Overcoming the socio-economic crisis sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly
debate on 22 June 2021 (18th sitting) (see Doc. 15310 and addendum, report of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and
Sustainable Development, rapporteur: Mr Andrej Hunko; and Doc. 15322, opinion of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination,
rapporteur: Ms Elvira Kovács). Text adopted
by the Assembly on 22 June 2021 (18th sitting).See
also Recommendation 2205
(2021).
1. The Covid-19 pandemic hit an unprepared
world. Flawed macroeconomic policy choices in the past – such as
austerity measures taken by many countries to handle the previous
financial and economic crisis of 2008-2010, or imposed on certain
countries by external “rescuers” – weakened the resilience of our
societies and States, including in the health sector and social
protection systems. As a result, socio-economic inequalities continued
to widen. The pandemic laid bare the extent to which previous policies
had adversely affected the most deprived and vulnerable groups of
the population.
2. Facing the imperative to save lives and avoid the collapse
of national healthcare systems, most States temporarily resorted
to stringent public health measures such as lockdowns and shutdowns,
involving restrictions on the movement of people and goods, thus
effectively slowing down the pandemic, but also economic life. The
resulting recession caused deep shortfalls in resources for businesses,
workers and States, as well as in global investment flows, disproportionally
affecting vulnerable parts of the population and regions across
Europe, in health, social and economic terms. All Council of Europe
member States have rolled out emergency support programmes for companies
and vulnerable persons to stabilise the socio-economic situation.
Against the background of the looming climate crisis, they must
now ensure a just, efficient and transparent medium- and long-term
use of these funds in order to pursue a strategic vision of development
that is healthier, more inclusive and more sustainable, which is
at the heart of public interest.
3. The Parliamentary Assembly emphasises member States’ commitment
to upholding the fundamental social rights enshrined in the European
Social Charter (the Charter, ETS No. 35 and (revised) ETS No. 163) and
refers to the statement of the European Committee of Social Rights
(ECSR) on Covid-19 and social rights, adopted on 24 March 2021.
The Assembly is deeply concerned about the situation of vulnerable
people who have been harshly affected by the socio-economic crisis
sparked by the pandemic. It fully supports the ECSR proposals to
improve their situation.
4. The Assembly deplores that during the successive lockdowns
and shutdowns, many women, especially mothers, had to carry the
double burden of extra (unpaid) care work and home-schooling, while
also being over-represented in low-paid jobs and exposed to greater
income insecurity, greater risk of unemployment and an increase
in domestic violence. Moreover, single parents suffered disproportionally
from the closing of schools and day-care facilities for children,
putting them at an increased risk of poverty.
5. In this context, the Assembly wishes to highlight a legal
void in the European Social Charter: working migrants originating
from countries that are not bound by this treaty are excluded from
the application of certain provisions of the Charter. This loophole,
one of many, highlights the need for the Charter to be modernised
with new rights being recognised to meet the manifold challenges
that were made more visible by the pandemic.
6. The Assembly believes that European States stand at a crossroads
and have a historic opportunity to rebalance their economic development
with social and environmental needs in pursuing the United Nations Sustainable
Development Agenda 2030, as well as to address socio-economic inequalities
caused by a flawed growth model. Alternative growth strategies with
the objective of avoiding the depletion of exhaustible resources
and reducing greenhouse gas emissions need to be developed and implemented
urgently. The Assembly recalls its
Resolution 2329 (2020) “Lessons
for the future from an effective and rights-based response to the
Covid-19 pandemic”, which recommended that member States ensure
that their economic recovery plans avert a “degradation of ecosystems
likely to generate other epidemics of a zoonotic nature, and thus
condition the aid put in place on the fulfilment of ambitious environmental
and social criteria in line with the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals”. The Assembly therefore urges States to send
clear signals to non-state actors about the direction of their long-term
macroeconomic policy orientations so as to better protect human
well-being and dignity, as well as the enjoyment of fundamental
socio-economic rights.
7. The implementation of ambitious economic recovery measures
requires the expansion of sovereign budgetary capacity in order
to mobilise new or additional resources domestically or externally.
Moreover, as sovereign budgetary capacity varies widely across States
in Europe, greater co-ordination and pooling of fiscal and financial
resources to overcome the socio-economic crisis are necessary, in
particular at regional and cross-border levels.
8. The continuing global public health emergency calls for greater
international solidarity between the wealthiest and the poorest
countries in order to share the existing anti-Covid-19 vaccine stocks
by targeting the most vulnerable populations and healthcare workers.
In this context, the Assembly believes that European countries should
lead by example and donate part of their vaccine stocks to the neediest
countries in a co-ordinated manner. They should support the worldwide
expansion of production capacity for Covid-19 vaccines by endorsing
the modalities for a temporary waiver on patents for those vaccines
under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS) agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and foster compulsory
licensing arrangements to enable the transfer of know-how and technology
for life-saving vaccines and essential medicines or treatments.
9. In light of the above considerations, and in order to achieve
dignity for all, political, economic and social measures must protect
the rights of everyone. In order to put their socio-economic recovery
on solid tracks and guarantee adequate social protection to all,
the Assembly recommends that Council of Europe member States:
9.1 set conditions for businesses
to receive public financial support in order to guarantee the social rights
of workers (such as preservation of employment), prohibit the distribution
of dividends, strengthen the sustainability of the use of resources
and adopt road maps for reducing the environmental footprint of
their activities;
9.2 mainstream equality into all measures taken to respond
to the socio-economic crisis, and to this end:
9.2.1 incorporate
equality-impact assessments as an integral element of ongoing public health,
economic and social policy responses to the crisis, aimed at identifying
and eliminating the actual or potential discriminatory effects of
these responses;
9.2.2 ensure equal opportunities by eliminating discriminatory
laws, policies and practices as part of the Sustainable Development
Goals and the pledge to leave no one behind;
9.3 expand public investment programmes aiming to:
9.3.1 improve quality, affordability and accessibility of public
services and infrastructures and promote equal access to these services
and infrastructures;
9.3.2 stimulate high-quality employment and job creation, based
on local economic needs and pursuing the goal of decent work for
all;
9.3.3 enhance educational and professional opportunities for
young people in order to actively promote their access to the labour
market;
9.3.4 expand lifelong learning and training schemes to accompany
the adaptation of human competences and skills in building a more
sustainable and more digitalised economy;
9.3.5 guarantee adequate minimum income and social protection,
in particular for more vulnerable population groups, including young
people in transition towards autonomous living and single-parent
families;
9.3.6 ensure adequate housing and decent living conditions for
all;
9.3.7 reclaim economic sectors that are strategically important
for future prosperity, well-being and social equality, notably as
regards sustainable energy, telecommunication networks, mobility,
housing, healthcare, water and food supply, as well as scientific
research and development capacity;
9.3.8 strengthen the foundations of the digital economy and
its governance through the resource-saving organisation of human
work, as well as ensuring equal access to digital tools;
9.3.9 urgently expand production capacity for Covid-19 vaccines
and medicines worldwide through know-how and technology transfers
via compulsory licensing arrangements, as well as a temporary waiver
under the WTO’s TRIPS agreement, as appropriate, and donate part
of the existing vaccine stock to the countries that are most in
need;
9.3.10 combat all forms of gender-based violence and domestic
violence;
9.4 consolidate public finances by:
9.4.1 creating
mechanisms to allow public finances to be decoupled from the volatility
of financial markets and developing a framework to collectively
deal with the debt accumulated due to the pandemic (this framework
could also be used for other debt);
9.4.2 increasing the share of domestic fund-raising from private
sources, especially through progressive taxation that protects lower-income
groups;
9.4.3 raising new resources through the introduction of a tax
on financial transactions, in particular with regard to high-frequency
trading;
9.4.4 considering forms of property taxation and/or levies for
the wealthiest members of society in order to shift the burden of
the crisis from the shoulders of the less fortunate to those of
the most affluent;
9.4.5 enhancing interstate co-operation in tax matters through
the Inclusive Framework proposed by the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) along the lines of Assembly
Resolution 2370 (2021) “Fighting
fiscal injustice: the work of the OECD on taxation of the digital
economy” in order to ensure a more adequate taxation of the digital economy
and establish a new common corporate tax base;
9.4.6 in the case of member States of the European Union, revisiting
the fiscal requirements of the EU Stability and Growth Pact in line
with the need to maintain spending at least during the recovery
period;
9.5 ensure efficient and transparent allocation of support
funds to the private sector, based on long-term development priorities
linked with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Green Agenda
and other country-specific social goals, involving parliamentary
scrutiny of investment proposals and their implementation;
9.6 adopt positive measures to eliminate the gender pay gap
and gender pension gap and all types of discrimination in employment;
9.7 ensure that crisis-response bodies and those working on
recovery measures are gender balanced, diverse and inclusive; their
work must also be evidence based (notably through the use of data disaggregated
by gender and other discrimination grounds) and gender sensitive,
ensuring that equality is mainstreamed;
9.8 implement
Resolution
2361 (2021) “Covid-19 vaccines: ethical, legal and practical considerations”
in order to help make Covid-19 vaccines a “global public good”,
accessible to all, everywhere and to “overcome the barriers and
restrictions arising from patents and intellectual property rights
in order to ensure the widespread production and distribution of
vaccines in all countries and to all citizens”.
