On April 22nd, Eurodiaconia organised a public panel to discuss how the recently released Action Plan can concretely support (diaconal) social services in their work to ease access to quality employment for the most vulnerable and what we can do to further support the full implementation of the Social Pillar.

The panel was hosted by our Secretary General, Ms Heather Roy and included the participation of Mirzha de Manuel, Member of the Cabinet of European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, Marc Angel, Member of the European Parliament (S&D), Eric Großhaus, Labour market policy and employment expert from Diaconia Germany, Cinzia Fenu, Programme Officer from Diaconia Spain, Marina Monaco, Advisor to the European Trade Union Confederation, and Cathy Van Remoortere, Strategic Director from Actiris Inclusive. Around 60 people attended our panel, making it a great kick-off for our internal joint Network Meeting on Access to Employment and Migration, which took place on 22 & 23 April.

Amongst others, our member Diaconia Spain, shared their “Diverse Community” project, where they work in partnership with the local community, schools, or universities to build a more inclusive and cohesive society. They urge private companies to raise awareness and improve equal opportunities regarding Migrants and other vulnerable groups accessing the labour market. They also train their participants, and they use the “Anonymous CV” technique to prevent discrimination.

Did you miss the discussion and curious to learn more about this important topic? You can watch the full webinar at this link here.

You can also read here our short report “For an Inclusive Social Europe: The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, the Social Scoreboard and the new “social rulebook” of Europe” on our views on the key areas of the proposed Action Plan.