Last week the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted a very powerful report (rapporteur, Georges Dassis) on the right to a decent minimum income.

Despite economic recovery and decreasing unemployment, poverty still is unacceptably high, says the report. That demonstrates that ‘soft law’ such as the open method of coordination and the European Semester need to be accompanied by more binding legal tools. The EESC urges for the adoption of an EU framework directive taking into account the standard of living in countries, based on a common EU methodology of reference budgets. The report states that nobody should hide behind the subsidiarity principle any more, but that the existing legal bases should be used to realize people’s human rights. This could make action to reinforce the minimum income principle a key priority for implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

The report refers to the work of EMIN and EAPN and to the research of the Antwerp University, our partners in EMIN, working on reference budgets”.

For more information see https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/our-work/opinions-information-reports/opinions/european-framework-directive-minimum-income-own-initiative-opinion