“The provision for a scoreboard to follow employment and social developments is welcome but will need to be bolstered by other measures. Social Cohesion policies must be strengthened, especially in the commitment to the European Social Fund. In particular, the measures to tackle youth unemployment must be ‘up-front and centre’ in the battle against the social cost of the crisis. This means that member countries must try to add to the 6 billion set aside for the ‘youth guarantee’.”
<“For the fact that the Communication contains any concrete measures at all, credit must go to social affairs Commissioner Laszlo Andor. He has fought tooth and nail for the concerns of ordinary working people. Unfortunately the Commission is populated by too many intransigent Conservative Commissioners who failed to see the importance of a strong social dimension to EU policy”, concluded the PES President.
The communication follows the initiative of François Hollande and other social democratic Prime Ministers. The Party of European Socialists mobilised political forces to ensure that the ‘scoreboard’ was not also deleted from the text.
The five indicators are:
- unemployment level and changes;
- NEET rate (young people not in education, employment or training) and youth unemployment rate;
- real gross disposable income of households;
- at-risk-of-poverty rate of working age population;
- inequalities (S80/S20 ratio).
