IFSW Europe is a contributor to the EAPN report: Putting Social Rights and Poverty reduction at the heart of EU’s COVID-19 response. Frances McDonnell (IFSW European Representative) and Ian Johnston (Member of the IFSW European Support Group to EAPN) prepared our contribution to the report.
IFSW Europe fully endorses the EAPN recommendations to urgently revise the 2020 CSRs (see Chapters 1.1 and 3.1) to prioritise urgent direct support to people (not just economic support to companies and markets) and to reinforce quality public health and social care services.
The rational for this is that human rights and social justice must remain at the forefront of all efforts in confronting these unprecedented events and their impact into the future. IFSW Europe underlines that the COVID19 pandemic must bring about a rethink on the place of public health, social services and social protection systems in all countries of Europe based on the principle that people really do matter more than anything else – the social must balance the economic.
There must also be a re-focus that gives real meaning to the demand of “leaving no one behind”. For IFSW Europe the principles in the European Pillar of Social Right, above all, must be at the heart of the future of Europe.