Good afternoon and welcome everyone to the readout of today's college meeting and the and the press conference on the European Pillar of Social Rights,

and we have the pleasure of having with us Executive Vice President Roxana Mînzatu.

Please thank you and good afternoon, I think.

Today we discussed in the College a communication on the European Pillar of Social Rights,

and I will come back to that topic in a minute, but we also had a Security College today.

It was dedicated to the situation in Ukraine, to the eastern border.

We took stock of the latest developments that are affecting Europe's security.

We also specifically agreed to establish a temporary Security College Secretariat.

Which is meant to support the work of the security discussions of, of the college.

And to that end, we nominated Ilkka Salmi as the head of the Security College Secretariat.

Mr. Salmi is currently Deputy Director General for Security, Workplace and well-being in the Director General for Human Resources and Security,

a role that he will keep in addition to the functions as head of, of Secretariat for the Security College.

The date of effect of this decision will be announced at a later stage,

and you can find more details on this matter in today's Daily News.

Furthermore, I will also mention that the Commission concluded the eligibility checks for two European citizens' initiatives,

one on digital identity and age verification, and the second one on migration and asylum policy.

The spokesperson Service is publishing a press release, as we speak,

where you will find further details about these topics.

And with, with that said, I would move to the main topic of this press conference,

which is the European Pillar of Social Rights.

Almost a decade ago in 2017, the European Pillar of Social Rights was, was adopted.

A social compass with which the European Union equips itself so that it would be able to design policies,

to enforce policies in a way in which it makes sure that for every citizen,

wherever in Europe, the European model really delivers.

In concrete terms, and I was telling my colleagues today in the College about the 20 principles in the European Pillar of Social Rights, as you can also see them in the fact sheets, like you know a round table where every principle has its importance,

has its seat, very much like the college table where we where we meet and discuss, but many times we also refer to this 20 principles in the pillar,

and I mean, I make it, I, I do this as well as a social compass.

Although you know a compass that is special because the true north of this compass is each and every one of the 20 principles.

None is more important than the other, and with every citizen that you would ask you.

Is childcare more important than access to skills to equality?

Is access to healthcare more important than, you know,

being able to have a voice in your in your workplace? All are equally, equally important.

And so today we discussed where we are with the European Pillar of Social Rights almost a decade,

almost not yet 9 years after we adopted it.

What do we need to do better and more, and how do we look into the future, making sure that our European social model,

translated in the Pillar,

remains relevant and remains implemented in every citizen's lives every single day.

Of course, it is not an easy conversation because times have changed in so many ways from the moment the pillar has been adopted economically,

from the security perspective, from the geopolitical perspective,

and it is relevant that we address protecting European social.

Rights and empowering Europeans in times of multiple challenges, from the security challenges that are here on the European continent to increased cost of living, to problems in terms of being able to afford a house, to pay your energy bill, to An increased perception of inequality that is measured amongst Europeans,

we need to acknowledge that there are new challenges and that the pillar needs to be our compass as we continue to design our policy choices,

our budgetary choices, our responses in terms of measures that we adopt at European level.

Now, what I did today in the college, I want you today to repeat and to prolong my intervention,

but I did mention the, the, the significant achievements in a short amount of time.

The EU has had and it has delivered because of the European Pillar of Social Rights and because of the Porto summit five years ago in 21,

because of that action plan and because of the political support in the three main directions of the pillar.

So we did speak today about the achievements and briefly in terms of for example equal opportunity.

It is about the Pay Transparency Directive, whose deadline to be transposed has just been around the corner on 7 June,

and now we are working with Member states and we want to see this directive transposed equal pay for equal work or in terms of the minimum adequate minimum wage directive,

which is a tool that really fights.

In work poverty situations so many in many of our Member states, in many sectors, much too many for a Europe that boasts about its social standards,

where a salary is not enough to meet, you know, to make ends meet, to really pay for all those necessary for a family.

Then we looked at the child guarantee, for example, in terms of social protection, which is another important part of the pillar.

Launched and implemented and continue to improve the Child Guarantee, our tool to fight child poverty. Is it enough?

No, but I think it's the best tool that we have and we need to strengthen it.

We announced how we see the strengthening of the anti-poverty strategy, and we need to continue to do that.

I mean just to look at 1 million kids that receive a school meal because we have this tool backed up by EU funding. This is extremely, extremely important.

Or looking at platform sector and our platform work directive and what it meant in terms of working conditions for,

for this very new sector.

So we did take stock of the achievements, but also we looked at what needs to be done better, where we need to focus our attention, and it's three directions that you will see one,

More focused action, more, deepening our action in terms of, of, of, affordability of,

of making sure that we tackle the problems citizens have in, in terms of cost of living.

Second, what and how we can act in terms of the impact of new technologies,

particularly artificial intelligence, generative AI, further innovative technologies in the world of work.

And third, how do we tackle efficiently, more effectively inequalities.

And of course, you will see in the communication a number of very concrete initiatives, but I will mention maybe just a couple.

One of the most important is on the activation, as we call it,

I know it's a very technical word, of people that are outside of the labor market. And why that?

I mean, when we speak about the fact that, The cost of life has increased so much, we also need to reflect what the income of people in Europe is,

and there is a reality, and the reality that we need to address much more decisively with member states respecting subsidiarity,

of course, and with the legal basis that we have.

550 million Europeans are outside of the labor market, out of which 33 million are women. These are not people unemployed.

We do not measure them in our unemployment rate.

These are not people who are actively looking for a job. For different reasons and different contexts.

They do not consider that they can work or that there are many obstacles that impede them to really work.

And when I say that 33 million out of these 50 million people outside of the European labor markets are women,

of course we refer a lot to parents.

Single parents, single mothers, mothers generally, and a big part of our debate today in college,

and you will see it reflected also in our proposal for the activation is related to what keeps women outside of the labor market once they have children.

Why can they not return to work,

why can they not continue their career and have access to a quality professional career. And the, the buzzword was, was childcare.

Affordable, accessible childcare is essential for women in research, is essential for women in farming,

is essential for women in any sector, as was reflected by the debate today in the college.

So what we propose, with this communication on the pillar attached to it,

you will see a first phase consultation with our European social partners on a potential European initiative on activating these people that are outside the labor market.

What we propose, and of course we ask our social partners on whether they see European action as relevant.

Is that we look at the barriers and the number of dimensions and how we can better surpass these barriers.

How can we better identify these people outside the labor market, outreach towards these people?

How can we combine better services such as, you know, access maybe to skills,

to training, to upskilling and re-skilling, combined to access to childcare.

Or in the situation maybe of a person with a certain disability, but a person that could work with that disability, what kind of support would they need in terms of employer adaptations,

support for the employer for the adaptation of the workplace,

support for the employer for the recruitment of talented persons with disabilities, combining benefits with you. Pathways towards employment.

So if you are not demotivated to get a job because many times the benefit might be more attractive than the perspective of a career,

then this thing really needs to be clarified.

So we need to make sure that we have the best avenues in which we combine the different types of interventions so that we We support people outside of the labor market to really be able to get a quality job.

And of course available childcare, I will repeat this was a big part of the conversation that we had in the college,

how can we better invest in this direction.

It is not only about the facilities and about the infrastructure.

I mentioned that next year we will present the European Care Deal is one of the deliverables of this communication.

Which will be about the people who work in the care sector, the people that take care of children, of elderly, of persons with disabilities, their working conditions, the attractiveness of this line of work,

and how we can improve the working conditions and how we can increase the attractiveness of this type of career,

especially in a Europe with a demography that will demand more and more of the labor force in the social. In the social, in the care sector.

So this European care deal that we will present next year is part of the deliverables of the,

communication that I, that I mentioned, that I mentioned today.

And maybe one important segment that had and deserves to be mentioned or the second pillar that I mentioned that was very debated today in the college as well was AI in the world of work,

and I know it raises so many questions and Questions where of course policymakers answer but they can answer in the same dynamics as the technology innovates.

What will AI means in terms of structure of the labor market in Europe mean?

What does it, what does it mean for entry-level jobs?

How does the structure, the typology of of jobs change with,

you know, physical AI with with more cognitive. Roles we don't have that answer. That is for sure.

We are of course measuring in real time what's happening in our labor market,

but we don't have an answer for the medium and long term impact of AI and the structure of jobs. But this is essential an essential topic.

So one of the deliverables is that we will set up a high level expert group that will work with us,

with the Commission in terms of the, of the medium term and long term impact of of new techies.

Including AI on the structure of jobs, on the structure of tasks and skills.

And the second dimension is inside the workplace when a human works with an algorithm or with an agent, what type of labor rules and what type of, of support do we need to put in place so that,

that workplace remains human-centric,

that the rights of that person that are enshrined in the pillar continues to continue to be respected and In response to that is the result of the consultation for the Quality Jobs Act.

We are now in the 2nd phase consultation, so this is an initiative that we are preparing towards December.

On the third dimension on how we can continue to support equality Pay Transparency Directive,

I mentioned it, enforcing the directive will be important.

Supporting our Member States, especially to help microenterprises and SMEs with guidance, with training, with capacity building,

supporting social partners, is also important, but enforcing the Pay Transparency Directive is absolutely non-negotiable. Equal pay for equal work. This is this is only fair. Essential to our European social model.

I will stop here and I will be happy to take some of your questions.

Thank you, VP,

and do not hesitate to make use of our great team of interpreters who are here today with us and can take a question in any official announcement separate from that announcement.

I, yes, of course, sorry, I forgot another important announcement which is a bit different than than the pillar but not so different.

Today, we, we adopted in the, in the college an important decision for, the 8th of August, which will be celebrated and let me just go back a bit to, to the exact,

To the exact name of the 8th of August,

we will celebrate the European Day in remembrance of the victims of accidents at work and for the protection and dignity of workers.

So it is a long day but with great significance.

Since August 8th marks a commemoration of a mining accident that happened in Marcinelle in Belgium in 1956.

On the 8th of August when 262 workers of 12 different nationalities lost their lives.

Most were Italians traveling to Belgium in search of work, in search of a better future.

To remember their sacrifice, to remember the importance of workplace protection of the importance of dignity in work,

we are setting up this official European Day,

which is following an initiative from the European Parliament and the Member States.

Not only that, but of course that working conditions have much improved.

Health and safety has much improved in the EU since 1956, but more needs to be done, and such a day is really relevant.

Just a few days ago, unfortunately, we saw tragedy strike again,

and we saw how six workers lost their lives in a construction site here in Brussels and our thoughts.

With those that are alive but injured, with the families of those that lost dear ones, but that,

that really indicates how important it is that we all continue to put a very hard focus on health and safety in the workplace.

So this announcement is is really relevant and apologies that I forgot to mention it from the very beginning.

No problem at all. It was not too late.