Do not lose momentum on the Social Taxonomy
Eurochild and 13 other European networks ask the European Commission to include a social & human rights dimension in the EU Taxonomy framework.
The open letter, lead by the European Disability Forum, is addressed to Commissioner for financial services, financial stability and capital markets union mairead McGuinness and Commissioner for jobs and social rights Nicolas Schmit.
The Commission’s advisory platform on sustainable finance in February last year published a report on a potential social taxonomy for human and labor rights issues in supply chains. The EU Taxonomy Regulation also mandated that the EU executive to publish a report by December 31, 2021 on provisions needed to extend the scope of the regulation beyond environmentally sustainable economic activities — but the Commission hasn’t published such a report yet.
A social taxonomy would reinforce existing EU policy such as the European Pillar of Social Rights, the Equality Strategies, the initiative to eradicate child labour or forced labour. It would contribute to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals just as the Environmental Taxonomy contributes to the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate.
Social-economic activities could be those aimed at reducing negative impacts for workers (e.g., upskilling / life-long learning programmes for workers in situation of vulnerability or workplace adaptation to make workplaces more inclusive), or those enhancing the inherent positive impacts of an economic activity (e.g., improving accessibility to healthcare or housing for certain groups of people).
