With less than a year to go to the European elections of 2024, the European Social Insurance Platform (ESIP), presents a Memorandum outlining the priorities for the next EU legislature. ESIP represents 45 national statutory social insurance organisations in 17 EU Member States and Switzerland, active in all social security branches and delivering social security benefits to over 385 million European citizens. ESIP and its members aim to preserve high-profile social security for Europe, reinforce solidarity-based social insurance systems and maintain European social protection.

 

Statutory social security institutions welcome concrete actions the EU decision-makers and Parliamentarians should deliver in order to meet the needs of the millions of insured citizens across Europe. With this Memorandum, ESIP emphasises once again the importance of mainstreaming social protection as a strong and resilient component of European societies and as a way to safeguard solidarity. It serves as a reminder of the critical need to increase collaboration among social security institutions, as we can no longer encourage workers to work anywhere in the EU without ensuring their legal social protection. Learning the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, we should also invest in guaranteeing affordable and high-quality healthcare for all EU patients, while simultaneously focusing on prevention in all aspects of life including in the workplace.

 

The Memorandum also addresses the challenges that the new EU legislature should face. The responses to such challenges are identified by ESIP and its constituency. Fighting climate change is and should remain a primary priority for the EU, as it is for our members. Our institutions' on-the-ground experience has shown how critical it is to keep people's needs while addressing climate policies at the highest levels. ESIP’s Members also underline the importance of quicker, fit-for-purpose digitalization. Long-term planning is required to ensure the system's viability and sustainability in the face of changing demographic contexts. Finally, sustainable financing of the welfare state is critical for ensuring strong social protection for all.

 

Download here the Memorandum adopted by the ESIP General Assembly on June 2023.