You're listening to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcast on the European Pillar of Social Rights for a more social Europe.

Economic growth or people. Actually, what about economic growth and people?

Finding a balance between the economic and social aspects of the European project in general

and of the EU's economic and monetary union in particular is the main aim of the European

pillar of social rights recently outlined by the European Commission.

Want to know more?

Stay with us and we'll walk you through the details.

In the context of austerity and fragile economic recovery, the call for a more social

Europe is getting louder and louder. European Parliament has long pushed for higher European

social standards while the Commission's president, Jean-Claude Junco, has said he wants Europe

to earn a social AAA. To achieve this, he wants to develop European

tools and policies to ensure upward social convergence to strengthen the social dimension

of the economic and monetary union. That means equal opportunities and access to the labour

market social protection, fair working conditions and many other things like the creation of a social protection floor that defines a set of basic social security guarantees that ensure that all in need have access throughout their lives to essential healthcare and basic income security.

The Commission's latest major initiative towards this subjective is the so-called European Pillar of Social Rights.

But what is this about?

Well, on March 2016, the Commission published a preliminary outline of the pillar,

together with a compilation of the existing EU Social DeKee,

information on key economic employment and social trends,

and a progress assessment towards key structural reforms within the 2016 European semester.

The Commission proposal puts on the table all the major issues that might be relevant

to guarantee EU citizens' access to fair labour markets and welfare systems.

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