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The EU governance is paying closer attention to the economic developmental priorities, such as revising the age-old concepts, completing the EU’s “single market”, investing in skills and quality jobs, etc. The spirit of partnership among employers, trade unions, governments and civil society is regarded presently as the European social model’s foundation, which reflects the conviction that economic progress and social rights go hand in hand.
Background
Across European continent, many are presently concerned about the future and the opportunities for life quality, work conditions and wellbeing; hence, the Commission intends to deliver. Thus, to ensure that the industries of the future are built in Europe, that workers have the skills to succeed, that the EU states are “affordable” for work and prosperous life, and fair living conditions. Besides, it is vital to ensure that the Union’s social market economy prevails. However, the mentioned socio-economic “components” can be achieved only through a sustained partnership: i.e. working together with trade unions, employers, workers, governments and civil society, in general. Such a partnership makes the European social model a living concept in creating a competitive economy and providing hope and stability for people.
It is a common place in political economy, that growth “should work for people”; the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany, in 1949–63), who presided over the successful efforts in the country’s political and economic transformation, has been the initiator of the European-wide social economy.
More in: https://inspiration.rightattitudes.com/authors/konrad-adenauer/
This notion has captured, according to the Commission President, “the essence of the European developmental and integration model”; it is precisely this approach that the Commission has been vigorously supporting during decades. Even presently, the European political economy is “serving the people” and, at the same time, remaining competitive, she added. However, competitiveness is a complex notion: on one side, it underpins citizens wellbeing and sustains social model; on another -it shapes citizens daily lives through their jobs, security and wellbeing; besides, it determines whether the EU can compete with global giants on AI and digital technologies.
Finally, partnership is a precondition to keep strategic industries in Europe. These are factors that directly affect people’s livelihoods, and they also determine European ability to shape its future.
The competitiveness is at the heart of the EU’s long-term agenda and political priorities, because strong social Europe needs strong economic foundation: i.e. a competitive Europe must remain a social Europe.
Source and citation from: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/da/speech_26_521
The SURE program
The Support Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) plan has mobilised significant financial means to fight the negative economic and social consequences of the coronavirus outbreak on the member states’ territory. It could provide financial assistance up to €100 billion in the form of loans granted on favorable terms from the EU to affected member states to address sudden increases in public expenditure for the preservation of employment. SURE program was a crucial element of the EU’s comprehensive strategy to protect citizens and mitigate the severely negative socio-economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
The SURE program kept workers employed in companies during the lockdowns; it counted on being the first to take orders when the economy opened up again, because it kept the skills in place. And it worked, it managed to protected 40 million jobs, to keep the knowledgeable skills in Europe. Then, with the NextGenerationEU, the Commission restarted the EU’s “economic engine and accelerated the clean and digital transitions”.
Presently, about 3.5 million Europeans are employed thanks to NextGenerationEU investments, about 31 million have benefitted from training and education. And reforms are delivering real changes; just some examples: quality jobs with open-ended contracts in Spain, better reconciliation of work and family in Croatia, stronger apprenticeships in France, and dual vocational training around the EU, etc. These programs have delivered concrete results: better opportunities and more security for workers; they are showing that the European social market economy is both in action and progressing.
More in: https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/eu-financial-assistance/sure_en
European social market economy
The European social market economy is a hybrid model combining free-market capitalism with strong social welfare policies, aiming for high growth, low unemployment and equity. Rooted in German ordoliberalism, it promotes competition while using regulation to ensure fair wages, social protection, and environmental sustainability.
Note. Ordoliberalism has been quite popular in social science and political economy during last decades: from a little-known school of economics in 1950s, it advanced to become one of the major ideological development trends in continental Europe, and in Germany, in particular. Reference to: https://academic.oup.com/ser/article/22/4/1947/7100859
The European integration project is based –in part- on an attractive and ambitious idea of “uniting” the EU member states along the so-called “social market economy” model. Among its most vital elements (mainly, in the social security system) are such issues as, e.g. occupational pension, universal health care and unemployment insurance. These “insurances” are funded by a combination of employee contributions, those of the employers as well as the governments’ subsidies. The term “social economy” in Europe, generally, refers to some corporate (private and public) activities that are driven by a strong social mission with economically viable business components. Several Scandinavian countries represent vivid examples of a free-market “capitalist economy” with a strong social welfare safety net. Generally, the social economy organisations can include: non-profit associations, cooperatives, mutual societies, various associations and foundations, as well as social enterprises.
Social market economies aim to combine free initiative and social welfare on the basis of a competitive economy. The social market economy is opposed to both the laissez-faire policies and socialist economic systems, but combines private enterprise with regulation and state intervention to establish fair competition, while maintaining a balance between a high rate of economic growth, low inflation, low levels of unemployment, good working conditions, social welfare and optimal public services.
Source and citation from: https://www.integrin.dk/2024/12/30/european-social-market-economy-concept-and-development/
Strengthening industry
In March 2026, the European Commission adopted a legislative proposal to increase demand for low-carbon, European-made technologies and products: i.e. the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) will boost manufacturing, grow businesses, and create jobs in the EU, while supporting industry’s adoption of cleaner, future-ready technologies. The IAA aims to increase value creation in the EU, strengthening our industrial base against the backdrop of growing unfair global competition and increasing dependencies on non-EU suppliers in strategic sectors. It therefore represents a strategy to support long-term economic growth, prosperity and security. In 2024, manufacturing represented 14.3% of EU GDP and therefore plays a vital role in Europe’s economic resilience, innovation lifecycle and social fabric. The Act sets a goal to increase manufacturing’s share of EU GDP to 20% by 2035.
More on IAA in: https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/publications/industrial-accelerator-act_en
The IAA establishes conditions for major investments in strategic EU sectors exceeding €100 million where a single third country controls more than 40% of global manufacturing capacity. Such investments must create high-quality jobs, drive innovation and growth, and generate real value in the EU through technology and knowledge transfer, as well as compliance with local content requirements. They must also guarantee a 50% minimum level of European employment, ensuring businesses and citizens benefit alongside investors from access to the Single Market. In doing so, the IAA strengthens EU economic security and reinforces supply chain resilience.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_515
European “single market”
= The “single market concept”. The concept remains the engine of European growth and competitiveness: since its creation in 1993, the Single Market has been the main tool in growing the EU’s GDP: e.g. it helped created some 3.6 million jobs just in post-pandemic period.
Most European politicians, like Enrico Letta, call for the principle “one Europe, one market”; however, it is not that simple: the first point is fragmentation. There are too much frictions among the EU-27 member states; it is still easier for an innovative EU company to scale up in the world than across the EU single market. The task is to overcome the countless barriers among the member states: i.e. the Commission presently suggests the so-called “28th regime”, to enable companies to operate under one single and simple set of rules across the whole Union.
Note. The “28th regime” is a proposed optional, uniform legal framework for businesses operating across the EU, designed to exist alongside the 27 national systems. Aimed at reducing administrative burdens, it features initiatives like “EU Inc.” for rapid, 48-hour online company registration, particularly for startups and scale-ups. While supported for boosting competitiveness, it faces criticism from trade unions regarding potential deregulation and social dumping. More in: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_BRI(2025)779233
However, as Commission President notes, the EU “labour standards will not be put into question”; the main regime’s aim is that businesses can operate across the member states much more easily and “grow in Europe as one market”. The Commission will offer a new, truly European company structure, called “the EU Inc.”; hence, the EU entrepreneurs will be able to register a company in any member state within 48 hours – fully online, with the same procedures and the same rules. They can operate smoothly across borders and access finance in the start-up and scale-up phase operations.
= Workers’ mobility. It is vital to remove the barriers that workers still face when they want to work in another EU member state. Free movement of people (and the right of establishment) is often held back by plenty of barriers and unnecessary bureaucracy; here are some examples: a nurse seeks for employment and asks for a local postal address as a pre-condition to start work (she needs an authorisation); a secondary school teacher is left waiting eight months for her diploma to be recognised; a pilot is expected to pay about €18,000 simply to have his qualification recognised in another member state (although, it is a “one Union”, etc.
These are skills that urgently need around the EU, and these obstacles are absurd: i.e. they are not only undermine mobility, they are wasting the talented workers that the states’ economies depend. That is why, the Commission’s decided to put forward a Fair Labour Mobility package in the months ahead to “revive free movement”.
More about EU’s further action to facilitate labour mobility, while ensuring that rules are properly enforced, in: https://www.fes.de/en/news/fair-labour-mobility-needs-a-strong-europe
= Skills and quality jobs. Presently, skills are the “bridge” between uncertainty and opportunity in people’s life: they are central to growth and competitiveness, to people’s sense of security and wellbeing. These issues are at the center and the purpose of the European Union of Skills program aimed to equip Europeans with the skills they need to thrive in a changing economy.
There are some examples to approach in action: in Italy, under the NextGenEU programs, about 600.000 people are being trained in digital and other in-demand skills – these programs are designed together with employers and social partners to ensure they respond directly to labour market needs.
More on the Union of Skills in: https://www.integrin.dk/2025/03/05/union-of-skills-delivering-new-sectoral-challenges/
The EU moves further on: e.g. by suggesting the future Skills Guarantee program in 2025 to help people to move from sectors in digital transition to those sectors that are facing shortages and are desperately looking for skilled personnel. The Skills Guarantee means more investment in upskilling, helping companies to adapt jobs as they deploy artificial intelligence’s models.
It means, generally, that trade unions and employers would work together to anticipate changes in the labour market; in this way the EU is going to prepare the Union’s job market for AI and new digital technologies, while “turning digital transformation into opportunities”.
Note. The European Skills Guarantee is a new tool to support workers and companies. It helps workers in sectors undergoing transition move into companies in growing and strategic sectors which will offer them new jobs and on-the-job training. It is tested through a pilot that will trial new models to make job transitions easier and more secure. Source:
https://employment-social-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies-and-activities/skills-and-qualifications/union-skills/european-skills-guarantee_en
Skills must not only be developed, they must also be valued and rewarded through quality jobs: this is why the Commission is closely working with the member states’ governance on the forthcoming Quality Jobs Act. Its aim is simple: to ensure strong protection for workers, while supporting competitiveness and productivity in a changing world of work. These are two sides of one coin: quality jobs are not only good for workers, they raise productivity, attract talent and build the skilled workforce needed to compete globally. Besides, quality jobs are good for business in the EU-wide and in the member states.
Reference to: https://www.cesi.org/posts/quality-jobs-bring-tangible-improvements
= Housing affordability. Affordability’s concept describes things one can afford to pay for because they don’t cost too much. People move to certain neighborhoods because of the affordability of housing there, and others decide the affordability of community college makes it a great place to get an education. Sometimes this word is used to mean “cost or price”. For example, housing is not just a commodity, but a fundamental right and a cornerstone of human dignity. But across Europe, there is a palpable feeling of injustice at the sheer unaffordability and unavailability of housing. The EU housing plan” is based on 4 pillars: -boosting housing supply; – mobilising investment; – enabling immediate support while driving reforms; and – protecting the most affected.
Reference to: https://housing.ec.europa.eu/european-affordable-housing-plan_en
The affordability is felt more directly in houses: a home is not just four walls and a roof, it is safety, warmth and a place for family and friends. But for too many Europeans today, home has become a source of anxiety, and often meant debt or uncertainty. Across Europe, the consequences are numerous: students turning down university places for lack of accommodation, young couples delaying starting a family because they cannot afford a place to live, nurses and firefighters unable to live in the communities they serve.
The European Affordable Housing plan sets out to support all levels of national authorities and bring stakeholders together, to bring affordable housing to all Europeans. The Commission wants to curb short-term rentals where they drive up prices, and to remove unnecessary barriers in planning and permitting. The Commission has already revised the State Aid rules to accelerate investment in housing. With the EU next long-term budget, it will be easier to direct EU funds into affordable housing. Besides, the Commission intends to present a Recommendation on Fighting Housing Exclusion: because today, more than one million people in Europe do not have a home to return to; it is not acceptable, and everyone deserves a safe place to call home, concludes the Commission President.
Source: https://housing.ec.europa.eu/european-affordable-housing-plan_en
Consumer’s protection
The safety of consumer products is one of the main EU-wide priorities: the record number of alerts reported in 2025 through the Safety Gate system demonstrates that Europe’s product safety framework is becoming stronger, more effective, and – most importantly – essential. National authorities are detecting dangerous products more quickly and removing them faster. From identifying banned chemicals in cosmetics to unsafe toys or home appliances, the Commission and national authorities are having -through the Safety gate- a comprehensive toolbox to ensure that all products sold in the EU meet the highest safety standards. The Safety Gate, as the European Rapid Alert System, was created to mitigate circulation of dangerous non-food products a couple of decades ago.
Michael McGrath, Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection notes that the Commission has prepared (together with national market authorities) the 2026 product safety sweep to check compliance with the General Product Safety Regulation. A ‘sweep’ is a set of checks carried out online simultaneously to identify breaches of EU product safety requirements in a particular sector.
On the EU’s General Product Safety Regulation in: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/988/oj/eng#:~:text=Regulation%20%28EU%29%202023%2F988%20of%20the%20European%20Parliament%20and,Parliament%20and%20the%20Council%2C%20and%20repealing%20Directive%20200
The Commission is organising presently some coordinated actions among the member states along the “safety of products” plan: under coordinated actions, national authorities would cooperate to test together specific products and exchange best practices to enhance their market surveillance operations. As announced in the Single Market Strategy 2025 and in the 2030 Consumer Agenda, the Commission will update the rules on market surveillance and compliance of products in the upcoming European Product Act later this year, with a view to strengthen EU market surveillance rules to ensure that only compliant and safe products enter the Single Market.
More on EU’s safety in: https://op.europa.eu/webpub/just/safety-gate-2025-report/en/
Over 4,6 thousand alerts were notified in the Safety Gate system by 2025, the highest recorded number since the system was launched in 2003: this is a 13% increase compared to 2024, and more than double the number of alerts reported in 2022. National authorities also issued a record number of follow-up actions, with about 6 thousand follow-up actions notified, which is a 35% increase compared to the previous year. The compliance’s system, reinforced under the General Product Safety Regulation, allows for an increasingly systematic sharing of information between market surveillance authorities across the EU states and the European Economic Area. The Safety Gate in 2025, helped in scanning over 1.6 million websites and found more than 20,800 of dangerous products; besides, the consumers can also report safety issues in the Consumer Safety Gateway.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_537