Employment & Social Policies

In the field of Labour and Social Affairs, the European Union only holds a coordinating role, paying attention to the coordination of social security systems and on the enforcement of workers' rights. The employment policy is another priority of the EU in this area. In addition, the EU is committed to poverty reduction and social inclusion.The EU takes over the coordination of the policies of the individual Member States, promoting the exchange of best practices, as well as ensuring compliance with labour law.

Europe 2020 Strategy

The Europe 2020 strategy envisages a number of flagship initiatives, which deal with the questions of labour and social affairs applying different approaches:
The European Employment Strategy aims at creating more and better jobs throughout the EU. In concrete terms, the employment rate for the working-age population (20-64 years) should be increased to at least 75% until 2020.

The New Skills Agenda for Europe will help to improve flexibility and security in the labour market, ensuring the quality of jobs and better working conditions. Another goal is to equip people with the right skills for the jobs of today and tomorrow in order to stay up to date with technological developments and to boost productivity.

To be prepared for these future developments, the EU is investing heavily in youth. The Youth Guarantee is a commitment by all Member States to ensure that all young people under the age of 25 years receive a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship shortly after leaving formal education, financed by the Youth Employment Initiative.

Another initiative, the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion aimes to support combating poverty and social exclusion.

 

EU-Labour & Social policies

Other strategies are also of key importance within the EU- Labour & Social policies:

• the Social Investment Package for ensuring adequate and sustainable social protection through an effective national social security budget, the improvement of qualifications of the citizens and their chances in the labor market, investment in children and young people;
• the EU Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Strategic Framework 2014-2020 to ensure the implementation of labor rights and legislation on health and safety, the prevention of work-related illnesses and to take into account the aging of the workforce.

In the EU Macro-Regions, the main objectives are to empower people through training and social protection systems, fighting poverty & social exclusion.