Today [5^th May 2020], Valeria Ronzitti, CEEP General Secretary, attended the informal meeting of employment and social policy ministers, organised by the Croatian Presidency of the EU and held online for the first time.
Addressing the “Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on European societies: demographic challenges and measures for economic recovery and social security”, the meeting brought together EU social partners and employment and social policy ministers of the 27, with a focus on the consequences of COVID-19 on labour markets and the economy and the measures to alleviate those.
 
Representing employers and providers of services of general interest, CEEP General Secretary Valeria Ronzitti said:
 
“Appropriate investment into social infrastructure is indispensable to manage the demographic transition. The pandemic is now exposing the product of decades of underinvestment in our social infrastructure. We must learn from this experience and mobilize unprecedented efforts to close this investment gap.”
 
“CEEP supports the call to EPSCO ministers issued by the European Commission to protect and invest in social services and social infrastructures: they are the ones ensuring the delivery of essential services to the vulnerable sectors of the population, including the most exposed to the impacts of the COVID-19. This momentum requires a new policy mix to be put forward, which must be able to not only promote the recovery, but to efficiently address our long-term structural challenges.”
 
“CEEP also calls for the EU and the Member States to make full use of social dialogue, which has a proven track-record of generating effective, practical, and equitable solutions to the type of challenges now confronting the world of work. At EU level, social partners have been working actively and collectively with the institutions to face the crisis and intend to continue this work throughout the next phases, in which we should be consulted as the ones who can efficiently deliver.”

For further information, please contact:
Maxime STAELENS, Communication Advisor
Email: maxime.staelens@ceep.eu
Tel.: + 32(0) 2 229 21 40
Website: www.ceep.eu

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CEEP, European Centre of Employers and Enterprises providing Public Services and SGI, is one of the three general cross-sectoral European Social Partners. It gathers public and private providers of services of general interest from across Europe. CEEP members contribute to more than 26% of EU GDP and employ 30% of the EU workforce.