Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2022 - Policymaking in a permacrisis (free PDF)

[Celerity]

Since 2000, the annual Bilan social volume has analysed the state of play of social policy in the European Union during the preceding year, the better to forecast developments in the new one. Co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), the new edition is no exception. In the context of multiple crises, the authors find that social policies gained in terms of ambition in 2022. At the same time, the new EU economic framework, expected for 2023, should be made compatible with achieving the EU’s social and ‘green’ objectives. Finally, they raise the question whether the Social Imbalances Procedure (SIP) and the Open Strategic Autonomy (OSA) paradigm could provide windows of opportunity to sustain the EU’s social ambition in the long run.

The EU’s annual rate of inflation was 9.6 per cent in June 2022; a year earlier, it was just 2.2 per cent. Unleashed in February 2022, the war in Ukraine has put paid to Europe’s fragile economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, triggering a devastating humanitarian crisis in Europe and sharp rises in food and energy prices, exacerbating global inflationary pressures. Despite this stormy background, the EU social ship has reached deeper waters. With the wind of the European Pillar of Social Rights in its sails, important progress has been made on areas including minimum wages, occupational health and safety, the terms and conditions of people working via platforms and gender equality. Furthermore, many social initiatives have seen the light of day under the umbrella of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, promoting social investment, performance-based financing and a just transition that is also green, albeit this has been patchy.

The need for a reform of EU governance to promote social progress and the setting up of a SIP

On November 9th 2022, the European Commission published a communication illustrating its orientation on a reformed framework of EU economic governance. Such a reform should, however, be accompanied by a significant strengthening of the EU’s social dimension, argue the editors of the Bilan social. As illustrated in the aftermath of the Great Recession, the asymmetry between relatively strong and well-codified EU governance procedures in the fiscal and macroeconomic domains and weaker procedures in the social one represents a threat to social policy in Europe. In this respect, the setting up in 2023 of a so-called EU ‘Social Imbalances Procedure’ (SIP) would be a promising step forward. With the upcoming launch of a pilot scheme to test the practical modalities of such an instrument, a window of opportunity is open. The first months of 2023 will be crucial in avoiding the risk of a watered-down tool which has neither the ambition nor the strength to counterbalance EU fiscal and macroeconomic instruments.

The OSA: a new framework for sustaining an ambitious EU social agenda in a context of permacrisis

According to the editors, the time is now right to seize the EU’s Open Strategic Autonomy as a window of opportunity for sustaining the EU’s social ambitions. After all, in their strategic agenda for the EU in 2019-24, the heads of state and government did pave the way for a broader notion of strategic autonomy, leading to the European Commission picking up the gauntlet and proposing a much broader paradigm. In June 2022, the ETUC called for an ambitious agenda on OSA, acknowledging it as ‘one of the promising avenues to re-establish a fair and level playing field for a resilient economy, in full respect of EU democratic, social and environmental values’. Such an expanded vision may provide an opportunity for national and European social players to influence the policy agenda, especially through dialogue with the European institutions.

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Table of contents

01__The war in Ukraine and the future of the EU prospects for reform

02__Steering national social reforms through the EU's recovery plan

03__The socio-ecological dimension of the EU’s recovery further traction for the European Green Deal

04__The politics behind EU legislation on platform work institutional synergies and a novel constellation of players

05__The EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 the beginning of a new season

06__The rule of law crisis and social policy the EU response in the cases of Hungary and Poland

07__Policymaking in a state of permacrisis can the EU uphold its social ambitions

08__The European Union in 2021 key events

At the beginning of 2022, hopes were high that the Covid-19 pandemic was on the ebb and that the European Union (EU) would be able to focus again on the main challenge of this century: how to proactively tackle the green and digital transition in a socially fair and inclusive way. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine dashed these hopes. Realpolitik was back on the agenda, with the EU having to figure out how to deal with its Eastern neighbour. Overnight, EU dependence on Russian fossil fuels became a major headache. With energy and food prices soaring, double-digit inflation reared its ugly head throughout the world, resulting in a cost-of-living crisis which has pushed millions of people into poverty as well as stoking popular discontent and mobilising trade unions, with the prospect of further civil unrest, protests and strikes. Obviously, all this had a major influence on EU policymaking: while the Russian military aggression in early 2022 prompted the EU to respond with unprecedented steps forward in European integration, it also highlighted the weaknesses in the EU governance system. A health crisis, an economic and financial crisis and a climate crisis are unfolding in parallel, while full-scale war is back in Europe. The question is now whether ‘normal times’ will ever return or whether we will find ourselves living in a state of ‘permacrisis’.

Despite this stormy background, the EU social ship reached deeper waters. With the wind of the European Pillar of Social Rights in its sails, important progress has been made inter alia on minimum wages, occupational health and safety, the working conditions of people working through platforms, and gender equality. Furthermore, many new social initiatives have seen the light of day under the umbrella of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, promoting, at least to some extent, social investment, performance-based financing and (be it in a patchy way) a ‘just’ green transition. Last but not least, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have furthered European integration through highlighting the need to stand together in the face of a common foe. A European health space is now in the making, and new forms of economic governance – including the scope for an EU Social Imbalances Procedure – are being discussed, while the debate about a minimum income initiative is ongoing. Finally, this year’s Bilan social raises the question whether the EUs ‘open strategic autonomy’ paradigm could provide a window of opportunity to sustain the EU’s social ambitions in the longer run.