The European Semester is an annual process resulting in the European Commission’s publishing of recommendations to the Member States on how to improve pressing socio-economic issues they are facing. While the recommendations, known as the “Country-Specific Recommendations” are not binding, Member States are obliged to report to the Commission on how they are addressing the recommendations, and it is supposed to give guidance to how they use their EU funding.
On the 24 November 2022, the European Commission released what is known as the Autumn Package. This kicks off the annual European Semester cycle. With the Autumn Package, the Commission sets out general social and economic priorities for the EU for the following year.
Among the documents released as part of this package is the Joint Employment Report. This report provides an overview of key employment and social developments in Europe as well as an explanation of Member States’ actions for reform. It gives us a good general overview of where the Member States face particular issues and, importantly, signals what the Commission is likely to focus on the most in its recommendations to Member States as part of the EU Semester in 2023.
The 2022 Joint Employment Report makes many mentions of persons with disabilities, and the particular challenges that the disabled community faces in the EU’s 27 Member States. Here are some of the main take-aways and what we can expect to see the Commission focus on in this Semester cycle:
The disability employment gap
The disability employment gap has become a solid focus of the European Commission in recent years. It refers to the difference in employment rates between persons with and without disabilities. The Joint Employment Report highlights that the disability employment gap between persons with disabilities and others stood at 24.5 percentage points in the EU in 2020, which is the latest available data at the EU’s disposal.
It also shows that the EU disability employment gap has widened by 1.8 percentage points since the measurements first started in 2014, indicating that it is a growing problem. The disability employment gap was deemed to be most critical in Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Ireland, although for Ireland up-to-date figures were still missing. It was also shown to be problematic, although less so, in Malta, Romania and Sweden.
Among the Member States shown to have recently taken at least some measures to address employment of persons with disabilities were Czechia, Denmark, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Austria, Portugal and Slovakia.
The report points out that there is considerable potential for stronger labour market participation among persons with disabilities, meaning that this is a point we can expect to see .
Early school leavers
The report was quite revealing about how impacted persons with disabilities are by non-completion of compulsory education. It point out that at EU level about 21.8% of young persons with disabilities (aged 18-24) were early school leavers compared to only 9.7% for those without.
It explains that young men and boys with disabilities were statistically more likely to be early leavers from education, at a rate of 27% compared to 16.7% for young women and girls with disabilities. Young migrants with disabilities were shown to be particularly prone to not completing education, with a drop-out rate of 34.6%.
Persons with disabilities were also shown to be less likely to complete higher education. In the EU 32.5% of persons with disabilities completed tertiary education or equivalent in 2019 against 43.6% for persons without.
The level of a person’s education was shown to have a clear impact on access to the labour market, thus underlining the importance of investing in accessible, quality education. The employment gap for persons with disabilities who completed higher education, in comparison to persons without disabilities, was 14 percentage points on average in the EU. For persons with disabilities who had not completed higher education the disability employment gap grew to an EU average of 28 percentage points.
Poverty and Social Exclusion of persons with disabilities
The Joint Employment Report points out that in the EU 28.9% of persons with disabilities face a risk of poverty or social exclusion compared to 19% of those without. Furthermore it notes that this figure is on the rise.
The highest risk of poverty and social exclusion for persons with disabilities was in Bulgaria (52.3%), Estonia (40.4%), Latvia (39.3%), Lithuania (38.7%), Croatia (38.2%). The report also highlighted that, among persons with disabilities, women are more at risk of poverty and social exclusion, with an EU average of 29.9% compared to 27.7% for men with disabilities.
With the current cost of living crisis, and its disproportionate impact on persons with disabilities, we can be sure to expect poverty and social exclusion in particular to be a focal aspect of the 2023 European Semester cycle.
Contact
Haydn Hammersley – Social Policy Coordinator
haydn.hammersley@edf-feph.org