The year 2022 ended with a great success for our sector, which announces a promising future.
Indeed, we have seen the social priorities of the European Union evolve to better include home care professions in the reflections surrounding the implementation of the European pillar of social rights, in particular with regard to the rights of vulnerable populations and their access to affordable and quality care, such as children, the elderly or people with disabilities. In addition, in 2022 the European Commission for the first time looked into the rights of formal and informal carers and people in need of care.
We must continue this mobilization and stay the course for 2023 to encourage political decision-makers to initiate the strategic changes imposed by the societal changes that await us! 2023 will bring us, we hope, the strengthening and structuring of a sector, that stills today too often excluded or ignored by national or European public policies and yet essential to meet the care needs with regard to aging of the European population: response to training and skills recognition needs and provision of effective solutions to combat household undeclared work.
As Member States prepare to implement the European Care strategy and as the EU prepares to put training issues on the table as part of the European Year of Skills, EFFE will work actively to prepare major events in 2023 to support Member States.
It is in this perspective that EFFE is launching a new political observatory, the EFFE Lab. Its mission is to help European and national policy makers by providing the data and policy tools they need to redesign their care systems for the better – this is the purpose of the comprehensive study of the state of personal and household services in the 27 countries of the EU. It also bring a fresh perspective to issues affecting healthcare systems and the workforce in the EU.
The year 2023 is also the tenth year since our federation was founded. The celebration of this partnership is our main event for 2023. EFFE has been recognized since January 2022 by its employer and union counterparts as an employer organization representing the sector. In addition, EFFE sealed its commitment with EFFAT, EFSI and UNI-Europa as social partners in the personal and household services sector to jointly increase sectoral recognition, working conditions and perceptions at EU level. In March 2022, the European Commissioner responsible for employment and social rights, Nicolas Schmit, paved the way and officially recognized our four organizations as social partners and the official opening of a European social dialogue on PHS to create diversity of services.
Thus, the event will be the culmination of the work carried out with the Member States in 2022 and 2023 to make the 10 years a political shift in the perspective of the future European mandate. This event will highlight the work carried out by EFFE for European citizens around various issues that will serve as the basis for the drafting of a “home employment pact”.
These new and promising paths do not make us forget our areas of activity and priorities: the recognition and visibility of the home employment sector at European level, the improvement of the working conditions of home employees and the inclusion of the home employment sector in European public policies. EFFE calls for EU support and the creation, at European level and within Member States, of an enabling environment for domestic employers and domestic workers to exercise their right to organize and bargain collectively while taking into account the specificities of each EU Member State.
On behalf of EFFE and its entire team, we sincerely thank you for your collaboration and support throughout this pivotal year for our sector and we hope to continue to see great innovative ideas sprout for new perspectives for EFFE.
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