On 16 April, at the conclusion of a High-Level Conference on the European Pillar of Social Rights EPSR hosted by the Belgian Presidency in La Hulpe in Belgium, the EU, social partners and civil society have renewed their commitment to a stronger social Europe. At the event, the European Parliament, the European Commission, Belgium on behalf of the other 26 EU Member States and the European Economic and Social Committee, amongst others, signed a Declaration on the Future of the EPSR. In the declaration, they pledge to continue implementing the EPSR.
The text proposes initiatives for the EU’s future social agenda in the next legislative term and reaffirms the Pillar as the guiding framework for EU social policies. The renewed commitment agrees to:
• Review and update the EPSR Action Plan in 2025 and propose new actions at EU level to achieve the 2030 EU headline targets for employment, skills and poverty reduction.
• Intensify the EU’s equality, anti-discrimination and anti-racism strategies to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation through an intersectional approach.
• Develop an ambitious second phase of the 2021-2027 Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and mainstream the disability perspective in EU-policies.
• Further mainstream the EPSR in all relevant policy domains, strengthen the use of distributional impact assessments and promote sustainable public procurement.
The full La Hulpe Declaration is available at: