Authors Iain Begg | Gabriel Glöckler | Anke Hassel ... - The Europaeum

need to be constructed to create access to new ladders of opportunity at
different stages of the life cycle. The potential risks of polarisation between
“winners” and “losers” from economic change and globalisation need to
be narrowed: a new focus is needed on better labour market transitions,
particularly for the low skilled. Emerging social problems, such as the
social exclusion of disadvantaged and child poverty, can only be tackled
through sustained social investment.
In particular there are clear policy areas where welfare and labour market
systems within member states have not sufficiently adjusted to changing
social conditions:
n Insufficient early years investment in young mothers and babies to
overcome embedded disadvantage.
n Too many school leavers not in employment, education or training:
new initiatives are needed to reduce early school leaving, make up
the ground for young people whose schooling has let them down
and lessen the risks of delinquency.
n Inadequate routes of progression for the low skilled into
apprenticeships, technician grade skills and high quality vocational
training.
n Better support for “dual earner” couples to combine bringing up
their children well and sustaining their career.
n Fuller integration of migrants into European societies through
targeted action to overcome language and cultural barriers
and raise levels of educational achievement and labour market
participation.
Member states have the main responsibility for the social policy changes
that are necessary. But this does not preclude a framework of objectives,
targets, incentives and mutual learning that could be set at EU level. An
opportunity to strengthen EU social policy is offered by the forthcoming
review of the EU Budget. EU Budget funds could be used to realise some
key social objectives, including the possibility of some form of minimum
income or anti-child poverty guarantee across the Union. The onus of any
EU Budget reform should be on the expansion of common policies where
the EU can genuinely make a difference beyond the remit of what national
policy instruments can realistically achieve at national level alone in
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After the crisis: A new socio-economic settlement for the EU