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Platform of European Social NGOs

Social Platform

Social Platform is Europe's largest civil society alliance fighting for social justice and participatory democracy, representing 42 pan-European NGO networks.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Catalin Gheran (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu), Sonia Vila Nunez (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu)

4 Dec 2025 · To discuss the social dimension of the next MFF.

Response to Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness

10 Nov 2025

The MARVOW 2.0 project (https://marvow.eu/) is co-funded by the CERV programme and focuses on coordinated multi-agency response to violence against older women. From this perspective, the Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness should ensure that all generations including older women can live free from violence, exclusion, and neglect. 1. Recognise intersectionality between age and gender as a fairness issue Intergenerational fairness is often framed as balancing the needs of younger and future generations. Yet fairness must also mean that older generations are treated with equal dignity and protection. Older women face specific disadvantages, including gender-based violence (GBV), isolation, and inadequate service responses. Ensuring fairness requires addressing these inequalities so that older persons are not excluded from justice, care, or participation. The inclusion of an EU Action Plan to Combat Ageism (https://www.age-platform.eu/age-proposal-eu-action-plan-combat-ageism/) as the backbone of the Strategy could address the structural and societal barriers that prevent current and future generations from fully enjoying their rights and equal opportunities. 2. Invest in prevention and response to violence across the life course Violence against older women has long-term effects on health, well-being, and public expenditure - preventing it is an intergenerational investment. The Strategy should integrate life-course indicators on violence, abuse, and neglect, and promote coordinated, age-sensitive prevention and response measures as part of fairness between generations. Accountability must also extend to older perpetrators, affirming that change is always pursuable and that responsibility for violent behaviour does not diminish with age, and that safety, respect, and justice are lifelong rights. 3. Promote multi-agency and multi-generational cooperation MARVOW 2.0 highlights that no single sector can address GBV alone. Cooperation among health, social, justice, housing, and community services creates systems that protect and empower individuals across ages. The Strategy should endorse such models, and encourage intergenerational initiatives that strengthen empathy, social cohesion and reduce generational divides. This should include engaging communities in bystander interventions across generations, promoting awareness and building capacities among both younger and older people to stand up against violence. 4. Ensure participation and voice of older persons, especially women Fairness is not only about distribution of resources but also about agency. Older persons, particularly older women with lived experience of GBV or care needs, must be involved in shaping policies that affect them. Including their voices in consultations and governance processes reinforces democratic legitimacy and promotes understanding across generations. This also requires supporting the role of their representative organisations, including civil society organisations that work on GBV and for and with older persons as key partners. 5. Build fairness indicators that reflect age and gender realities Any future intergenerational fairness index should include disaggregated data on age, gender, violence, unpaid care, and access to services. Monitoring how current policies affect different age groups without an upper age limit, especially older women who are too often invisible in statistics, will help ensure fairness is measurable and actionable across the life course. Intergenerational fairness requires looking both forward and backward ensuring younger generations inherit a just society and older generations live in dignity today. The Strategy should therefore embed age- and gender-sensitive approaches, strengthen coordinated responses to violence and exclusion, and promote active participation of older persons. By protecting the rights and well-being of older women, the EU can build a fairer, more cohesive society for all generations
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Meeting with Mario Nava (Director-General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion)

25 Sept 2025 · Future work of Social Platform

Meeting with Ana Carla Pereira (Director Justice and Consumers)

16 Sept 2025 · Courtesy meeting on funding

Response to Review of the State aid rules on the Services of General Economic Interest (“SGEI”)

31 Jul 2025

Social Platform is the largest network of European social NGOs . It brings together major European NGOs active in social services, human rights, anti-discrimination, and social economy to promote social justice and strengthen civil dialogue at the EU level. As part of its mission to advance social rights and ensure no one is left behind, Social Platform welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the public consultation on Services of General Economic Interest (SGEI), with a particular focus on affordable and social housing. We call on the European Commission to recognise the full social dimension of affordable housing and ensure that housing SGEI schemes address the complex needs of marginalised populations, while promoting social inclusion and cohesion across all territories. We recommend: 1) Recognising Housing as a Social Right - Affordable and social housing must be clearly framed as a means to realise the right to adequate housing, going beyond access to infrastructure and affordability based on income. Definitions must reflect a wider range of vulnerabilities, including discrimination, segregation, age, disability, socio-economic background, and gender. Housing SGEI should also enable access to community life, employment, and mental health, ensuring an adequate standard of living for all. 2) Eligibility Based on Need, Not Employment Status - Eligibility criteria must prioritise social needs over market-based definitions such as "essential roles" or other job market demands. These definitions are inconsistent as they risk excluding groups at risk of vulnerability. Long-term housing solutions should reflect actual housing hardship, not short to mid-term labour demands. In addition, Eligibility should encompass people at risk of institutionalisation, those requiring reasonable accommodation, and individuals living in unsafe or unhealthy environments (e.g. flood zones, pollution, structural hazards). Socio-economic vulnerability and discriminatory barriers must be central to eligibility assessments. 3) Preventing Speculation and Ensuring Long-Term Affordability - Affordable housing schemes should not fuel speculation. Acquisition for primary residence must be the core aim defined under binding rules, with a minimum duration of 20 years for inhabitants. In line with good practices, rents or sale prices must not exceed 30% of household income for at least 50 years. Seasonal or secondary use must be excluded. A self-declaration system and legally binding affordability ceilings based on household income should be established. 4) Preference for Non-Profit and Public Actors Non-profit organisations should be prioritised in delivering housing SGEI. Their social mission ensures affordability, sustainability, and long-term impact. In contrast, large private market operators should be subject to distinct regulatory regimes to prevent profit-driven distortions in the housing sector. 5) Minimum Quality and Sustainability Standards To align with social and environmental goals, SGEI housing projects must meet clear quality standards, including renewable energy use, proper infrastructure (water, sanitation, fire safety), and adequate living space. These standards must apply to both new construction and renovations. 6) Renovation Over New Construction Investment in renovations, guided by social and environmental impact assessments, should be favoured over new construction. While both may raise local prices, renovation is less disruptive and more sustainable. Market price and income-based criteria must be used to prevent indirect exclusion and support effective regeneration of declining urban and rural areas.
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Response to Quality Jobs Roadmap

28 Jul 2025

The upcoming Quality Jobs Roadmap is a key opportunity to ensure all people, including disadvantaged groups furthest away from the labour market, have access to adequately paid and high-quality employment. It is key to address the specific issues of key sectors, such as the healthcare, social services and care sectors, gender disparities, low wages and lack of professional development. These challenges contribute to ongoing labour shortages and persistently high in-work poverty rates. In 2024, 10.9% of employed people were at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The Quality Jobs Roadmap should clearly define quality jobs and support a move to quality jobs and away from precarious employment. The roadmap should complement the existing employment target of at least 78% of the population aged 20 to 64 in employment by 2030 with a quality jobs target, aiming for an ambitious percentage of jobs across Europe to qualify as a quality job. It is a key opportunity to ensure all people have access to adequately paid and high-quality employment, particularly addressing in-work poverty. The specific needs of sectors such as healthcare, social services and care sectors, such as gender disparity, low wages and lack of professional development. These challenges contribute to ongoing labour shortages in the sectors. Furthermore, the roadmap should also ensure support for quality employment for disadvantaged groups furthest away from the labour market. A quality job should, as a minimum standard: combine fair wages; good working conditions; job security and adequate social protection; access to paid for training; reskilling and/or upskilling without costs and during working time; adequate health and safety at the work place; work-life balance; equality and non-discrimination; as well as collective bargaining and full respect for workers and trade union rights, regardless of their employment status. Measuring progress towards such a target would require a multifaceted composite indicator measuring key components of a quality job. To do so, it would be necessary to develop additional comparable quality indicators. As a basis for this work, the EU could take inspiration from the OECD framework to measure and assess the quality of jobs that considers three objective and measurable dimensions: earnings quality, labour market security and the working environment. The European Commission aims for the Quality Jobs Roadmap to support fair wages, good working conditions, training and fair job transitions for workers and self-employed people, notably by increasing collective bargaining coverage , which is welcome. It must place a strong focus on tackling in-work poverty, with particular attention to its disproportionate impact on women and migrants who are concentrated in low-paid jobs and sectors. Fair wages are a crucial aspect of quality jobs that need to be ensured through the adequate minimum wage directive and strong collective bargaining for more than the minimum wage. It should also tackle the growing issue of atypical and nonstandard contracts by providing workers with more rights to transfer to more secure forms of employment and effectively ban zero-hour contracts, neither of which were achieved by the 2019 directive on transparent and predictable working conditions. The Quality Jobs Roadmap should support investment in employment pathways and active labour market measures and scale up the role of Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs) in fostering access to decent work for workers in vulnerable situations. It should also promote worker-owned cooperatives, including cooperatives of nonstandard workers, as a tried-and-tested model consistently providing better working conditions, more equal pay, and higher worker satisfaction resulting from worker participation, solidarity and mutualisation. The Roadmap can also play an important role in fostering employment for disadvantaged groups such as persons with disabilities.
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Response to Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030

23 Jul 2025

Older women (OW) face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that accumulate over the lifecourse, resulting in marginalisation, violence, economic inequality, social exclusion. OWs poverty rate is 7.5 percentage points higher than mens over 75. This risk is greater among women (W) with disabilities, living alone, with low education, or with a migrant background. Pensions failing to keep pace with the cost of living increase this risk. OW also face ageist and sexist stereotypes, being portrayed as frail/passive/dependent. A Union of Equality is not possible without recognising the lived experiences and structural barriers faced by all W and girls, including OW. The 2026-2030 Gender Equality Strategy must address ageism through an intersectional lens, as age remains the only ground of discrimination without a dedicated EU strategy Gender-based violence (GBV) GBV against OW remains largely invisible in research, policy, and law. In 2021, 24% of W aged 65-74 reported experiencing GBV. There is a lack of protection mechanisms and awareness that GBV affects women of all ages. Support services are rarely adapted to OWs needs. Elder abuse is often framed as a neutral "vulnerability" issue, omitting the power dynamics and patriarchal structures that underpin GBV Gender pay & pension gap The gender pay gap increases with age. In 2023, W 65+ received pensions 25% lower than mens Healthcare & long-term care OW face unequal access to care due to both sexism and ageism. Abuse in care settings includes coercion, psychological violence, and financial abuse. OW live longer but with more years in poor health. Diseases may present differently in W but are less often recognised. Medicines are rarely tested on older people, especially OW, despite high polypharmacy resulting from multiple health conditions. OW also have greater long-term care needs Employment Only 56.2% of W aged 55-64 are employed, vs. 68.7% of men and 76.5% of W aged 25-54. 33% work part-time, compared to 8.7% of men. 70% of informal carers are W. The sectors precarious employment conditions disproportionately affect a predominantly female and ageing workforce. Menopause affect OW at the workplace, yet stigma and lack of support persist Recommendations - Mainstream ageing across the Gender Equality Strategy 20262030 - Apply an intersectional lens to address the needs of older migrant W, racialised W, carers, W with disabilities, low income, or living in rural areas - Adopt an EU Action Plan on Ageism aligned with the Gender Equality Strategy - Support the appointment of an EU Coordinator to end all forms of violence against W that will work towards the implementation of the Istanbul Convention, the Directive on combating violence against W and domestic violence and the Directive on Victims Rights - Collect age disaggregated data by different age groups, removing upper age limits - Recognise elder abuse as part of DV and GBV strategies, acknowledging its unique dynamics (e.g., abuse by adult children, carers, and other family members) - Strengthen coordination between GBV services, OPs services, and frontline actors including health, social, and justice services - Commission an EU-wide study on elder abuse and violence against older people - Ensure medicines are tested for effectiveness on OW and address bias in medical research - Tackle ageism and gender bias in healthcare through training and awareness campaigns - Address suicide via a gender perspective among older people especially older men through tailored, gendered mental health services - Adopt a Council Recommendation on support and social protection for informal carers - Ensure robust implementation of the Long-Term Care Recommendation with a gender and age lens - Promote employment for OW via gender and age-sensitive policies, flexible work, and life-long learning - Promote lifelong learning for OW to support participation and inclusion - Ensure that Member States correctly implement the Work-Life
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Response to Mid-Term Review: Social Economy Action Plan

16 Jul 2025

Within the SEAP implementation, the Council Recommendations on developing social economy framework conditions constituted a step forward towards the increased recognition of the sector key role to sustainable development, social inclusion and innovation. Its implementation across the EU remains nevertheless very unequal from one Member State to another. Increased recognition was also achieved through the inclusion of Social Economy as one of the 14 industrial ecosystems in the New Industrial Strategy, which enhanced its capacity for cross-sectoral cooperation within the green and digital transitions. The implementation of EU projects calls, namely through the Single Market Programme, also brought opportunities for cross fertilization and innovation build up across Europe. Social Platform supports the continuation and further development of such initiatives, with views to upscaling their innovative outcomes through specific funding instruments and key contact points in national and EU level. The reviewed SEAP should nevertheless continue supporting the transversal nature of Social Economy, which goes beyond its presence in market value chain and services sector, and community resilience. Moreover, it should unleash the Social Economy potential to foster inclusion for underrepresented groups (women, older people, migrants, persons with disabilities, as well as Roma people as social entrepreneurs and beneficiaries). The Social economy should be further mainstreamed in all relevant strategies aligned to its pivotal contribution to the fight against poverty, inequality and social exclusion and towards a fair green and digital transition. We recommend: 1- Increase and expand the support provided to the social economy at EU level. Preserve and reinforce budgetary lines dedicated to the social economy in the MFF and annual budgets such as InvestEU, namely through a standalone ESF+ and earmarking of EU funds access for the social economy. Stronger integration of the social economy into the European Semester and macroeconomic frameworks; and monitoring of the Council Recommendation across all Member States are also crucial. In EU level, restore or create dedicated units for the social economy within the European Commission. 2- Untap the financial sustainability of the Social Economy with the adoption of state aid rules and socially responsible public procurement by Member States: Public procurement rules must be applied with flexibility and clarity to favor reserved contracts, social clauses, and quality-based procurement, supporting more social and circular tenders through a strategic approach, escaping from the logic of the lowest price. State aid rules, in particular rules for social enterprises and recruitment of disadvantaged workers and for training needs, should be revised as foreseen in the Clean Industrial Deal and the Union of Skills. 3- Embed the Social Economy within key European strategies and priorities: Ensure coordination and inputting of the SEAP to the European Pillar of Social Rights action plan; the Anti-poverty strategy; the Clean Industrial Deal, Circular Economy action plan, the Quality jobs roadmap; the Union of Skills, the European Care Strategy, and the civil society strategy. Moreover, the social economy should be recognised for its role in fostering cohesion, robustness, and resilience, under the EU competitiveness agenda. 4- Strengthen the social economy as a core driver of stronger social rights and combating poverty. Social economy organisations, notably WISEs and non-profit social services, are already essential providers in the care economy, education, and vocational training. They provide social services and job opportunities to vulnerable groups, with a values-based approach that ensures that services remain people-centred, affordable, and rooted in solidarity. Initiatives such as European Job schemes should be renewed, fully involving social economy actors and improving availability of decent work.
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Social Platform demands EU protections for older LGBTIQ people

24 Jun 2025
Topic — This consultation addresses the EU's updated strategy for LGBTIQ equality and rights.
Message — Social Platform wants the strategy to tackle intersectional discrimination like ageism and racism. They call for better data collection and inclusion in anti-violence directives.123
Why — Secured funding and formal consultation roles would enhance their influence on EU policy.45
Impact — Groups performing conversion practices would face legal bans and increased regulatory scrutiny.6
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Meeting with Mirzha De Manuel (Cabinet of Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis)

23 May 2025 · Social Platform's position on the next MFF and European Semester

Meeting with Gelu Calacean (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen)

25 Apr 2025 · Presentation of Social Platform’s position paper on the post-2027 MFF and exchange of views on the integration of social priorities into EU funding mechanisms and other ongoing and future initiatives.

Meeting with Ruth Paserman (Director Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) and

21 Mar 2025 · A Post Multiannual Financial Framework for Social Europe

Meeting with Johan Danielsson (Member of the European Parliament)

30 Jan 2025 · Sysselsättningsfrågor i Europaparlamentet under mandatperioden

Meeting with Teresa Ribera Rodríguez (Executive Vice-President) and

13 Jan 2025 · Explore cooperation possibilities throughout the 2024-2029 mandate.

Meeting with Dario Tamburrano (Member of the European Parliament)

15 Oct 2024 · Transizione giusta

Meeting with Gelu Calacean (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen)

8 Aug 2024 · Democracy, Civic Space and Civil Dialogue

Meeting with Lynn Boylan (Member of the European Parliament) and Climate Action Network Europe

17 Jul 2024 · Just Transition

Meeting with Evelyn Regner (Member of the European Parliament) and European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights

16 Jul 2024 · General Exchange of Views

Meeting with Alice Kuhnke (Member of the European Parliament)

16 Jul 2024 · Social pillar

Meeting with Andriana Sukova (Acting Director-General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion)

23 Apr 2024 · Social policy for the years ahead, the European Pillar of Social Rights.

Meeting with Nicolas Schmit (Commissioner) and

16 Apr 2024 · The legacy of the 2019-2024 Commission and the future of social agenda

Meeting with Mirzha De Manuel (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis), Pim Lescrauwaet (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis)

9 Jan 2023 · Economic Governance Review

Meeting with Paolo Gentiloni (Commissioner)

25 Nov 2022 · Short discussion on the social dimension of the Economic Governance Review and the socio-economic impact of the war in Ukraine

Response to Developing social economy framework conditions

30 Sept 2022

Social Platform recommends the following to the European Commission: To set a genuine standard for the social economy, better framework conditions should be ensured on all policy levels as some legislation is determined at EU level eg state aid, public procurement. Member States should set up single entry-point mechanism within national administrations, the Social Economy Gateway and national coordinators with the involvement of civil society organisations. Ensure availability of all funding instruments to social economy entities and develop social economy-specific funding instruments: Earmarking a certain percentage of ESF+ in the upcoming programming periods in support of the social economy and providing further guidance on taxation to Member States, ensuring support for the activities of social enterprises in line with the newly amended EU VAT Directive, would be helpful. The social economy needs dedicated support for the green and digital transition. Access to finance should be improved for social entrepreneurs in the Western Balkans, Eastern Partnership and Southern Neighbourhood. This guidance should be directed towards (potential) candidate countries. Many social economy enterprises find InvestEU and other lines of investments difficult to access. Rapid implementation of this SEAP goal is imperative, including through increased programming and intermediate financial bodies, channeling of EU investment and recovery funds and addressing existing bottlenecks. Social clauses should be inserted in all public procurement procedures, merging social and circular business models where applicable, for public purchases to endorse labour standards, employ disadvantaged workers, and create local (green) jobs. These criteria should be increasingly made mandatory. On the envisaged assessment of the state aid rules, VAT regulations and public procurement, we recommend better convergence between green and social criteria. The current exceptions concerning state aid on employment for persons with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups should be better implemented, and new exceptions regarding social economy enterprises would be welcome. We recommend Member States to: Create enabling legal frameworks, recognizing all entities of the social economy and its transversal nature. Currently, the legal recognition of social economy entities differs widely among member states. Broad fiscal policies and taxation systems are needed to recognize the function of general interest and provide preferential treatment of social economy business models. A "partnership principle" and bottom-up approach should be used in the implementation of the SEAP with a commitment to engage all relevant stakeholders, including social economy actors, beneficiaries and relevant civil society. Social economy organisations experience difficulties in accessing finance due to their inherent dual nature. We hope that the forthcoming report on extension of the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance to social objectives will address financing gaps. The implementation of the SEAP can play a key role in the fight against discrimination and exclusion, including through access to public and private funding (particularly in the case of minority-led social enterprises). Quantitative/qualitative indicators to monitor progress should be developed and disaggregated by a number of factors ie ethnic background, and favour the development of social impact finance. Capitalise on social economy in employment policies including for disadvantaged groups. Amplify support for worker buyouts and business transfers to employees under the cooperative form as they help to retain jobs and ensure continuity. Promote platform cooperatives as they provide better work conditions and put technology at the service of the community. Recognise/support the role of the social economy in upskilling/reskilling including for social economy workers. Include social economy in mainstream education.
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Meeting with Silvan Agius (Cabinet of Commissioner Helena Dalli)

13 Sept 2022 · Meeting to discuss EU Solidarity Strategy to respond to the Ukraine crisis.

Meeting with Joost Korte (Director-General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion)

13 Sept 2022 · social dialogue

Meeting with Giulio Di Blasi (Cabinet of Commissioner Ylva Johansson) and Caritas Europa and Housing Europe - European Federation for Public, Cooperative and Social Housing

2 Sept 2022 · Ukraine Safe Homes Initiative

Meeting with Mirzha De Manuel (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis), Pim Lescrauwaet (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis)

22 Jun 2022 · Social dimension of the Economic Governance Review and European Semester, in the context of learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic

Meeting with Ana Carla Pereira (Cabinet of Commissioner Nicolas Schmit), Christoph Nerlich (Cabinet of Commissioner Nicolas Schmit) and

22 Jun 2022 · Social Platform position on an EU Solidarity Strategy to respond to the Ukraine crisis

Response to Recommendation on minimum income

30 Mar 2022

In 2020, 96.5 million people in the EU were living at risk of poverty and social exclusion, of which people in vulnerable situations are disproportionately affected. Main ask: The Council Recommendation needs to include the possibility of further action in form of a Directive should poverty not decrease radically. Leaving the design of minimum income (MI) to Member States has not led to the drastic change needed for everyone to live free of poverty. Key recommendations: We agree with the problems identified (gaps in coverage & take-up, low adequacy, weak benefit-setting & unpredictable system for updating, ineffective activation or labour market integration, limited coordination with enabling social services and gaps in governance systems, monitoring & evaluation). Additional points of importance: - MI must guarantee a decent life throughout the life cycle. To define what is adequate, national at-risk-of-poverty thresholds (AROP) should be used, stipulating that people falling below 60% of the national median income are at risk of poverty. Only a MI that is at least at this level is a good starting point for defining adequacy. Reference budgets must be used and based on the real cost of goods and services, taking into account different living costs between regions, inflation and different life situations, as at times the 60% threshold alone will not be enough. - MI must be accessible to everyone and be available as long as it’s required. Barriers that hinder people’s take up need to be addressed and transparent and non-discriminatory eligibility criteria must be used. - The Recommendation needs to support and promote research into gaps in access to MI for groups in vulnerable situations and reasons for non-take up. - MI must be shaped within a comprehensive and personalised active inclusion approach which promotes access to quality essential and social services and support toward inclusive labour markets for those who can work, as well as social participation for those who can’t. Person-centred pathways and active outreach measures must be prioritised to prevent people from falling behind. - MI needs to be rooted in legislation. - MI must be catered for the specific needs of individuals and groups in vulnerable situations to ensure their non-discriminatory access and take account of the reality of intersecting inequalities and differing needs. A purely mainstream approach in policy-making often does not reach those most in need. - To tackle the high non-take-up and to ensure the transition to other types of benefits without delay, MI benefits must be granted proactively, ideally automatically. - No negative conditionality and sanctions leading to total or partial cuts in MI support should be allowed. Tapering of benefits to ensure work incentives risks forcing people to accept any job. - It must be possible to combine MI with other benefits and sources of income, such as disability benefits for example, to avoid pushing people into the grey economy. - MI must be ensured across the life span, including minimum pensions. - MI must be regularly indexed and updated. - Effective adjudication by independent bodies and the right to appeal needs to be available and accessible for everyone. - Member State’s realisation of an adequate MI needs to be monitored through key EU processes such as the European Semester and the implementation of the Social Pillar Action Plan, as well as the Social Scoreboard, with findings triggering concrete policy change. - The engagement of beneficiaries and the civil society organisations representing them in developing, implementing and monitoring adequate minimum income schemes must be ensured at all levels of governance. - Proactive measures are needed to tackle the stigmatisation linked to people experiencing poverty and benefit claimants. More information can be found in our position paper: https://www.socialplatform.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/EUDF-Position-Paper-.pdf
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Response to Proposal for a Council Recommendation on long-term care

29 Mar 2022

The upcoming European care strategy is a key initiative, which supports the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights. It has the potential to strengthen the availability, affordability and accessibility and quality of long-term care and early childhood education and care provision, while also improving gender equality and work-life balance, the attractiveness of the care sector and overall living conditions of care service providers and beneficiaries. In contributing to this call for evidence, Social Platform sees 5 key areas for action: 1. The EU care strategy must support Member States in developing a resilient ecosystem for care services, contributing to building quality, affordable, available, and accessible care infrastructures in all Member States. It should propose a Care Guarantee that approaches care not just as a service, but as a right people have throughout the life-cycle, including children, adults with care needs, and the elderly. This is key to enable all people to reach their full potential and lead decent lives. 2. Facilitate the development and promotion of ambitious common quality standards on care services, rooted in a human rights-based approach, with a strong focus on social justice, non-discrimination and equality in their accessibility, affordability, quality, and coverage. 3. Create the right public funding and investment conditions for care services by using and adapting all available EU instruments. Make relevant funds from the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and Next Generation EU accessible to not-for-profit care service providers and encourage Member States to use them extensively to fully implement the Social Pillar. 4. Unlock the job creation potential of the care sector across Europe by improving the attractiveness of jobs, working conditions, wages, up- and re-skilling, health and safety, collective bargaining, and better career paths. Improve the recognition of and support for both formal and informal care work. 5. Support digitalisation of care services, while tackling the digital divide and digital poverty. Special attention needs to be given to accessibility, both digitally and face-to-face, and to the overall quality of services, as well as to ensuring that digitalisation helps improve the quality of jobs in the sector. For concrete recommendations on how to implement these 5 key areas of action, please consult Social Platform’s full contribution to the call for evidence attached. It also includes hyperlinks to the work of Social Platform’s member organisations and partners on the European Care strategy, the Council recommendation on long-term care and early childhood education and care/ the revision of the Barcelona targets for further reference.
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Response to Social and labour aspects of the climate transition

18 Nov 2021

Social Platform welcomes the EU’s commitment to achieving a climate neutral Europe by 2050 and the initiatives put forward to make this a reality for all. We have an opportunity now to think ahead and preempt the social impact of not just the climate emergency but also the shift towards a climate neutral continent. The European Commission has identified that exposing today’s EU economy to global warming of 3 degrees above pre-industrial levels would result in an annual loss of at least EUR 170 billion (1.36% of EU GDP). We know about the economic consequences of not greening our economies, yet we have not forecast fully the implications of what this shift will mean for people. Beyond the impact on GDP the cost of inaction would be tremendous in terms of humanitarian needs to deal with climate related disasters or the increase of food costs, public health costs, just to name a few. Fit for 55 package translates the 2030 climate targets into specific measures and is a welcome acceleration of the EU’s vision to be the first carbon neutral continent. Yet, special attention and provisions need to be in place in order to make sure that people facing multiple forms of discrimination, in particular those living in vulnerable situations, will effectively benefit from these measures. A just transition will address negative and potentially regressive employment and income effects, particularly on vulnerable groups. A socially-just transition means guaranteeing that transformative change and progress takes into account the rights of all people, and prevents and corrects any negative impacts on affected communities. We urge the Council Recommendation on the social and labour aspects of the just transition towards climate neutrality to: 1. Place wellbeing at the centre, upholding EU fundamental rights, including social rights 2. Prioritise the creation of quality, green jobs 3. Strengthen social protection, social security coverage and essential and social services 4. Promote fair taxation 5. Strengthen the scope and budget of the Social Climate Fund to balance social and environmental impacts 6. Uphold civil society engagement and the participation of people An analysis of the elements to include to ensure a socially just green transition is available in the enclosed document.
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Meeting with Mette Dyrskjot (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager), Werner Stengg (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager)

9 Sept 2021 · Presentation of the Organisation, Digital Divide

Meeting with Joost Korte (Director-General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion)

14 Jul 2021 · Porto social summit, minimum wage, minimum income, social protection

Meeting with Nicolas Schmit (Commissioner) and

5 Mar 2021 · Intervention in a roundtable event “Stand up for the Social Pillar” on the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and the road to the Porto Social Summit.

Meeting with Nicolas Schmit (Commissioner) and

18 Feb 2021 · Meeting on the Action Plan to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights.

Meeting with Mirzha De Manuel (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis)

15 Jan 2021 · Social Platform report on the European Semester process and the European Pillar of Social Rights. Topics: Exchange of views on social dialogue, European Pillar of Social Rights and NGEU.

Meeting with Nicolas Schmit (Commissioner) and

6 May 2020 · Videoconference for Social Platform to present the outcome of their General Assembly, their mission and vision, discussion about the revision of the Commission Working Programme, dialogue between the Commission and civil society organisations.

Meeting with Ylva Johansson (Commissioner) and

5 May 2020 · Migrants’ challenges in the current COVID-19 crisis and their contribution to economic recovery

Meeting with Valdis Dombrovskis (Executive Vice-President)

6 Mar 2020 · Commission priorities for social policies, European Semester and Pillar of Social Rights, reforms for inclusive growth

Meeting with Helena Dalli (Commissioner)

25 Feb 2020 · Equality and inclusion measures

Meeting with Diederik Samsom (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans) and European Youth Forum and

19 Feb 2020 · European Green Deal

Meeting with Věra Jourová (Vice-President) and

31 Jan 2020 · EC cooperation with Civil Society

Meeting with Mattia De' Grassi (Cabinet of Vice-President Dubravka Šuica)

23 Jan 2020 · Conference on the Future of Europe

Meeting with Luc Tholoniat (Cabinet of President Jean-Claude Juncker)

5 Mar 2019 · échanges de vue dans le domaine social

Response to More efficient law-making in social policy: identification of areas for an enhanced move to qualified majority voting

17 Jan 2019

Social Platform is the largest network of European rights- and value-based civil society organisations working in the social sector. Our 48 member organisations represent more than 2,800 national organisations, associations and other voluntary groups at local, regional and national level in every EU member state - covering a large spectrum of the EU social civil society sector. Our mission is to advocate for policies that bring social progress to all in the European Union. We apply a human-rights approach to all of our work to fight for a socially just and cohesive Europe that promotes equality, diversity, solidarity, democracy and human dignity. Social Platform strongly welcomes the initiative of the European Commission to move towards more efficient decision-making in social policy by increasing as much as possible the use of qualified majority voting in certain social policy areas, where foreseen in articles 153 TFEU and 48 TEU. We fully agree that this is crucial to enable the EU to keep up with increasingly quickly changing economic, social and societal realities. This would support the EU in remedying the ongoing negative effects of the crisis and subsequent austerity measures on the levels of social cohesion, social protection and standards of living. In recent years, the EU has slowly increased its social dimension, working towards becoming a Social Union. While the interdependence of economic and social objectives is increasingly recognised, a significant imbalance between fiscal, economic and social priorities in the EU remains. With the proclamation of the European Pillar of Social Rights in 2017, the EU committed itself to anchoring a strong social dimension in the future of the European Union. To fully deliver on this promise, more ambitious and efficient decision-making in the social field is essential. More regular use of the ordinary legislative procedure would significantly strengthen the role of the European Parliament, enabling it to act as a co-legislator in these policy areas, which has the potential to lead to more ambitious EU legislation in the social field. As highlighted by the roadmap, reduced use of unanimity voting would also limit the risk of a single Member State vetoing the adoption of a proposal welcomed by many. It would indeed also limit the risk of a single Member State slowing down negotiation processes or reducing the content of a proposal to absolute minimum standards, leading to stagnating or even worsening social realities on the ground across the EU. As the Special Eurobarometer 467 on the Future of Europe - Social issues highlights, unemployment and social inequalities continue to be perceived as the main challenges facing the EU. Indeed, high levels of inequality, poverty and social exclusion, coupled with narrowing definitions and applications of rights, are fuelling social tension, growing disillusionment of European citizens with democracy and reduced trust in our governing institutions. To safeguard its future - especially with the European elections taking place in just a few months - the EU needs to demonstrate that it is part of the solution, and not part of the problem. The increased use of qualified majority voting in the social field would enable the EU to more efficiently turn the commitments of the European Pillar of Social Rights into action, making a truly Social Europe a reality for its citizens.
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