The Social Platform proposes a three action plan on Social Europe in an open letter to heads of state and government ahead of the Spring Summit

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the EU and ahead of the Berlin declaration aimed at solving the Constitutional deadlock, social NGOs support the growing consensus amongst Member States that the EU needs to put social concerns at the heart of the political agenda. To build on this momentum, the Social Platform addresses an open letter to all EU political leaders, meeting at the Spring Summit next month, to propose three very practical actions to reinforce social Europe.

"Too many people see a future full of threats and have lost faith in the ability of politicians to make things change for the better. What is urgently needed is an ambitious social programme for the European Union" said Anne-Sophie Parent presenting the Social Platform´s open letter to the German Presidency.

The Social Platform is proposing a three-point action plan to reinforce social Europe:

1. First, the EU needs to establish a "social policy scoreboard". That would help in assessing how Member States are implementing EU social legislation and how far they have delivered on key agreed targets. "Politicians have to take more seriously the political commitments they make at EU level and a scoreboard would help us to monitor this" stated Parent.
   
2. The second action proposed is to mainstream social policy objectives throughout the EU´s policy-making - and to give precedence to social objectives when they are in conflict with competition or internal market objectives. "The EU Treaties clearly put social and economic objectives on an equal footing, but the practice so far has been to subordinate social policies to the internal market" said Parent. ‘We need to redress this balance.´
   
3. Thirdly, the EU should adopt new strategic goals within a new Treaty that respond to the concerns of all people in Europe. Globalisation, demographic change, increased poverty and global warming call for a shift of EU´s political priorities: from "growth and jobs" to a truly social and sustainable development strategy.
   

In order to make these changes, it is necessary to build a dialogue between people and politicians. Civil society can act as a bridge between the citizens and the institutions. "Policy developed through genuine consultation with civil society would be more in tune with the hopes and fears of citizens," ended Parent.
(Social Platform news)