Spain and Belgium will collaborate on social and labor matters in their respective Presidencies of the Council of the EU

MADRID, 27 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Spain and Belgium have promised to intensify their collaboration on socio-labour matters before their respective presidencies of the Council of the European Union, while they have signed an informal document with proposals such as the introduction of a Social Progress Protocol or a new Charter of Labor Rights of the Working People.

These agreements, which have been forged in Porto, have been led by the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, and the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, together with their Belgian Labor counterparts. and Social Affairs, Pierre-Yves Dermagne and Frank Vandenbroucke and will mark the agenda in social and labor matters for the next Commission and the next European Parliament, which will be elected in 2024.

The collaboration between the two countries has materialized this Saturday with the signing of a political proposal agreed by both parties in the Portuguese city, where the Second Social Forum organized by the Portuguese Government and the European Commission is being held.

The document contemplates reinforcing the social dimension of European economic governance with the adoption and implementation of a new Social Convergence Framework to correct social imbalances, while promoting the adoption of actions aimed at reinforcing everyone's access to adequate social protection, social dialogue, green collective bargaining, democracy at work and exploring all ways to encourage the social economy.

Likewise, according to the Ministry of Labor, it is also emphasized the need for a global approach to mental health that includes stress, burnout (or burned worker syndrome) and job instability.

Both countries consider it necessary to take advantage of the experience of the SURE program, a mechanism that emerged during the pandemic that focused on protecting employment by offering financial support to job retention mechanisms and the idea now is to install a structural instrument with similar characteristics that supports ecological and digital transitions in the world of work, protecting decent work and avoiding social and labor cuts.

On another point, the document emphasizes the importance of social investment with a renewed fiscal framework that guarantees adequate financing of welfare systems and public services, and that also protects social investment in times of crisis and economic turbulence.

Similarly, both governments have emphasized the need to promote rapid adoption and implementation of the new Social Convergence Framework in the next European semester based on the European Pillar of Social Rights, an instrument that "will allow better monitoring and evaluation of the social policies that are applied in all the 27 countries of the bloc".

Among other things, social dialogue will be one of Spain's priorities during the presidency of the Council of the European Union, so both countries want to strengthen this path to encourage democracy at work and contribute to sustainable development, also promoting negotiation green collective.