{"id":460759,"date":"2026-07-22T16:17:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/07\/22\/diritti-sociali-ue-piu-accesso-al-mercato-del-lavoro-sfruttare-lia-e-meno-disuaglianze\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T17:19:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T15:19:25","slug":"social-rights-eu-greater-access-to-the-labour-market-harness-ai-and-reduce-inequalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/07\/22\/social-rights-eu-greater-access-to-the-labour-market-harness-ai-and-reduce-inequalities\/","title":{"rendered":"Social rights, EU: \u201cGreater access to the labour market, harness AI and reduce inequalities\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 \u201cWe have three areas to focus on: more targeted and in-depth measures to control costs and ensure affordability; harnessing the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the world of work; and tackling inequalities.\u201d This was stated<\/a> today (22 July) by the European Commission\u2019s Executive Vice-President for Social Rights, Skills, Quality Jobs and Education, Roxana M\u00eenzatu<\/strong>, during a press release<\/a> on the European Pillar of Social Rights<\/a>. <\/p>\n

M\u00eenzatu pointed out that the Pillar\u2014a set of 20 fundamental principles and rights aimed at building a more equitable, inclusive and citizen-centred Europe\u2014was adopted almost ten years ago and has since served as \u201ca social compass that the EU has adopted\u201d to develop policies that promote employment and social progress, monitor national policies, and guide European funding. \u201cAfter almost a decade, we have taken stock to understand what needs improving and what more needs to be done,<\/strong>\u201d said the Vice-President, emphasising that, compared to when the pillar was adopted, <\/strong>\u201ctimes have changed<\/strong>.\u201d Today\u2019s communication aims to \u201canticipate and manage structural changes,\u201d to seize the opportunities presented by the ongoing transformations on the one hand, and to continue to ensure \u201cequity and prosperity\u201d through the European social model on the other. In this context, the three areas highlighted by the Vice-President require \u201curgent and additional\u201d attention. <\/p>\n

On the issue of affordability and the cost of living, the government has acknowledged that many households continue to face \u201chigh costs for housing, energy, services and essential goods\u201d; it will therefore \u201ccontinue to support measures that reduce the risk of poverty and strengthen access to essential services.\u201d M\u00eenzatu cited among the \u201csuccessful\u201d measures the Directive on pay transparency (EU 2023\/970)<\/a>\u2014<\/span>European legislation aimed at eliminating the gender pay gap and ensuring equal pay for work of equal value\u2014but highlighted that although \u201cminimum wages have risen significantly across the EU\u201d, there are many \u201ctalents that remain untapped outside the labour market.\u201d This amounts to <\/strong>\u201c50 million people who are outside the labour market, of whom 33 million are women<\/strong>.\u201d These people are not unemployed, but \u201cbelieve they cannot work or face obstacles,\u201d the Vice-President clarified, identifying \u201cchildcare\u201d as one of the key issues on which the EU must take action. To help these groups, the Berlaymont building has announced that, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, it will launch \u201can initial consultation phase with the EU\u2019s social partners\u201d to integrate these people into the labour market. This consultation will provide the Commission with \u201cfirst-hand information on combating poverty and exclusion, promoting labour market inclusion and enhancing competitiveness.\u201d <\/p>\n

On the subject of the development and adoption of AI, the Commission has acknowledged that these new technologies are raising \u201cimportant and critical questions about the future of work, education, skills, social inclusion, and public services.\u201d Consequently, the Commission believes that it is \u201curgent for Europe to prepare for these profound changes, ensuring that citizens, workers, and businesses can fully benefit from the potential of AI.\u201d The Commission has therefore announced that it <\/strong>\u201cwill set up a new high-level group on the impact of AI on the labour market<\/strong>.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

As for the <\/strong>chapter on reducing inequalities, the Berlaymont Building explains that \u201cpersistent inequalities undermine social and territorial cohesion and weaken the EU\u2019s long-term sustainability, innovation, and competitiveness, as well as its demographic fabric\u201d and that, despite the progress made in recent years, \u201cinequalities persist across all areas of life, requiring ongoing efforts. With a view to improving equal opportunities in certain key sectors of the economy, the Commission has expressed its commitment to supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in implementing the Pay Transparency Directive, as well as to presenting the forthcoming initiative “Right to stay<\/a>“\u2014a strategy aimed at tackling depopulation and demographic and economic decline in inland and peripheral areas\u2014and the post-2027 EU Youth Strategy<\/a>. Furthermore, in the course of the year, the Commission will also present the Quality Jobs Act, a document that \u201cwill also explore new indicators to measure the quality of work across the EU, complementing existing EU targets for 2030 on employment, skills and poverty reduction.\u201d <\/p>\n

Adopted in 2017, the European Pillar of Social Rights sets out 20 principles to ensure fair working conditions, social protection and equal opportunities. At the 2021 Porto Social Summit, EU leaders, institutions and other stakeholders agreed to place social issues at the heart of EU policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

European Commissioner Roxana M\u00eenzatu: \u201cTen years on from the presentation of the European Social Pillar, we have taken stock to identify what needs to be improved and what more can be done\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":460722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29788],"tags":[25871,25815,33969,25821,35022,31131,34586,27803,30081,28367],"class_list":["post-460759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diritti-en","tag-accesso-al-lavoro","tag-artificial-intelligence-en","tag-diritti-donne","tag-pillar-european-social-rights-en","tag-poverta-alimentare","tag-poverta-en","tag-roxana-minzatu-en","tag-unemployment-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460760,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460759\/revisions\/460760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}