The European Union has recently adopted its “EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy” which will cover the period 2015-2019.

During its presentation last week, the European External Action Service (EEAS) has invited ‘stakeholders’ to propose initiatives to strengthen the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights dimension of this action plan.

With this background, we have drafted an open letter suggesting that the following actions are undertaken:

1.     Further promote the ratification of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and its Optional Protocol by ensuring in all EU external relations incentives to promote the signing and ratification of this optional protocol.

2.     Support to the implementation of ILO recommendation No. 202 on National Floors of Social Protection by adopting a roadmap to integrate the implementation the four social security guarantees in EU external policies and programming documents (Action Plans, National Indicative Programmes.

3.     Step up resources to support the establishment of the Global Fund for Social Protection (GFSP) to further support countries that need financial support to introduce or complete national social protection floors in order to ensure the full realization of the human right to social security.

The letter has been endorsed by the following members of the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors including SOLIDAR, HelpAge International, The International Council on Social Welfare and the Free Trade Union Development Center.