Co-funded by the European Union

Common Goals for the European Social Partners

  • European social partners present their common goals to the European Union Institutions.
  • Social partners indicated the measures to be taken during the emergency, exit and recovery phases of the crisis.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, the European Social Partners acted together to ensure that the European Union Institutions facilitate the economic recovery in the best possible way.

The EU undertook multiple initiatives to support Members’ States, starting with the “Corona Response Investment Initiative”, to support national health care systems, SMEs and labour markets.  Furthermore, the Temporary Framework was introduced to allow Member States to provide pre-screened State Aid to support the economy. On 2 April 2020, the European Commission launched the temporary Support mitigating Unemployment Risks in Emergency (SURE) initiative to provide financial assistance for national short-time work schemes. Also, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP), an asset-purchase program to buy public and private-sector securities worth 750 billion euros. In total, the European initiatives provide a stimulus equal to 7.3% of Euro area GDP, which corresponds to the GDP drop foreseen in the Euro area (7.5% according to the IMF April 2020 outlook).

On 24 March 2020, the European social partners (ETUC, BusinessEurope, CEEP and SMEUnited) presented a joint statement to the Members of the European Council, urging them to approve all the measures proposed earlier by the European Commission. In particular, the measures provided by the Stability and Growth Pact targets; allowing free movement of goods, especially medical equipment and medicines; measures encouraging Member States’ investment in the health services, social protection systems and other services of general interest; mobilising funds to support Member States to ensure financial and income support for workers; ensuring credit access and financial support for enterprises; and making use of any other funds at the EU level.

Furthermore, the statement underlined how the involvement of national social partners in the designing and implementation of national measures is crucial. BusinessEurope Director General, Markus J. Beyer, commented: “ensuring that we preserve as many companies and jobs as possible through this massive crisis will be key to reducing its long-term economic impact. The ECB has taken decisive action to support financial stability and our common currency. The Council and member states must now follow the ECB’s lead, including through putting in place an ambitious and co-ordinated fiscal stimulus”.

On 23 April 2020, BusinessEurope Director General and President released a letter ahead of a video call with the Members of the European Council. The letter outlined all the possible measures to be taken during the emergency, exit and recovery phases of the crisis. Following this, 23 CEOs and Presidents of European companies signed a statement underlining how “in our daily business operations, we see that the response to the current crisis is not less Europe, but more Europe, and it starts with our common European market. It is vital to ensure transportation of essential goods and flow of services across our borders, such as medical, pharmaceutical, food and energy. The European Commission’s initiatives on ‘Green Lanes’ and on the free movement of workers are highly welcomed to support the functioning of the Single Market”.