Cecop, the European confederation of industrial and service co-operatives, has co-signed two policy calls to the EU, calling for supportive measures in the upcoming budget and procurement legislation.
With regard to the next EU budget, Cecop has signed a joint statement endorsed by 68 European networks and 288 national organisations from 32 countries. Together, the EUFunds4Social coalition calls on the EU to “safeguard and strengthen a standalone European Social Fund (ESF) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)”.
The multiannual financial framework (MFF), the EU’s seven-year budget, sets the spending priorities and ceilings for close to €2tn from 2021-2027. The ESF and ERDF are the two most relevant programmes for employment, education and social inclusion are the European Social Fund and and the European Regional Development Fund.
With the current framework ending in 2027, the European Commission published last summer its proposals for the MFF from 2028-2034 – including the merger of the ESF and ERDF and other funding streams under National and Regional Partnership Plans.
With the Council of the European Union and European Parliament now negotiating their own positions on these proposals, EUFunds4Social was set up to lobby for concrete initiatives to support people across Europe, especially those most excluded.
The coalition has now published its fourth joint statement, calling for “strong and dedicated” ESF and ERDF budgets, at least equal to current funding levels adjusted for inflation, and provided as grants.
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They want the ESF kept as the EU’s core instrument for people-centred investment, aligned with the European Pillar of Social Rights, the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy, and the Social Economy Action Plan, with the preservation of its currentearmarking for social inclusion, child poverty, material deprivation, youth employment, and capacity-building for civil society and social partners.
To ensure “meaningful participation of social actors at all levels of governance”, the letter calls on policymakers to “strengthen and mainstream the partnership principle across all EU funds”.
The letter also urges the EU to reinstate and enforce enabling conditions to ensure its investments “uphold fundamental rights and support the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”.
And it wants the EU to improve access for small not-for-profit actors through simpler procedures, lighter reporting requirements, stable pre-financing, adequate co-financing, and national helpdesks.
Procurement rules
Meanwhile, alongside its partners in the Network for Sustainable Development in Public Procurement (NSDPP), Cecop has sent a joint letter to the European Commission outlining key priorities for the upcoming Public Procurement Act.
In the letter, the NSDPP – a coalition of social and environmental NGOs, trade unions and social economy organisations – calls on the European Commission to make the legislation “a driver of social progress, sustainability, and fair competition”.
Writing to the executive vice-president of the European Commission, Stéphane Séjourné, the signatories urge the EU “to move beyond lowest-price contracting and ensure that public spending supports quality jobs, decent working conditions, decarbonisation, responsible supply chains, and greater inclusion of social economy actors”.
The letter sets out five key demands for the revision of EU public procurement rules, with the aim of aligning them with the ambitions of the Clean Industrial Deal and the European Pillar of Social Rights:
- Make the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) the default award criterion to ensure best value for public money and move away from awarding contracts solely on the basis of the lowest price.
- Gradually introduce mandatory social and environmental criteria in EU legislation to promote fair wages, decent work, decarbonisation, and social inclusion.
- Strengthen access to public procurement for social economy actors through the explicit inclusion of targeted measures that support their participation.
- Ensure coherence with existing and upcoming EU legislation and policy frameworks, including the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, the forthcoming Circular Economy Act, the European Pillar of Social Rights, Country-by-Country Reporting obligations, the Quality Jobs Roadmap, the Social Economy Action Plan, and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.
- Improve monitoring and enforcement by establishing robust and transparent systems to evaluate implementation and ensure accountability.
Read the full letter here.
