenerational solidarity, ensuring the rights of both young and older people. Moreover, intergenerational solidarity should be one of the criteria for assessing whether legislation and other EU instruments contribute to the aims set out in Article 3(3) TEU: ‘The Union (...) shall promote (...) solidarity between generations;
• welcomes the intention to appoint an EU Commissioner with responsibility for intergenerational fairness. The EESC will consider hosting an Intergenerational Solidarity Forum for the exchange of information and experience, evaluating existing and developing new concepts of and strategies for intergenerational solidarity as well as, in cooperation with the European Commission, to monitor the implementation of the opinion's recommendations. Civil society organisations and social partners’ involvement is key in implementing the recommendations, given their important role in promoting intergenerational solidarity;
• calls on the European Commission to publish a Green Paper on Intergenerational Solidarity, which may include, within the context of the Welfare State, challenges, opportunities and solutions in the various fields mentioned in this opinion. Requests establishing intergenerational solidarity as one of the objectives under the European Social Fund in the 2027-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework and its implementing regulations.