EU Social Package: Anti-poverty strategy, European child guarantee, disability strategy and Council recommendation on housing exclusion – a BusinessEurope position paper

BusinessEurope welcomes the activation-first framing of the social package adopted on 6 May 2026, comprising the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy, the Communication on strengthening the European Child Guarantee, the Communication enhancing the Strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities up to 2030, and the Council Recommendation on fighting housing exclusion. A competitive economy with dynamic and functioning labour markets is the first condition for sustainable poverty reduction. We support the package’s recognition that quality jobs and economic competitiveness are mutually reinforcing, and caution against any drift towards new prescriptive obligations on employers or expansion of EU instruments into areas of national competence: social protection, minimum income, child benefits and housing.

BusinessEurope's messages

• Ensure the first-stage Article 154 TFEU consultation on activation is genuine, two-stage, and allows sufficient time for substantiated social partner input.
• Maintain the in-work poverty Recommendation outside the scope of wage-setting throughout its development, and ensure it is grounded in the productivity-and-competitiveness framing of the Quality Jobs agenda.
• Avoid introducing an EU-level binary classification of ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ jobs in any instrument arising from this package.
• Differentiate activation measures by target group and avoid one-size-fits-all EU-level case management models.
• Preserve national competence over social protection, minimum income, child benefits and housing policy.
• Use EU financial instruments, including the ESF, to support employer-led training rather than impose new financing obligations on business.
• Respect the autonomy and voluntary nature of social dialogue in developing any follow-up to this package, in line with the 2023 Council Recommendation on social dialogue.