EMPL has its own job cut out

EUobserver takes a deep dive into the workings and new chairs of every single European Parliament committee for the new 2024-2029 session, in a series of articles first published in our print magazine of October 2024

When it comes to labour and employment, the EU is facing rough seas ahead. 

Demographic changes are shrinking the workforce, skilled labourers are getting scarcer, education quality is declining, workplace safety is under pressure, anti-immigrant forces aimed at discouraging low-wage workers arriving are on the rise, underinvestment in adult learning leaves potential untapped, and productivity is tumbling.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg uncovered in Mario Draghi’s recent EU competitiveness report when it comes to work and workers – AI, anyone?

Nobody can say that the challenges facing the new chair of the European Parliament’s committee on employment and social affairs (EMPL) are trivial or few. 

“The European Union should work towards developing a coordinated strategy for employment and in particular for the promotion of good wages and decent working conditions,” Li Andersson, of The Left, told EUobserver.

The Finnish chair was previously a minister of education in Helsinki, presiding over an education system that is frequently seen as exemplary. In the June 2024 European Parliament elections, Andersson received more votes (247,604) than any other candidate has ever received in a European election in Finland.

EMPL thus seems cut out for the 37-year-old.

“The EU should address labour and skills shortages and promote quality and inclusive education and training, with a particular focus on improving basic and cross-cutting skills, especially among disadvantaged students,” she said, underlining the fact that ‘the skills gap’ comprised a whole chapter of Draghi’s report.

Apart from that, Andersson stressed that the most important achievement of the committee should be to pass “concrete legislative initiatives that people and workers around Europe truly notice in their everyday lives.”

Among these, she highlighted the need for “quality employment, including legislative initiatives,” telework, the right to disconnect, and how to deal with artificial intelligence in the workplace. “We also need a revision of the directives on public procurement to ensure they promote collective bargaining,” she added.

Work-related deaths and their reduction are also on the agenda, as is “creating climate change resilient safety nets, integrating climate change adaptation into social protection programmes and a framework for demand-driven direct employment initiatives.”

In a small dig at Ursula von der Leyen’s new EU commissioner portfolios, Andersson said that “now, when policy areas connected to the European Social Pillar and the EMPL agenda have been scattered around in the commissioner portfolios, we need to also ensure that the committee is able to make legislative work that has also policy impact.”

And when it comes to Draghi’s suggestions, she said that “you can’t focus on a narrow definition of competitiveness,” as “European elections in many countries made clear that people want the EU to do more on the social agenda.”

The EMPL coordinators are: Dennis Radtke (EPP, Germany), Estelle Ceulemans (S&D, Belgium), Nikola Bartůšek (PfE, Czech Republic), Chiara Gemma (ECR, Italy), Jana Toom (Renew, Estonia), Maria Ohisalo (Greens/EFA, Finland), Leila Chaibi (GUE/NGL, France) and Petar Volgin (ESN, Belgium).