Social Agenda 50 – The new social dimension

Abstract

Things are moving fast as employment and social affairs make up a decisive part of the roadmap to a more united and democratic EU by June 2019, announced by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in September 2017: the Commission proposals to make it happen must be on the table of the European Parliament and Council by May 2018 at the latest.

We explain how the European Pillar of Social Rights, proclaimed by EU leaders last November, serves as a framework for preparing them and is strengthening the social dimension of EU economic governance.

We also review proposals for an EU framework to raise the quality of apprenticeships, report on evidence of an urgent need to take on intergenerational inequality and show how social innovation is a must to ensure sustainable economic growth.