R6 A2: Concrete social policies for a real social and fair Europe

Concrete social policies for a real social and
fair Europe

Context : The Europe of the economy is falling apart

Since 1950 and the CECA, the European construction was made through reinforcing
economic cooperation and the market. However, this has shown its limits.

Indeed, there has been a clear increase in inequality in Europe since the 1980s,
with an alarming rise in poverty rates. It is in this more general context of
inflation, of difficulty for Europeans to have access to essential goods,
aggravating these heavy trends, and when the far right is trying to stripe of
the social progress made so far, that Europe must implement social mechanisms
and must adopt directives that improve our living conditions in a very concrete
way.

What is at stake : the need to build a more social Europe

All of this makes us believe that there is a crucial need to build a concrete
European project, in which people can believe in, which addresses planetary and
social crises. We must strongly defend a justice project: tax justice (See title
4, subtitled “Fiscal Policy” of the political platform) that gives us the means
to achieve social and environmental justice.

A more social Europe to build a concrete Europe for its citizens…

We urgently need concrete mechanisms to create a feeling of belonging to the EU.
People must be aware that what is decided at European level impacts on them
daily. They must understand that the impacts can be particularly positive if
they mobilise themselves with us for a real project for a Social Europe that
breaks away from the neo-liberal vision that has been the norm until now. One
example is the Social Imbalance Procedure (SIP), a mechanism to enhance social
rights in the EU and assess EU members social policies.

… includes a transformation of its institutions…

It is therefore a project for the transformation of the EU, a concrete project,
clear, legible in the measures we must propose. A project that contrasts with
the commonly shared vision of a technocratic Europe that does not care about the
general interest and the interests of all EU citizens. In this way, it is
crucial to extend and deepen the social pillar of the EU.

This project of a concrete social and federal Europe is the only serious project
able to receive the assent of a majority of Europeans, particularly those from
the working and middle classes who today abstain from voting or oppose the
current European project.

We must strongly advocate for a Europe of reduced inequality: a Europe where all
citizens are winners. We also defend a Europe which prioritises action towards
planetary crisis, since the increasing pollution, climate change, and
biodiversity loss, among other issues, are affecting ecosystems and human
health. The COVID-19 pandemic is a clear example of disease of the anthropocene.
The right to the protection of human health is included in the EU Social Charter
as a main principle, and needs to be boarded up. Indeed, the green Europe we
want to build needs to be just and pursue across-cutting equity, making sure
that existing inequalities, as well as structural obstacles for marginalised
groups are being diminished.

Moreover, in this context of inflation, and in particular of energy price
inflation, which impacts the whole supply chain, which therefore strongly
affects the purchasing power of citizens, we, as Greens, must strongly defend
the access to carbon neutral energy as a right, and we must be in this way, a
force of proposal for reforming the European energy market. We can only note the
major failure of energy liberalisation. Competition has not led to lower prices,
quite the opposite. We urgently need to revise European energy policy. We need
to act structurally to better control energy prices to guarantee fair and
affordable prices, in quantities compatible with the necessary sobriety of a
carbon neutral society, to every European citizen, public organisation, and
company.

Implementation: involve every level of governance and multi-
stakeholders in constructing a social Europe

We call upon the European Parliament, the Member States and the European
Commission to:

• Set up a European legislation for a European minimum income from the age
  of 18 years old : For it to be pertinent, this minimum income needs to be
  at least equal to the poverty line of the country. This income has to be
  indexed to inflation.

• We call on the European Union to put in place the most coercive mechanism
  possible to ensure that Member States implement correctly the Minimum Wage
  Directive (EU) 2022/2041

• Extend and deepen the already existing social pillar through the regions
  of the EU by funding them at a satisfactory level, focusing on education,
  health, housing, employment, social security and migration. It is an
  important way to build a federal Europe and to make the UE more tangible
  for EU citizens and to ensure the EU Green deal enhances a green
  transition that is just and leaves none behind (following what it is
  stated in the “Green Principles for a Just Transition”). We therefore call
  to increase ERDF resources and increase the percentage allocated to
  social, job creation and local development components. We also call to
  increase the resources of the European Social Fund (ESF+).

We call upon the FYEG’s executive board to :

• Be proactive on social issues during the building of the campaign with
  partner organisations, and on the fact that having a solid discourse for a
  real social and federal Europe is the only way that the Europe we all want
  can finally come into reality.

We propose the FYEG’s executive boardExecutive Committee to :

• Implement a back-to-school campaign for a European minimum income from the
  age of 18. It may be a significant marker to launch the dynamic for the
  European campaign and to increase the capacity and number of members of
  our Member Organisations thanks to a campaign that is appealing to young
  people because it is significant for their quality of life.

• Include social justice and policy as one of the major pillars of FYEG's European campaign. Working together with member organisations to implement these campaign goals' in their countries to make it appealing for young people to vote for Greens, especially Young Greens.

We suggest Member organisations of the FYEG :

• To implement FYEG’s Campaign for a social Europe in their local context.

• Spread the voices of young ecologists sharing their stories on social and
  economic rights.

• To advocate towards their local, regional and national governments to
  implement and enhance the exposure of EU wide social projects.