European Commission Action Plan on ‘the Pillar’ 

European Commission Action Plan on ‘the Pillar’ 

The European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR, ‘the Pillar’) was proclaimed in November 2017. Since then, numerous civil society organisations have been claiming the need for a concrete set of actions comprising policy and legislative measures, adequate funding and linking to existing EU funding programs and monitoring mechanisms to assess the Pillar’s success.

The new European Commission led by Ursula Van der Layden has stressed the key role ‘the Pillar’ has and announced an Action Plan will be developed and launched in the near future.To do so, the EC will work closely with national governments. The EPSR is about delivering effective and new rights to European citizens. The Commission remarked that some cities had already started working on implementing the Pillar on the local level. The Action Plan will address how Principles 1 (Education, training and life-long learning) and 5 (Secure and adaptable employment) can be implemented locally. This is building from the Commission’s communication presented in January which called for a Europe that is strong socially and ready to face challenges surrounding demography and climate change.