Yolanda Díaz and three other EU countries present initiative to advance social and labour rights

The Second Vice-President and Minister for Work and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, presented today in Brussels, together with her counterparts from Belgium, Slovenia and Romania, the strategic document (non-paper) "Towards a Europe that moves forward with new rights", to guarantee a robust social agenda in the next European legislature.

As the vice-president explained, this is the end of a legislature that has been notable for the many measures adopted in the socio-labour field, such as the recovery plans, the Minimum Wage Directive, the Transparency Directive and the Digital Platforms Directive, among others. In all of them, new rights and better working conditions for workers have been achieved.

"I will do everything in my power to put social issues at the heart of the new agenda," she insisted, looking ahead to the new composition of the European Parliament.

Advancing rights

With the determination to continue advancing in this vision of the EU, Díaz and her counterparts from Belgium, Slovenia and Romania presented a strategic document with concrete proposals to address challenges in the field of labour, such as the regulation of digital disconnection, the use of algorithms and artificial intelligence in the world of work, among others.

"Our commitment is clear: we still need a strengthened European social agenda that extends rights in this new cycle", insisted the vice-president, who gave as an example the importance of having a European initiative on working time and the use of personal time, and regulating psychosocial risks and mental health in the workplace.

The document takes as a reference the fulfilment of the European Pillar of Social Rights to meet the employment, training and poverty reduction targets the EU has set for 2030 in the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan.

It calls for orienting public policies in the social and economic field so that an ambitious renewed action plan forms "the basis for strengthening workers' rights, with initiatives on rights that have not yet been developed or have only been partially developed", the text states.

Decent living and working conditions will be ensured by developing the transposition of already adopted directives and by new measures. It also seeks to ensure that the EU leads a just ecological and digital transition, without undermining the rights of workers.

The document also stresses the need to make democracy at work a reality and the relevance of social dialogue, urging the EU to harness the potential of the Social Economy as a model of social and economic development that serves the collective interest.

Non official translation