Alongside 65 organisations and academics, CECOP signed a public letter initiated by the Fiscal Matters coalition. The letter addresses EU leaders ahead of the European Council on 17-18 April 2024 where future EU priorities will be discussed.  

Co-signatories are expressing concern over the return of overly restrictive fiscal policy and warn that unnecessary fiscal consolidation will deepen existing economic, environmental, and social challenges. In particular, it is likely that the final compromise on the reform of the EU economic governance will trigger a wave of cuts to public budgets across Europe. Such fiscal policy leading to decreased public funding could negatively affects social economy enterprises and cooperatives that already face higher barriers and limited access to funding. To this end, targeted support to the social economy sector is needed, as requested in the letter. 

Furthermore, the letter calls on EU leaders to ensure the following policies at the core of the next strategic agenda: 

  • Design economic governance fit for the challenges of the next decade 
  • Establish a long-term EU just transformation fund post-2026 
  • New progressive taxes 
  • Public subsidies to companies should be targeted and conditional 
  • A progressive social agenda 

 

You can read the full letter here.