Lecture | Seminar
Social Europe in the context of the green and digital transition
- Mr. Antoine Kasel (Head of Cabinet to the European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights)
- Date
- Friday 24 March 2023
- Time
- Serie
- European Union Seminar Series
- Address
-
P.J. Veth
Nonnensteeg 1-3
2311 VJ Leiden - Room
- 1.01
After a decade of austerity and weakening social rights for many European citizens, the European Commission announced a bold new proposal, the European Pillar of Social Rights. It is seen by many as a revival of the old idea of Social Europe: the EU as a guarantor not only of individual economic freedoms but also of social rights, of democracy not only at the ballot, but also in the workplace. While many see this social turn as necessary for EU’s political survival, and warn that climate transition must be accompanied by measures to ensure social justice, others worry that the EU’s current constitutional setup leaves it very little space to enact meaningful social change. Recent proposals, for an EU-wide minimum wage and for protection of platform workers, have also drawn a lot of controversy. In this talk, Commissioner Schmit talks about the Commission’s plans to create a Social Europe in the context of the green and digital transitions, and the strategies it is putting in place to achieve these goals.
About the speaker
Antoine Kasel is the Head of Cabinet of the EU Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rigths, Mr. Nicolas Schmit. Before that, he was a member of the cabinet for the former President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker whom he advised on economic and financial affiars. Before joining the Commission, Mr. Kasel worked between 2002 and 2014 in various positions within the Luxembourg Ministry of foreign affairs and Ministry of Finance, and was responsible, among other, for representing Luxembourg in the negotiations on the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance (TSCG), as well as in the negotiations within the Economic and Finance Committee, the Euro Working Group, and the EU multi-annual financial framework.
