Debate contributions by Roxana MÎNZATU

Mr President, minister, honourable Members, every year on International Women's Day, we celebrate women's achievements and contributions across the world. But despite progress, full gender equality is decades – if not centuries – away. At the current rate, it will take until 2158, another 134 years, to reach full gender parity at global level, according to data provided by the World Economic Forum. Within the European Union, it will take us more than 60 years. That is why the theme for this year's International Women's Day is 'accelerate action'. We need to take swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. We need to address the barriers and biases women face in every aspect of their lives. Equality between women and men is one of the foundational values of our Union and a strategic interest in all our policies. In the European Union, we have made historic progress with rules on pay transparency, work-life balance, gender balance on company boards and combating violence against women. But we know there is still lots and lots more to do. This is a special year. We are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action. Commissioner Lahbib is now in New York leading the EU's delegation to the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. She will pass on a clear message: enabling women's full and equal participation in all parts of society is key to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. On this International Women's Day, we show that we are serious about accelerating action with a new roadmap for women's rights. The roadmap sets out a long-term political vision to advance women's rights. Our priorities are strategic. We have to think that 1 in 3 women has suffered violence in their lifetime and that is why we aim to eradicate all forms of violence against women and girls, including femicide, domestic violence, including coercive control, cyber violence, sexual harassment or exploitation. Every girl, every woman in Europe has the right and should feel safe. Women's health. It has been under researched and under prioritised. That is why we propose a dedicated focus on women's health in full respect of Member States' competences in this field. That includes promoting gender-sensitive medical research, clinical trials, diagnostics and treatments, and it includes ensuring women's access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Employment and pay gaps. There is still much work to do there as well. We need to eliminate gender pay and pension gaps to promote equal employment and financial opportunities for women. Women in Europe should be economically independent and enjoy the same opportunities men do. Our education should be free from discrimination, from sexism, from stereotypes and violence to encourage both girls and boys to seek the future that they want, because women should be at every table where decisions are made. This is another objective of the roadmap: equal political participation and representation at all levels of political power. Gender balance at all levels of management, so that women's voices can be heard across the public and private sectors and shape the policies of tomorrow. And we aim at better safety of women in public life, as they are more likely to be victims of hate speech than their male counterparts. We also need strong institutional mechanisms that deliver on women's rights. This, among others, includes an effective gender mainstreaming approach. The gender mainstreaming principle that was adopted 30 years ago in the Beijing Platform for Action means that all policy areas should apply a gender perspective. Striving for gender equality is not only the right thing to do, but it is also the smart thing to do. Gender equality is essential for building strong competitive economies, but also for building sustainable, democratic and inclusive societies. I invite the European Parliament, the Council and other institutions and stakeholders to unite around this roadmap to put forward actions under their remit and make it so that we turn these principles into an enduring reality for every girl and every woman across our European Union.

Mr President, honourable Members, thank you for keeping education and skills high on the European Parliament's agenda. It is a priority that this European Commission shares 100 %. Me personally as well, of course. The Draghi Report is clear. One of the reasons why our competitiveness is lagging is that Europe is underperforming in skills. The PISA tests show that our students are falling behind, and most adults do not improve their skills through training. Closing the skills gap is a basic condition to boost competitiveness. This was also recognised in the Competitiveness Compass. But we need bold and ambitious initiatives in this respect. On 5 March, the Commission is planning to adopt a communication on a Union of Skills. The communication will present a vision for the establishment of the Union of Skills: what it is, what it should deliver, how and by when. These will be organised around the areas where we see the biggest need for urgent action, which would which would be four pillars. First, building skills through stronger educational foundations and vocational training systems. Second, upskilling and reskilling an agile workforce with an inclusive, lifelong learning approach. Third, allowing skills to circulate with the free movement of learners and workers across the European Union, unlocking the single market's full potential. And fourth, attracting, developing and retaining talent in Europe. We are not starting from scratch. The Union of Skills will build on ongoing initiatives that have proved successful and bring them forward, such as the pact for skills, which has helped upskill more than 4 million workers, and the European Education Area Strategic Framework to equip learners with the competencies they need to thrive in society. The Union of Skills will frame the work of the Commission for this entire mandate, and an important work strand will be to step up the support for basic literacy, for maths, for science and for digital skills enhancement. This will happen via our Basic Skills Action Plan. Union of Skills will provide support also through a STEM Education Strategic Plan to reverse the trend of declining performance in STEM skills at school and to attract more students in STEM careers, including in vocational education and training. Attracting more women in STEM will be a key objective and I will again emphasise that today we celebrate the International Day of Women in STEM. I also want to increase the attractiveness, excellence and inclusiveness of vocational education and training with the European Strategy for Vocational Education and Training. Also very important: developing a skills portability initiative. It will be part of the Union of Skills. It will open up more opportunities for workers and businesses to fully capture the potential of our internal market. We will have time to consult widely with this House, with Member States and with all stakeholders. But I would like to stress the importance of these initiatives already now. We want to give vocational education and training the pre-eminence, the prestige it deserves and boost the number of people with a secondary VET degree. But success is not just about numbers, about quantity. We need to empower them through better recognition of vocational qualifications. We face huge labour and skills shortages all over Europe and many are related with vocational areas. As mentioned earlier, we need health care workers, but we also need plumbers, electricians, IT specialists – such a critical area – specialists in construction, workers in the construction area. The new job opportunities created by the green and digital transition are often linked to very technical profiles, to vocational programmes. Think about the specialists who install solar panels on our roofs, for instance. We therefore have to ensure that vocational and educational training programmes become a more attractive educational and career choice. We will also explore the possibility to develop and pilot a European VET degree, a diploma that is complementary to the European Degree in Higher Education. With the Skills Portability Initiative, we want to make sure that skills and qualifications acquired in one EU country are understood, are accepted and, where required, are recognised more easily in another Member State. Honourable Members, the Union of Skills, as Rome, will not be built in one day, but it is important to start. It is even more important to set the bar high and to hit the ground running. I count on this House – on you – for your continued support.

First of all, thank you for the topic. Thank you for putting this topic under debate in the plenary of this Parliament. I am sure that for every one of you – and it is also my case – as you entered the area of politics, of policymaking, one of your reasons was healthcare. One of your reasons was for sure to make policies, to design policies that help the healthcare system and the health of our citizens. And even in the last European Parliament elections, in many Member States, as shown by the Eurobarometer, one of the main topics or concerns on the minds of people as they voted – whatever choice that they had – was the situation of the healthcare system and the desire to see policymakers delivering more for their health. Of course, as many of you have mentioned, this is a prerogative of the Member States. We as a Union, however, are stronger together and there is EU added value in acting together in supporting Member States and supporting working conditions and investing in the healthcare sector. I have heard all your concerns and your truths and many have repeated the shortages, the working conditions, the stress, the harassment, the rural areas which are of course deprived of sufficient staffing, the cases in which, in some communities, near some hospitals, patients are not attended as they should be. Deaths that have happened. What can we do? What did we do? First of all, I think as Europe, we do need to take some pride in what we have already done inside the European social model. We do invest, as I've mentioned. Through the European Social Fund Plus we invest in the working conditions, in the training and skilling of some of our healthcare workers, in the bonuses or scholarships of some of the students in the medical schools, in the screening and preventive measures for some of the diseases. We do invest through the Recovery and Resilience Facility in infrastructure, hospitals, equipment. We do invest in research. But is it enough? Clearly not, as the labour shortages show and as the data shows, we need to do more to do better. The European Union and the Member States, we also need to align our policies. We have the European Semester, the social convergence framework to take care that as we align our fiscal objectives, we also take care of social convergence. And I promised here, and I will deliver, that on the two key initiatives in the near future for which I'm responsible, and this new Commission is responsible – the Union of Skills and the quality jobs roadmap – the critical role of healthcare sector workers will be recognised and addressed through key and flagship initiatives. Now, I know this cannot say that the salary in the Region of Murcia is going to be this for a doctor or for a nurse. You know that it cannot be about that. But we can work together to improve every aspect of the working conditions. Finally, I want to acknowledge that in the measures that we as the Commission plan, we will look at the gender elements, because these are, of course, professions where women are very present. But we also need to look at different aspects of the nurses, carers compared with doctors. There are differences and there are common challenges, and we need to address them, as well as addressing a fair mobility – one does that does not lead to brain drain, but also empowers every region and country of this European Union. So thank you again for this debate. Let's work together to make better European policies to support our critical healthcare workers.

Mr President, labour and skills shortages are a major challenge across the European Union, with the healthcare sector hit especially hard. We have a shortage of 1.2 million doctors, nurses and midwives across the European Union. High job strain affects 61 % of nurses and 43 % of doctors – well above the EU overall average of 30 %. It is a vicious cycle, with shortages leading to increased job strain, which causes interest in these careers to decline, worsening the shortages. At the same time, there are gaps in the skills pipeline and a growing demand for healthcare due to an ageing population. Needless to say, our health systems are nothing without our health workers. If we want to maintain our cherished healthcare and be prepared for a possible future health crisis, then retaining the existing health workers and inspiring younger generations to enter and remain in the sector is crucial. Doing so will require work on different strands. First, we should aim to increase the participation of under‑represented groups in the labour market, especially women. The roadmap for women's rights and the new gender equality strategy will support women in achieving equality in employment and careers, and in combating stereotypes. And I take this opportunity to mention that today we are celebrating the International Day of Women and Girls in STEM. Second, upskilling and reskilling is a must also for the care sector. In less than one month, we will present our Union of Skills. Third, we need to improve working conditions if we want to make the healthcare profession more attractive. The Adequate Minimum Wage Directive, the European care strategy, and the health and safety strategy are steering policy efforts towards improving working conditions in healthcare, with a particular focus on care workers with lower qualifications. The EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work 2021-2027, for instance, dedicates special attention to the healthcare sector. Many of the initiatives put forward by the Commission, for instance, to protect workers against exposures from chemicals or carcinogens, are certainly contributing to protect healthcare workers and to improve their working conditions. Moreover, the upcoming quality jobs roadmap will promote fair wages, good working conditions, training and fair job transitions, notably by increasing collective bargaining coverage. Fourth, the shortages of doctors and nurses are more acute in some Member States and less so in others. Exploiting the full potential of fair labour mobility within the single market would help alleviate the problem. On that, a new skills portability initiative under the Union of Skills that we will launch very soon will facilitate the mobility of health sector workers within the European Union, along with further measures to support the recognition of professional qualifications. Fifth, investing in data collection and forecasting, for example through the EU4Health co-funded joint action known as 'Heroes', will allow us to better plan ahead. And finally, we should support talent attraction from outside the European Union, building on the existing talent partnerships and the upcoming EU talent pool, in line with the Competitiveness Compass. Continued efforts to support the recognition of qualifications gained outside the EU will be a key part of this. Let me recall that the European Union is providing significant financial support to Member States and social partners to address shortages, including EUR 43.3 billion allocated to skills under the European Social Fund Plus and more than EUR 40 billion for investments in the healthcare sector under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. As part of our preparedness efforts, we need to invest in training for healthcare professionals. This includes areas like cybersecurity, where we need both qualified cybersecurity professionals for the sector, and better cyber awareness of frontline health professionals. The new action plan on the cybersecurity of hospitals and healthcare providers addresses both these elements. Honourable Members, our healthcare systems are an integral part of the European social model. It is what makes us proud as Europeans. But labour and skills shortages put the sustainability of this model at risk. Together with Commissioner Várhelyi and Executive Vice‑President Ribera, we are determined to tackle this fundamental challenge. I look forward to today's exchange to inform this work.

Mr President, thank you for the contributions, for the exchanges, for the proposals. There are two lines on which we need to work. First is enforcement, enforcement, enforcement of the legislation that we have. And second, of course, looking ahead in the future on new initiatives. We have already acknowledged that we have some tools in the area of posting of workers. We have the tools also with the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. But indeed, the biggest challenges are where the subcontracting chains are very long and very complex. And indeed – you named the sector – the construction sector, which is most exposed, which is also a sector which we need and where we have a lot of labour shortages as well. A sector for which we need quality jobs more than in any other sector, I would say. This Commission will be then, through my work and through the work of our colleagues, committed to two directions. First, strengthen the mandate, the work of the European Labour Authority. As I have mentioned, this is extremely important enforcement of all legal tools that exist. And second – and I invite you and the social partners as well to contribute – inside the Quality Jobs Roadmap is where we can design the best tools so that we can limit and eliminate abusive practices while also supporting, obviously our sectors, our industries to thrive. So, inside the quality jobs initiative, I think that working together, we can design the best policy solutions so that we tackle this problem that affects human lives, quality of jobs, and the dynamics of our economy and our society. Thank you so much for your contribution and I'm looking forward to working closely with you on this topic. Your presence here means a lot. It means that you really want to tackle the most complicated of challenges that our social Europe is facing and will be facing in the future.

Mr President, honourable Members, ensuring fair working conditions, adequate wages, information about employment conditions and protection in the case of dismissals, social dialogue and involvement of workers, as well as healthy and safe work environments, are key rights for every worker in our European Union. These principles are at the core of the European Pillar of Social Rights, which defines the social model which we stand for. In the European Union, we do not start from scratch. The EU labour acquis applies to all workers, including where several undertakings share a workplace. For instance, in the domain of health and safety, employers in subcontracting chains 'shall coordinate their actions in matters of the protection and prevention of occupational risks', and they shall inform their workers of these risks. Secondly, the new Directive on improving working conditions in platform work contains a provision on intermediaries designed to ensure the effectiveness of the Directive by preventing circumvention through third parties. Thirdly, the recent Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive requires large companies operating in the European Union to identify and address adverse human and labour rights and environmental impacts within their operations and within their value chains. These due diligence obligations extend to the companies' subsidiaries and business partners. EU legislation exists, but we need to make sure that it works and, where relevant, see what more needs to be done. Effective enforcement on the ground is paramount when we are talking about EU legislation. Under this Commission, we want to actively engage with Member States, with our social partners, to secure workers' rights and supply chains. Transparency, equal treatment, decent work and effective enforcement should be enhanced throughout the chains. The preparation of the quality roadmap, which I have mentioned before, will provide an opportunity to foster this very important discussion. In doing this, we must pay particular attention to the most challenging contexts, such as the long and complex subcontracting chains. This is the case, for instance, of posted workers in subcontracting chains, which have been addressed in the Posting of Workers Enforcement Directive with the establishment of a liability mechanism in case of non-payment of remuneration. Still, some concerns remain when it comes to the actual implementation. The Commission will, with the European Labour Authority, support and map the current situation in Member States. Peer-learning dialogues will be organised in order to allow for the exchange of best practices between Member States. Workers posted by labour market intermediaries are also at risk of unfair treatment and exploitation, when the intermediary is not properly registered or, in some cases, is even a letterbox company. As many of the problematic cases involve cross-border situations, we will work together with the European Labour Authority to facilitate targeted inspections and to contribute to better cooperation between national authorities, and to close the remaining loopholes. Now, based on the findings of the evaluation of the European Labour Authority and the resolution of the European Parliament, I will also work to strengthen ELA, including by looking at the area of joint and concerted inspections. Finally, on posting of third-country nationals, which is a growing phenomenon of labour mobility in the European Union, we have to acknowledge that this is a phenomenon that is even more obvious, even more evident, in subcontracting chains. Third-country nationals are a vulnerable group. They run a higher risk of unfair, unhealthy and unsafe working conditions. Legal clarity in this respect is needed. Honourable Members, I count on your support to work towards effective actions to tackle abusive subcontracting in Europe and guaranteeing fair rights to all workers.

Mr President, colleagues, thank you for so much passion, as I've mentioned, on this topic in the House of the peoples of Europe, and I applaud you for that. And I will say that the right to strike is the right that has shaped our way of living, that has shaped the ages of our modern society. Many of the things that we take for granted nowadays have been shaped by strikes, by workers defending their own rights. So let me underline that it is my personal conviction that the right to strike, the right of association, is a right that should be upheld beyond our discussions here about the separation of competences between national and European level. This is important, and I want you to know that in this spirit I will work on our policies, and in this spirit I will have our social partners on board while designing the measures that should support our workers and that should support our Europeans. I would like to once again thank you for the contributions which reflect your views and realities from different Member States. Social dialogue indeed is different in terms of the geography and history of our Member States. Nevertheless, it is my intention to work very diligently with our European-level social partners. And we have those tools there. We have the work of the cross-industry and the sectoral social dialogue committees – 44 of them. We have the 88 recognised EU social partners which are involved in EU policy-making. It is also important to mention again that we are offering financial support to European and national social partners. This capacity-building is important for quality social dialogue throughout Europe. We will also support Member States and social partners in boosting collective bargaining – you have expressed also some worries on this topic – through the enforcement and implementation of the Minimum Wage Directive. This is a strong tool. It is an innovative tool in a way, which we have to enforce. And this will be my role: to make sure that we have big coverage, that we have results, especially in parts of Europe where collective bargaining needs strengthening. We also have to use – and I will make sure that we will do our best to implement – our Council Recommendation on social dialogue. I will work with social partners to deliver next year a quality jobs roadmap, which is essential. We will work closely with the incoming Polish Presidency, with you, with Parliament, to successfully conclude the negotiations on the revision of the European Works Council Directive – another important tool. We all understand, I think, here in this House that there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to social dialogue. What works in one Member State may be not so easy to apply in another Member State. But one thing is clear: for strong, resourceful and independent workers' and employers' organisations, on the one hand we need an enabling environment for tripartite and bipartite social dialogue, and on the other hand we need to continue to support our social partners in ways that, of course, are compatible with their autonomy. With this spirit, I would like you to count on my commitment to work towards strengthening European social dialogue throughout the European Union.

Mr President, honourable members, social dialogue is a cornerstone of our European social model, with the unique role of social partners recognised in our founding Treaties. It is also one of the key principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights. Supporting it is therefore a priority for our Commission and for me, personally. Strong social dialogue and collective bargaining benefit us all – be it workers, employers, governments and societies – and are also powerful tools to promote equality. By joining forces, we can better find solutions to the key challenges our economies and societies face. This is why in my first days in office, I met with the European-level social partners, the trade unions and the employers alike. It was crucial for me to establish a strong and effective partnership from the outset. We should be proud of our European social dialogue model and defend it passionately, but we should not take it for granted. Social dialogue faces challenges, even in Europe: from the decrease in the coverage of collective bargaining to the lack of proper involvement of social partners in policy-making. As you know, the right to strike is specifically mentioned in the Treaty in Article 153 as a field that does not fall under the competence of the Union. At the same time, the right of collective bargaining and action is enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. These provisions are applicable to the Member States when they are implementing EU legislation. Our Union acquis on employees' involvement in companies sets out EU-wide standards across very diverse national industrial systems. We have a comprehensive set of directives on information and consultation of workers, which aim to ensure workers' involvement and to protect their rights, notably in restructuring. It is of the essence that this legal framework is properly implemented and enforced across all Member States. Still, with the labour market adapting to new forms of work, and labour and skills shortages threatening to disrupt our businesses and our livelihoods, we need to make sure that social dialogue thrives at all levels. And I will start by building on the initiatives of the previous Commission and ensuring that the existing instruments lead to concrete progress on the ground. First, the Directive on adequate minimum wages, which promotes collective bargaining across Member States. The deadline for the transposition of the directive was 15 November, and most Member States have already notified their transposition, which we will now assess. As the next step, Member States with collective bargaining coverage below 80 % must establish by the end of next year, 2025, an action plan to promote collective bargaining with the close involvement of social partners. You can count on me to promote and monitor the implementation of this important European law. Secondly, we have the 2023 Council Recommendation on strengthening EU social dialogue, which calls on Member States to ensure an enabling environment for social dialogue, including for collective bargaining. Member States will also have to submit by November next year a list of measures prepared in consultation with social partners to implement this recommendation. Together with the Member States, we need to ensure that both of these instruments will lead to increased coverage of collective bargaining across Europe. Third, to make social dialogue in transnational companies more effective, I will do the utmost to help the negotiations conclude – successfully, I hope – on the revision of the European Works Council Directive. To strengthen social dialogue at EU level – as announced in the political guidelines of this Commission – we will also develop a new pact for European social dialogue. Our ambition is to have it by early 2025, maybe by the end of January, with European trade unions and employers signed. I am confident that this pact will boost social dialogue in the European Union and enable social partners to play an even stronger role in the future. It is very important that social partners play a central role in our policy-making. This is why we will also develop the quality jobs roadmap together with the involvement of our social partners. It will support good working conditions. I aim to include training and fair job transitions, and obviously to include the increase in collective bargaining coverage. Quality jobs should be the trademark of a competitive Europe. We need to put people and their jobs at the centre stage, while we strive for a more competitive Europe and move forward with a just transition. And I am certain that by working closely with social partners, we will achieve just that.