On the 18th July 2024, the now re-elected European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, published her political guidelines for the next European Commission 2024-2029. We can see that the notion of resilience has maintained its political relevance, featuring across the policy agenda from competition, crisis and disaster management, climate, democracy, health, agriculture, fisheries. Resilience is not brought into discussion on the future of social policies and the European Union, but we can see that there are several key points in the political guidelines that are relevant for our understanding of developing strong social policies to promote familial resilience.
First, the political guidelines recognise the tough times that families have faced over the recent years as a result of a number of cumulating crises: rising cost of living and increasingly inadequate incomes, greatening inequalities, housing and energy. Thereby speaking to our research calling for urgent action to address the plight of families struggling to stay afloat in these hard times. It is promising to see that this work will be framed with a new Action Plan on the Implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights. Within this, new initiatives are put forward addressing the new world of work including the impact of digitalisation, telework and the ‘always on’ culture, and new forms of work. All of which have great potential for supporting the reconciliation of work and family life, especially the proposal to introduce a right to disconnect. This is supported by actions to increase labour market participation, especially for women and young people. The political guidelines make clear that this must also be done with acknowledgement of the needs of young parents to maintain a healthy work-life balance. We hope that this will be accompanied by continued development of accessible and affordable early childhood education and care services. Addressing the root causes of demographic changes will also be on the table. This is highly relevant for families in the fields of pensions, public services, and labour shortages.
The need to respond to these harsh social realities is leading to several firsts: there will be the first ever EU anti-poverty strategy and a European affordable housing plan. We are pleased to see the weight put specifically behind the need to address the housing crisis for families and young people. It is also reassuring to see continued support for strengthening the child guarantee.
There will also be new equalities strategies developed which we hope will tackle discriminations and inequalities facing families across Europe. There will be a new Commissioner for Equalities tasked with updating the LGBTIQ equality strategy, and developing the anti-racism and gender equality strategies post 2025. The realities of families in all their diversity as they work and care need to be mainstreamed across these strategies.
Across all these areas, research coming out of the rEUsilience project stands by to support these initiatives as they develop.