Building a fairer and more inclusive Union

Protecting lives and livelihoods during the pandemic

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with people confined at home, one of the main challenges was to protect the employment of European citizens. In April 2020, the Commission proposed SURE, an instrument to finance short-time employment schemes across the EU, making sure that people could keep their jobs and their income despite the confinement, and that businesses could keep the workers and skills that they would rely on when activities resume.

Achieving the clean transition together and leaving no one behind

Nobody should be left behind in the clean transition. To support regions that are most affected by the socio-economic impact caused by the clean transition, the Commission came forward with the Just Transition Fund with a total allocation of €19.7 billion. The Just Transition Fund directs investments into these regions to diversify economic activities towards cleaner industries and reskill workers for new sources of employment. For example

• Ida Viru, in Estonia, used to rely heavily on oil shale. Thanks to €354 million from the Just Transition Fund, some 11,000 workers and jobseekers are receiving reskilling and upskilling opportunities that will provide them with mobility solutions to new businesses with greener jobs.
• Norrboten county, in northern Sweden, is a centre of the Swedish steel industry. The Just Transition Fund is backing the H2-Labs project, which will receive €7 million (EU and national funding). The project wants to develop a test bed in Norrboten to explore the production of climate-neutral hydrogen. In enough quantities, climate-neutral hydrogen could replace the use of fossil fuels in steel production, thereby increasing the industry’s competitiveness and minimising social costs.

Similarly, the Commission established the Social Climate Fund, which will provide Member States with dedicated funding, including via our carbon pricing mechanism, to support vulnerable groups such as households in energy or transport poverty. Member States may use the Social Climate Fund to invest in energy efficiency, renovation of buildings, clean heating, and they can also spend part of the resources on temporary direct income support.

Europe is undergoing a major demographic transformation. People across Europe live longer, healthier lives thanks to our social and economic progress over the past decades, including improved living standards, access to education and training, and advances in healthcare and medicine.

This demographic change is having a profound impact on everyday life. That is why in October 2023, the Commission put forward the Demography Toolbox, to support Member States in addressing demographic challenges and their impact on Europe's competitive edge.

This toolbox identifies the reforms and investments needed to manage this demographic change and maintain the EU's competitive edge. The proposed tools can be effectively combined with national and regional policies for maximum benefit.

Furthermore, the Commission has called on Member States to put in place and implement integrated policies addressing demographic change and to mainstream demography concerns across all policies.

In 2021, the Commission put forward a Recommendation establishing a European Child Guarantee, which has been adopted by Member States. The Child Guarantee ensures that every child in Europe at risk of poverty or social exclusion has access to the most basic of rights, at the same time empowering parents who cannot afford childcare and early education, to go back to the job market.

An ambitious action plan to make the European Pillar of Social Rights a reality

In March 2021 we put forward an ambitious action plan to bring the principles of European Pillar of Social Rights to life through tangible actions. To measure progress, EU-level targets are now firmly in place to reach 78% of employment for people aged 20 to 64, ensure participation of 60% of adults in yearly training, and reduce the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million. All this should be accomplished by 2030 and Member States have presented their own national targets.

By 2030:

Moreover, at the end of January 2024, President von der Leyen and the Belgian Presidency of the Council hosted the Val Duchesse Social Partners Summit. There, EU institutions and social partners committed to strengthen social dialogue at EU level, and to join forces in addressing the key challenges our economies and labour markets are facing, such as labour and skills shortages.

Over 500 digital platforms are active in the EU offering work to over 28 million people and creating opportunities for businesses, workers, self-employed and consumers. But new ways of work also come with challenges, for instance in terms of access to labour rights and social protection, and the use of algorithms at work. Different rules across the EU also hinder platforms to expand their business across borders.

Co-legislators have reached a political agreement on common rules to improve the working conditions in platform work. The rules will require Member States to introduce a legal presumption of an employment relationship, making it easier to determine the employment status of persons working on platforms, and meaning that they can enjoy the labour rights and social benefits they deserve. Our proposal also provides additional protection on the use of algorithms in management and supports the sustainable growth of digital labour platforms.

In October 2020 we proposed rules on adequate minimum wages to ensure that work pays. Since November 2022 we have new rules that create a framework to improve the adequacy of minimum wages in countries with statutory minimum wages, establishing clear criteria for wage setting and updates. The rules also promote more collective bargaining and better enforcement and monitoring.

Adequate minimum wages have a positive social and economic impact. They ensure fair competition for employers that pay decent wages and can also contribute to reducing the gender pay gap.

The Commission set out an EU strategic framework on health and safety at work 2021-2027, which sets out key actions to improve workers' health and safety over the coming years. This includes managing the changes brought by the clean, digital and demographic transitions, improving prevention of workplace accidents and illnesses, and increasing preparedness for any potential future crises. Moreover, the framework promotes a “vision zero” approach to eliminate work-related deaths in the EU.

In addition, in February 2024, co-legislators adopted new rules to improve workers' protection from the health risks linked to the exposure to dangerous chemicals: lead and diisocyanates. In the case of lead, significantly reduced exposure limits will help prevent health issues of workers, for example affecting reproductive functions and foetal development. For diisocyanates, new exposure limits will prevent cases of occupational asthma and other respiratory diseases.

Moreover, the Commission is also addressing mental health for everyone. We have set a starting point of a new comprehensive approach to mental health, which puts special emphasis on prevention, particularly for the most vulnerable, such as children, young people, and the elderly. Further principles of EU action will focus on affordable access to mental healthcare, and on reintegration to society after recovery.

The plan includes 20 flagship initiatives and €1.23 billion in funding opportunities, involving areas such as education, awareness raising, justice, digitalisation, employment, research, urban development, environment, and climate.

65% of SMEs in Europe say they cannot find the talent that they need. To address this, in 2020, we presented the European Skills Agenda, with flagship actions focusing on skills for quality jobs. These include the Pact for Skills, in which the Commission brings together national authorities, social partners, businesses, education providers, and more, to coordinate training and investing in skills for workers. The 20 skills partnerships concluded in this framework so far have provided training to over 3.5 million workers.

Furthermore, €65 billion in EU funding has been made available for Member States to invest in skills, notably through the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the European Social Fund Plus.

To stress the importance of the matter, we made 2023 the European Year of Skills, putting the limelight on the development of the skills we need to keep our competitive edge.

Women still do not have the same opportunities as men, and power and influence are still distributed unfairly. Women in the EU continue to earn on average 12.7% less per hour than men and remain underrepresented in leadership positions. This is as obvious as it is frustrating, and the Commission put in motion ground-breaking and pioneering work to change this blatant injustice.

In November 2022 marked a historic moment when, a decade after the Commission’s proposal relating to women on boards, we adopted landmark rules to enhance gender balance on corporate boards, mandating that at least 40% of non-executive director positions in listed companies be occupied by the under-represented sex by 2026.

There is not a single argument why for the same type of work a woman should be paid less than a man. Our new rules on pay transparency are ground-breaking. They will help to close the gender pay gap. There will be effective enforcement of the equal pay principle between women and men, and they will improve access to justice for victims of pay discrimination.

There can be no true equality without freedom from violence. In February 2024, co-legislators agreed on new rules that will criminalise physical violence, as well as psychological, economic and sexual violence against women across the EU, both offline and online. The new Directive also criminalises female genital mutilation and forced marriage.

Another milestone took place on 1 October 2023, when the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention entered into force for the EU. The EU is now bound by ambitious and comprehensive standards to prevent and combat violence against women, including tools in the areas of judicial cooperation in criminal matters, asylum and non-refoulement, and with regards to its institutions and public administration. The Commission has been designated as the Union’s coordinating body with competencies to monitor and ensure implementation and fulfil the reporting obligations under the Convention.

Moreover, this Commission has been committed to leading by example in terms of equality. This is the first Commission to reach gender parity among its members, and the President committed to reaching gender balance at all management levels by the end of this mandate. At the beginning of the mandate, the share of women was 36.6% at senior management level, 41.5% at middle management level and 40.5% in management functions overall. The progress has been remarkable and as of January 2024, the share of women is 47.0% at senior management level, 48.4% at middle management level and 48.1% in management functions overall.

More about gender equality

The Commission has laid the grounds to build a Union of Equality in which everyone is free of discrimination and can be who they are. We have put in place the first-ever anti-racism action plan in 2020 and the first ever EU strategy against antisemitism and on fostering Jewish life in 2021.

The Commission has stepped up equality actions across all policies including

• security
• digital
• education
• culture 
• and sport

We are also providing funding to protect places of worship and in the next months we will designate envoys against antisemitism, anti-Muslim hatred, and anti-racism. These will build on the success of the Commission coordinators in the same areas.

To reinforce this framework, in December 2021, the Commission proposed to extend the current list of ‘EU crimes’ set out in the Treaties to hate speech and hate crime.

Achievements in other areas