EU Commissioner Nicolas Schmit highlights EU’s social foundations at public lecture

On 25 October 2024, EU Commissioner Nicolas Schmit (European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights 2019-2024) delivered a public lecture on 'The Social Foundations of European Integration - Past, Present, and Future'. 

He recalled that, right from its establishment in 1957, what was then the European Economic Community (EEC)—and even before it, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)—was mindful of social preoccupations underpinning the creation of markets. Both free movement of workers and equal pay featured strongly in the original treaties, and contributed to the emergence of a polity where the ideas of non-discrimination and equality features strongly as fundamental and general legal and political principles.

Fast forward a few decades, and it is clear that the process of European integration is intertwined with the idea of social progress, and largely dependent on it. The 'austerity' years tested the process of integration, eventually requiring a strong and committed social response, in the form of the European Pillar of Social Rights and the several regulatory instruments it spawned. 

The EU is currently grappling with the social and economic challenges arising from the digital and green transitions, while also battling high levels of inequality and poverty, especially in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.  But it can do so in the belief that it is capable of producing regulatory and policy solutions such as the Directive on Platform Work, the Adequate Minimum Wage Directive, and Next Generation EU.

The Commissioner concluded by noting that while challenges remain ahead for Europe in general - and Social Europe in particular - the history of European integration and its strong social foundations lend confidence to address these challenges head-on.