EU Social Policy and Security: Health and Labor Rights
EU Social Policy and Social Security
Public Health in the European Union
The Treaty of Amsterdam established the need for the EU to address the health of its citizens holistically. The most considered areas are cancer, addiction, disease transmission, and general measures for health protection. The EU seeks to improve health information, establish rapid response mechanisms for threats such as epidemics, and prevent diseases.
In this sense, it launched the Community Action Program in the field of public health (2003-2008), replaced by the Second Community Action Program in the field of Public Health (2008-2013). The Community Action Program in the field of Public Health 2003-2008 replaced partial programs such as the Program for Prevention Action on AIDS, drug abuse, and rare diseases. It is part of the EU Health Strategy, a strategy that aims at achieving a coherent and effective policy on health issues. The strategy has tried to achieve:
- Improved information and knowledge to promote health by creating a comprehensive system for collecting and analyzing data.
- Increased capacity for a coordinated response to health threats.
- Tackling the determinants of health.
In April 2006, a decision was approved to set up a Community Action Program in the field of health and consumer protection 2007-2013. Its objectives are to:
- Protect citizens against health threats.
- Promote policies aimed at encouraging healthy lifestyles.
- Contribute to reducing the incidence of major diseases.
- Contribute to the development of more effective and efficient health systems.
Today, several agencies are achieving higher levels of health in the EU, including the Executive Agency for Public Health Program (PHEA) and the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. The White Paper Together for Health (2007) outlined several core principles on health, and health values are shared across the EU.
Social Policy and Social Security
Introduction
Social Security is one of the essential elements on which social policy has formed the backbone of developed societies in our cultural environment. Social Security can be studied from multiple perspectives, including:
- Legal: as a system that recognizes the rights of citizens of a benefit nature within it.
- Economic: because sustainability is directly tied to financial and economic variables, and because it plays a primary role in income redistribution through a public system of pensions and benefits.
- Labor: because its main features have emerged or are linked to work on their own or others, and because the system itself depends on the labor market developments.
- Social: because it is intended to ensure a benefit package of direct impact on society.
- Assistance: because the former benefits of a contributory nature have been supplemented by other non-contributory pensions.
The Origin of Social Security
Causes of the Appearance of Social Insurance
At the root of social insurance is, as a crucial but not unique factor, the 19th-century Industrial Revolution. On the economic side, the prevailing liberalism of the bourgeoisie established the inviolability of property, freedom of industry, commercial freedom, and freedom of contract. This generated prosperity for a few and left the working classes unprotected, resulting in insecurity and instability of employment.
To this must be added the principles of so-called Social Darwinism, supported by certain leaders of liberal thought. According to this ideology, the superior man prevails over the inferior, and the stronger over the weaker, which inexorably condemned the most vulnerable. As discussed by Martin Mateo, not coming to their aid was upsetting to theoretically unassailable laws; the strong must prevail, ensuring a vigorous race. A similar conclusion is drawn from the tenets of radical liberal thinkers influential in the last third of the 20th century, including Spencer. He argued that while justice is necessary for social stability and therefore in the public domain, charity is not necessary for this balance and is, therefore, of private concern.