Early today, Eurodiaconia published its position paper and assessment of the 2019 Winter Package.

Following the publication of the country reports on 27 February 2019 and of the final version of the Joint Employment Report (JER) on 15 March 2019, Eurodiaconia asked its members for feedback, together with the recommendations they would like the European Commission to give to their government.

This document takes stock of the evolution of the European Semester and informs its following stages. It assesses whether the social challenges in the member states have been adequately reflected and if the country reports and JER are effectively monitoring the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

Ensuring a social market economy that promotes inclusive growth constitutes a priority for our members and this is demonstrated by their engagement in the provision of care, work integration, and related social services for unemployed and disadvantaged persons. As a result, Eurodiaconia has been involved in the European Semester since its very beginning in 2011 and has been publishing inputs and reactions at the various stages of the cycle.

Eurodiaconia was very happy to see some of its priorities reflected in the Annual Growth Survey (AGS) published on 21 November 2018, especially the need to focus more on care services in order to adapt to demographic and technological changes. Accordingly, the 2019 country reports also highlight this priority. Also, this year’s country reports include more thorough analysis on most of the other priority areas chosen by Eurodiaconia, namely child poverty, integration of migrants especially migrant women, and access to housing and homelessness.

Although quality employment has not been assessed as such in the country reports, it is however analysed at greater length in the JER. This is particularly important for Eurodiaconia as our input for this year’s JER was focused on job quality.

To read our policy paper on the 2019 Winter Package, please check our website.