The social impact of the economic crisis
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 27 April 2010
(13th Sitting) (see Doc.
12026, report of the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee,
rapporteur: Ms de Belém Roseira). Text
adopted by the Assembly on 27 April 2010 (13th Sitting).
1. The current economic and financial
crisis calls into question a number of assumptions which have underpinned
the member states’ economic policies over the last decades, such
as deregulation, the primacy of economic criteria in all areas of
life and overemphasis on profit and growth. The current crisis is
to a large extent a crisis of trust with regard to the financial
and political institutions and the global economic system, which
provoked it.
2. In this context, the Parliamentary Assembly recalls its
Resolution 1651 (2009) on
the consequences of the global financial crisis and its
Resolution 1673 (2009) on
the challenges of the financial crisis to the world economic institutions.
3. The economic crisis has to be seen in connection with other
major challenges that we are facing: climate change, the crisis
of energy and of water supply and the shortage of food, which have
a significant impact in many regions of the world. The challenges
of demographic change, the difficulties with regard to access to health
care and the weakening of social security systems in many countries
also urge us towards more sustainable policies. A coherent answer
to this range of political challenges is required.
4. The Assembly understands this crisis as a call for change.
Returning to “business as usual” will not solve it. To meet the
challenges of the crisis it will be necessary to effect significant
changes in the economic and social policies of the member states
of the Council of Europe.
5. Change should mean to carry over the Council of Europe’s values
more resolutely into economic and social policies. It should also
mean significantly reducing the current level of unemployment in
Council of Europe member states. The Assembly is concerned about
the increasing segmentation of the labour market, with more and
more precarious employment situations and the growing marginalisation
of specific groups such as the long-term unemployed, low-skill workers,
people with disabilities, or people with immigrant backgrounds.
6. The current situation fundamentally challenges the functioning
of the social systems. For the Assembly, work is not a purely productive
activity, but also a central element of human personality and of
participation in society. In the current crisis, learning systems
must be accessible and affordable for all members of a society, irrespective
of the contractual form of employment. Some member states have innovative
arrangements providing for seamless transitions between jobs and
which provide promising experience to avoid the loss of work and
income.
7. Change should also ensure a dignified life for all people
in Europe, particularly through the sustainable provision of quality
social and health services which are essential for people to be
able to take up opportunities.
8. Experience and research have shown that member states with
an elaborate social and health protection system are also economically
in a significantly better position to meet the challenges of the
current crisis. Countries that have strong and efficiently-run social
and health protection systems have a valuable in‑built mechanism
to stabilise their economies and address the social impact of the
crisis. These countries may need to reinforce existing social protection
systems. For other countries, the priority is to meet urgent needs,
while laying the foundation for stronger and more effective systems.
9. Solidarity and adequate social security are the keys to overcoming
the current crisis. They are also essential to ensure a fairer –
and thus sustainable – future global economic system.
10. In this context, the Assembly refers to and fully endorses
the Decent Work Agenda and commitments made by the International
Labour Organization (ILO) and its constituents in their 2008 Declaration
on Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation, as well as the Global
Jobs Pact adopted at the 2009 June session of the International
Labour Conference in Geneva. These policies should be based on the
following principles and ensure linkages between social progress
and economic development:
10.1 devoting
priority attention to protecting employment through sustainable
businesses, quality public services and providing adequate social
protection for all as part of ongoing national and international
action to aid recovery and development;
10.2 boosting effective demand and helping maintain wage levels,
including via macroeconomic stimulus packages;
10.3 enhancing support to vulnerable women and men hit hard
by the crisis, including youth at risk, low-wage, low-skilled, and
migrant workers in the informal economy;
10.4 focusing on measures to maintain employment and facilitate
transitions from one job to another and to support access to the
labour market for the unemployed;
10.5 establishing or strengthening effective public employment
services and other labour market institutions;
10.6 increasing equal access and opportunities for skills development,
quality training and education;
10.7 avoiding protectionist solutions and the damaging consequences
of deflationary wage spirals and worsening working conditions;
10.8 promoting core labour standards and other international
labour standards that support economic and employment recovery and
reduce gender inequality;
10.9 engaging in social dialogue, such as tripartism and collective
bargaining between employers and workers as a constructive process
to maximise the impact of crisis responses to the needs of the real economy;
10.10 ensuring that short-term actions are coherent with economic,
social and environmental sustainability;
10.11 ensuring synergies between the state and the market and
effective and efficient regulation of market economies, including
a legal and regulatory environment which enables enterprise creation, sustainable
enterprises and promotes employment generation across sectors;
10.12 recognising the contribution of small and medium-sized
enterprises and micro-enterprises to job creation, and promoting
measures, including access to affordable credit, that would ensure
a favourable environment for their development;
10.13 increasing investment in infrastructure, research and
development, public services and “green” production and services
as important tools for creating jobs and stimulating sustained economic
activity.
11. The Assembly considers that sustainable social and health
protection systems to assist the vulnerable can prevent increased
poverty and address social hardship, while also helping to stabilise
the economy and maintain and promote employment. To this end, it
encourages the member states of the Council of Europe to give consideration,
as appropriate, to the following:
11.1 introducing
cash transfer schemes for the poor to meet their immediate needs
and to alleviate poverty;
11.2 building adequate social protection for all, drawing on
basic social protection measures including: access to health care,
income security for the elderly and persons with disabilities, child
benefits and income security, combined with public employment guarantee
schemes for the unemployed and working poor;
11.3 extending the duration and coverage of unemployment benefits,
which should go hand in hand with relevant measures to create adequate
work incentives recognising the current realities of national labour
markets;
11.4 ensuring that the long-term unemployed stay connected
to the labour market through, for example, skills development for
employability;
11.5 providing minimum benefit guarantees in countries where
pension or health funds may no longer be sufficiently funded to
ensure that workers are adequately protected, and considering how
to better protect workers’ savings in future scheme design;
11.6 providing adequate coverage for temporary and casual workers.
12. The above agenda closely interacts with other dimensions of
globalisation and requires policy coherence and international co-ordination.
The Assembly considers that international co-operation is particularly
important on the following issues:
12.1 building a stronger, more globally consistent, supervisory
and regulatory framework for the financial sector, so that it serves
the real economy, promotes sustainable enterprises and decent work and
better protects savings and pensions;
12.2 promoting efficient and well-regulated trade and markets
that benefit all, and avoiding national protectionism. Varying development
levels of countries must be taken into account in lifting barriers
to domestic and foreign markets;
12.3 shifting to a low-carbon, environment-friendly economy
that helps accelerate employment recovery, reduce social gaps and
support development goals in the process.
13. The Assembly notes that in almost all areas of reform, the
revised European Social Charter (ETS No. 163) contains norms which
are recognised by most member states, yet both the public and political decision
makers are insufficiently aware of its content. The rights it enshrines
must be publicised more widely, and feed into the process of creating
a social Europe. The Assembly accordingly calls on member states
to ensure that the European Social Charter’s relevant key elements
are incorporated in national reforms, so that they can become a
reference for European social policy.
14. Finally, the Assembly underlines the importance of strengthening
dialogue between the various international organisations, in particular
with the ILO and the World Health Organization (WHO). It encourages greater
involvement of the social partners, which would enable the Council
of Europe to raise its political profile and play a specific role
in the area of social rights.
