Five years after the Porto Social Summit, European leaders must remember that deregulation will only make Europe poorer and that only social sovereignty will make it stronger; say the former European Commissioners Nicolas Schmit, László Andor and Anna Diamantopoulou.

European leaders have lost all sense of solidarity and respect. Today, everything is about competitiveness, about deregulation, scrapping what has made the European Union a respected regulatory power in the world. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz and the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, are solely guided by the interests of big businesses and financial institutions, at the expense of everyday workers and vulnerable groups. They have forgotten that what makes our Union strong is its social market economy. They have forgotten that competitiveness can only be achieved through quality jobs, social protection mechanisms and quality public services.

The European project has been built on the idea of progress, shared prosperity and social cohesion. The European Social Fund was the first financial instrument established. For decades, Social Democratic forces, working alongside trade unions and civil society, have been building a more social Europe, to empower and protect those without whom the single market is only empty words: the workers, the people.

We pushed for greater social investments, we developed the Lisbon Strategy, bringing social cohesion and competitiveness together and we protected young people amid the financial crisis. We saved millions of jobs during the pandemic, and we established minimum wages to combat in-work poverty and wage dumping. We ensured pay transparency to advance gender equality, and we created new protections for platform workers at a time when algorithms are turning the world of work upside down.

In 2017, we adopted the European Pillar of Social Rights as an ambitious framework for equality, solidarity and dignity. Five years ago, in Porto, under the leadership of António Costa, the Social Summit set concrete targets to reduce unemployment, decrease poverty and encourage lifelong learning.

We have shown that with courage and leadership, we can adopt laws for the many, not just the few.

However, today, the picture is bleak, and our legacy is at risk. A fifth of the EU population is at risk of poverty or exclusion, including millions of children. People face precarious working conditions in the wake of digitalisation, the green transition and austerity measures across member states. More than one million people are homeless. This is not acceptable; neither morally nor politically.

We recognise the work currently being done by the Social Democrats and Socialists in the European Commission, who try to counter the dominant deregulation mantra, that seeks to turn the European Union into a US-style neoliberal wild west. With the Affordable Housing Act, the Quality Jobs Act or the Anti-Poverty Strategy, the situation can improve.

But this is not enough. And this is why, as former European Commissioners in charge of social rights, we are calling for a new impetus for social Europe, reviving the spirit of Porto, five years ago.

With cost of living and affordability being the number one concern for citizens, it is our duty to answer and offer concrete solutions. We call for a new socio-economic steering agenda that responds to the challenges of today, including the further digitalisation of the economy, the risks to European industries and the anxieties of millions of people across the Union.

The major geopolitical disruptions the European Union is facing today call for a stronger sovereign Europe. This demands a renewed and reinforced social foundation with enhanced investment and fiscal capacity, including in public services. Focusing mainly on deregulation, the dilution of European regulatory autonomy, and lower social and environmental standards are not the right way to improve Europe’s competitiveness, with people and their rights at its heart.

This is how we can build a progressive European development model: any climate transition or digital transformation cannot happen without a reformed economic policy framework and a sound social foundation. This is the basis for European sovereignty, affirming a core identity and values, reducing dependencies and offering an alternative vision to those of the United States or China. In Porto, we showed that it was possible to anchor solidarity at the heart of our political action. It is time to show it again.

Photo credits: Shutterstock/Stella Salander