Ref. Ares(2021)3024303 - 06/05/2021
Informal meeting with social partners
Online, 7 October 2020
Speaking points on CWP, BR and strategic foresight
Firstly, thank you for accepting my invitation to speak
at such short notice.
As always, I value these conversations highly and I
believe today presents an excellent opportunity for
an informal discussion on certain issues ahead of the
formal dialogue with my colleagues in the College.
For my part, I would like to discuss a number of
issues under my purview and how they affect our
work together.
With
President von der Leyen having put the
social dimension at the core of our recovery
strategy, this work is an essential joint effort.
First, deepening our use of strategic foresight will
help guide our future actions in this regard.
Strategic foresight is the art of developing
intelligence about the future to inform what we
do today. It is an intrinsically collective and
inclusive exercise, and the participation of all you
will be of the utmost importance.
The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly added weight
to our decision to
bring strategic foresight into the
highest level of EU policymaking.
In the face of inevitable future trends and shocks, we
must ensure we are best placed to take advantage of
the twin green and digital transitions.
In this context, the Commission adopted its first
annual Strategic Foresight Report last month.
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Informal meeting with social partners
Online, 7 October 2020
In the report, we explain how the Commission plans
to embed foresight into EU policymaking.
We will
conduct foresight exercises to underpin
major policy initiatives and help identify potential
pathways for the twin transitions.
The annual report will help us
test issues of critical
interest to Europe’s future and analysing
emerging trends and challenges to inform our
policy- and decision-making.
This will feed into the Commission’s work
programmes and our multiannual programming
exercises.
The foresight processes we will launch will I’m sure
lead to fruitful exchanges with all of you.
We need
your future-oriented knowledge to make our
continent more resilient and fairer.
We will also work with all European institutions,
Member States, international partners and other
stakeholders.
The coronavirus pandemic has reaffirmed
the need
to make our policies more evidence-based,
future-proof and centred on resilience. Hence, the
2020 Strategic Foresight Report provides a structural
analysis of the EU’s resilience along four interrelated
dimensions:
social and economic; geopolitical;
green; and digital.
Perhaps of the most interest here today, our analysis
showed
how important the socio-economic
dimension is for the EU’s resilience.
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For example, a key vulnerability exposed by the
crisis is the
deepening of inequalities, between
poor and rich, young and old, women and men,
those from urban and rural areas. The foresight
report identifies
social partners as an important
resource contributing to Europe’s social and
economic resilience.
Also, up- and re-skilling – especially for the
vulnerable – will be essential for the twin transitions
and our long-term future. They should be an integral
part of the recovery.
The
funding instruments are of course also
essential to pursue our socio-economic goals. The
ESF+ will continue to support the improvement of
skills and address social challenges. We are working
hard to have a deal approved with the European
Parliament soon to have legislation in place by the
end of the year.
It is important that Member States continue to
prepare for all the new funding instruments and
to have a solid strategic overview of the economic
and social objectives to make the whole architecture
of the funds clear, effective and efficient.
In addition to these issues, the report identified other
major cross-cutting issues to be addressed,
including:
o
Open strategic autonomy, essential to secure
Europe’s long-term competitiveness and global
leadership as an open economy while
remaining true to our values.
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Informal meeting with social partners
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o
The future jobs and skills that will be
needed to power our green economy.
o Exploring
how the green and digital
transitions can better reinforce each other
and not lead to ever-increasing resource and
energy use.
I invite you to share your views on this first
foresight report and engage with the Commission
on the next steps.
The Commission is committed to
better
coordinating
European
strategic
foresight
capabilities across Europe. That is why I intend to
launch an EU-wide Foresight Network at the
upcoming European Strategy and Political Analysis
System (ESPAS) Conference next month. If you
would like to participate, please let us know.
My second point today is regarding our work on
a revision of the Better Regulation Guidelines
and Toolbox. This will be an opportunity to further
clarify the rules about stakeholder consultation for
initiatives
requiring
two-stage
social
partner
consultations. We aim to publish them by the end of
the year, following a Communication on Better
Regulation.
The Communication will
make proposals for
rationalising
our
consultation
process,
for
example
by
merging
roadmaps
and
public
consultations into one ‘Call for views and evidence’.
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Informal meeting with social partners
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It will also look at
simplification, burden reduction
and the use of foresight in our assessments, as
well as increasing the transparency of the
evidence used and making our evaluations more
relevant for policymaking.
I am interested in also hearing your views about this.
Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic has put our entire
economy and society under a great deal of pressure.
In response, the Commission has taken firm action
launching strong measures including the SURE
initiative, and these efforts will continue under the
next Commission Work Programme.
Early in 2021, we will present an
Action Plan to
implement the European Pillar of Social Rights,
which is set to be
endorsed by the other EU
institutions in May 2021.
Social Partners will take centre stage in this
endeavour but the European agenda is only one
side of the coin. On the other one stands action at
national, regional and local levels.
We are also working to strengthen the social
dialogue and develop key initiatives on minimum
wage, platform and seasonal workers and skills,
amongst others.
For all of these, dialogue is key – which is why I am
glad it is already underway.
I will stop there, and I look forward to a fruitful
discussion with you all.
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