Europe has to address existing discrepancies to strengthen its social model, PL MEP Alfred Sant has said.

"Genuine recognition that the European project needs to put vigour back into its social model will only happen after Europe addresses the discrepancies and contradictions, which are byproducts of the enlargement of the EU over the last twenty years," Maltese MEP Alfred Sant said while addressing a conference on the EU Pillar of Social Rights, organised by the UHM.

"Ploughing forward with further projects of integration towards economic and monetary union without taking into account the social divide that is still growing, will be counter productive." He said that tt will continue to increase the disparities between social facts as they prevail on the ground in Europe, and the guidelines described in the social pillar document signed in Sweden,  at least on paper. "Such disparities become even more glaring with respect to the European Parliament's resolution on social rights."

Alfred Sant emphasised the need for consolidation.

"First the divergences between north and south, between east and centre of Europe have to be tackled through a political programme that does not rely uniquely on free market mechanisms. The same applies to the social divergences within member states, between people who enjoy the benefits of safe and well paid employment, and those who work for much less remunerative pay and/or who must accept precarious employment conditions."

Dr Sant said that "we need a radical evaluation of where we are and why we got here. In such an exercise, it will be important to determine the extent to which the enlargement and deepening strategies of the nineties are circumscribing today our options for social renewal. There was much overreach in what they attempted to achieve, and we are now facing the consequences, even though growth has returned in a consistent way for the EU as a whole. The strategies adopted in the nineties are limiting drastically the scope for advances on the social front, given the significant retreats that were carried out since 2008."

"The truth is that in social policy, the EU lags well beyond the expectations it has aroused and the targets it had set for itself. Crucially, the economic machinery now in place to counter negative growth rates, monetary instability and financial imbalances relies through "internal devaluation" almost exclusively on a push back of social conditions."

The Maltese MEP said earlier this year, in the run up to the setting of the social pillar, that the European Parliament proclaimed this commitment in a comprehensive resolution that passed by a big majority. "It listed social policy measures across an exhaustive range of areas and concerns. Perhaps it was over ambitious and set targets that surely cannot be reached in the foreseeable future. But at least, the Parliament's approach acknowledged that much remains to be done," remarked Dr Sant.