October 2014 – Recent weeks have seen meetings of many of the European Parliament’s committees and several configurations of the Council of Ministers of the EU. In most of these meetings, economic governance issues – in particular the mid-term review of the Europe 2020 Strategy and the European Semester – have been high on the agenda, with a number of implications for health.
On Monday 13 October the Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) voted to adopt an own-initiative report on the implementation of the European Semester’s 2014 priorities. Following opinions from the Committees on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), Budgets (BUDG), Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) and Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), the ECON Committee narrowly approved by 20 votes to 18 – with 15 abstentions – the adoption of the report, paving the way for its consideration by the full Parliament plenary. The report acknowledges the damage done to the social situation by austerity policies and the disproportionate burden of this that has fallen on groups in vulnerable situations. It encourages member states to prioritise the modernisation of their social security, pension and healthcare systems, so as ‘avoid placing an excessive burden on future generations’. It also urges structural reforms to be aimed at mid- and long-term sustainability and fairness of social security, healthcare and pension systems. The report welcomes the introduction of the social scoreboard and calls for additional indicators on child poverty levels, access to healthcare, and homelessness – it also calls for these indicators to have a real influence within the Semester process. Though not guaranteed to be included in the final text, the ENVI Committee opinion on the report states that the European Semester should be undertaken using ‘specific knowledge on health policy’ and urged the accompaniment of measures to ensure long term sustainability with initiatives to maintain access to quality care, foster social cohesion and reduce social exclusion. The report will now go on to a plenary vote where other amendments may, because of the high importance and narrow adoption of the document in committee, be offered.
The adoption of the ECON Committee report came a day before the ECOFIN Council adopted conclusions on increasing investment, which also emphasised the link between structural reforms and investment for growth, encouraging the ‘full use’ of the country specific recommendations in pursuit of greater investment.
On 16 October, the EMPL Committee discussed the proposed resolution on the employment and social aspects of the EU2020 Strategy. Several amendments proposed by members of the Committee seek to push the Strategy beyond GDP and make greater use of social indicators. The amendments call for greater emphasis on social investment, an inclusive, rights-based and sustainable approach, and an acknowledgement that economic growth does not necessarily result in reduced poverty or inequality. They also encourage the introduction of preventative and corrective measures as part of the social scoreboard and call for the full implementation of the Social Investment Package, the Investing in Children Recommendation and a number of staff working documents concerning active inclusion, SGIs, long term care and homeless. The report will be discussed in a shadow negotiation next week before being voted upon in the Committee ahead of eventual plenary adoption.
Finally, 16 October also saw a meeting of the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs (EPSCO) Council, which had the review of the Europe 2020 Strategy high on its agenda. Ministers concluded that the economic recession has slowed progress on some of the headline targets of the Strategy and a fundamental rebalancing of social with economic objectives is needed to achieve sufficient growth, jobs and social cohesion. The Council emphasised the importance of including all stakeholders and encouraged the use of supply-side measures and investment in human capital to help alleviate rising social exclusion and poverty. As part of its deliberations, the Council endorsed a joint opinion of the Social Protection Committee (SPC) and the Employment Committee (EMCO), as well as a report by the SPC on social policy reforms for a fair and competitive Europe, embodying the SPC’s recommendations for the 2015 annual growth survey (AGS). The joint opinion stresses the need to improve the capacity of social inclusion and social protection systems, urges the better integration of economic, social and employment strands of action and notes that factors such as access to services and adequate benefits are of equal importance to social inclusion. The opinion encourages further coordination between the ECOFIN and EPSCO Councils, via EMCO and SPC, particularly in the area of pensions, health and long-term care. It also draws attention to a number of procedural flaws in the Semester process and emphasises the importance of ensuring full inclusion of the SPC and the EMCO. In its accompanying report, the SPC calls for the social priorities of the next AGS to be more closely rooted in the priorities of Europe 2020 and the Social Investment Package. It states that ‘the Annual Growth Survey should recognize that social protection has an important role to provide adequate safeguards to citizens across their life-cycle against the economic risks of loss of employment or income, health deterioration or disability, as well as effective support in their transitions from education, inactivity, or unemployment to work and between jobs.’ The views of the ministers will now be fed into a presidency summery report, to be presented to the European Council in December.
More than ever before, the need to rebalance the social and economic priorities of the European Semester is being recognised. The European Parliament has taken a leading role in drawing attention to the damage done to social Europe as a result of the economic recession and the potential for long-term inequality if appropriate measures and indicators are not built into the new economic governance framework. There is still some way to go in moving beyond GDP and towards wellbeing but the increasing emphasis on the use of social indicators and the involvement of stakeholders are positive steps forward. The motion for a resolution in the EMPL Committee will likely be voted on in coming weeks, whilst the ECON own-initiative report will be sent to plenary once finalised and the next meeting of the EPSCO Council will take place in December.
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*UPDATE* 29 October 2014
On Wednesday 22 October the European Parliament voted at its plenary sitting in Strasbourg to adopt a resolution, presented in the ECON Committee own initiative report, on the implementation of the 2014 priorities of the European Semester. The resolution states that member states should make moderisation of health, social security and pension systems a priority and that the long-term fairness and sustainability of these systems should be the target of structural reforms. It also calls for the inclusion of additional indicators to monitor quality of work, child pverty levels, access to health care and levels of homelessness. Finally, it takes note of the Commission’s recommendation on the need to reform health care systems so that they can deliver universal public access to high-quality care in a cost-efficient manner.
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*UPDATE* 13 November 2014
On Tuesday 4 November the EMPL Committee voted to adopt the draft motion for a resolution on the employment and social aspects of the Europe 2020 Strategy, along with proposals for an oral question for the Commission and for the Council. The final text of the draft motion is available here. Among other things, it calls for the introduction of indicators for child poverty, homelessness and access to healthcare and urges the Commission and the Council to ensure that social priorities are put on an equal footing with economic ones. The draft motion will now be voted on by the full plenary session.
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Health in economic governance
Following the sovereign debt crisis and economic recession in Europe, the EU established new powers of coordination and oversight in the fiscal and macroeconomic policies of its member states. This framework provides for both direct inclusion of measures relating to health and indirect impact upon health through other policies. EPHA tracks the inclusion of health in the economic governance framework and works towards the greater inclusion of civil society organisations and health stakeholders in the relevant processes. An overview of the issue and EPHA’s position can be found here and you can follow further developments via the ‘Health in economic governance’ mini-series updates, available at www.epha.org and tagged ‘health in economic governance’.