The Party of European Socialists warmly welcomes today’s agreement among EU governments, MEPs and the European Commission to proclaim a European Pillar of Social Rights before the end of 2017 – something that has been at the top of our agenda for years.

The 20 policy priorities for the EU, which correspond to many of the PES’s own priorities, include:

• quality jobs with quality working conditions
• fair wages, minimum wages and a minimum income level
• preventing precarious jobs and prohibiting abuse of atypical contracts
• strong social protections for all
• guaranteed access to healthcare and other essential services
• gender equality and equal opportunities, including for people with disabilities
• work-life balance for those with caring responsibilities, including gender balance

PES president Sergei Stanishev said:

"Socialists have been fighting for years for the EU to lay out a declaration of the principle of social rights for all Europeans. And we have argued for decades that Europe needs a social turn, to rebalance the European Union in favour of social rights.

"That’s why we are delighted that these priorities have finally been agreed by all Europe’s national governments as well as the other EU institutions, thanks to pressure from socialist and social democrat governments, the entire PES family  and the hard work of our S&D MEPs.

"But we are also aware that this is only the first step. Once the social pillar has been proclaimed, the next step is to come up with a Social Action Plan which lays out exactly how those intentions will be put into force – so that the social rights envisioned in this declaration can have a practical effect on the lives of European citizens and workers."