The new Social Agenda: an essential pillar of the new growth and jobs strategy

The Commission today launched its new Social Agenda for modernising Europe's social model under the revamped Lisbon Strategy for growth and jobs. The new agenda focuses on providing jobs and equal opportunities for all and ensuring that the benefits of the EU's growth and jobs drive reach everyone in society. By modernising labour markets and social protection systems, it will help people seize the opportunities created by international competition, technological advances and changing population patterns while protecting the most vulnerable in society.

Vladimír Špidla, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, said: "This dynamic new agenda will help to provide what citizens most want: decent jobs and social justice. It is about equipping everyone to manage the changes facing our society and about looking after the neediest. It is designed to preserve and modernise our valued social model as the essential tool underpinning Europe's drive to boost growth and jobs. It maps the route for reforming labour markets in order to make work a real option for everyone. At the same time, it provides pathways for modernising welfare systems and combating poverty."

The new Social Agenda has two key priorities, (i) employment and (ii) fighting poverty and promoting equal opportunities. These key priorities support two of the Commission's strategic goals for the next five years: prosperity and solidarity. The Agenda calls for partnerships between public authorities at local, regional and national level, employer and worker representatives and NGOs.

Under employment, the Agenda will focus on:

Creating a European labour market, through enabling workers to take pension and social security entitlements with them when they work in a different Member States and by establishing an optional framework for collective bargaining across frontiers; the Commission will also examine transition periods for workers from new Member States;
Getting more people into better jobs, particularly through the European Youth Initiative and supporting women in (re-)entering the labour market;
Updating labour law to address needs created by new forms of work, i.e. particular short term contracts; a new health and safety strategy;
Managing the process of restructuring through the social dialogue.

Under poverty and equal opportunities, the Agenda will focus on:

Analysing the impact of ageing populations and the future of relations between the different generations, by launching a Green Paper on demography
Supporting the Member States in reforming pensions and health care and tackling poverty;
Tackling discrimination and inequality; the Commission will examine minimum income schemes in the Member States and set out a policy approach for tackling discrimination, particularly against ethnic minorities such as the Roma;
- Fostering equal opportunities between women and men, for example by setting up a gender institute;
- Clarifying the role and characteristics of social services of general interest;

The full text of the Communication from the Commission on the Social Agenda, COM(2005) is available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/social_policy_agenda/social_pol_ag_en.html