go to the original language article
“`html
Brussels – Spain is at the bottom of the European Union in social convergence due to its levels of risk of poverty and social exclusion, school dropout, and unemployment, according to a report published this Wednesday by the European Commission.
Spain registers negative results in 10 of the 17 social indicators evaluated by Brussels, which places it among the ten community partners with “potential risks for upward social convergence” after analyzing the labor market situation, training and social challenges of the Twenty-Seven.
These also include Romania, Greece, and Italy, the only ones with worse results than Spain, as well as Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Croatia, and Luxembourg, countries that the Community Executive will now subject to more thorough examination.
In the case of Spain, the “traffic light” system used by Brussels classifies as “critical” (red) the situation in four indicators linked to the risk of poverty and social exclusion and school dropout, believes that “requires monitoring” (orange) the income inequality and the rate of “ninis” -young people who neither study nor work-, and that the employment situation remains “weak although it is improving” (yellow).
Poverty and exclusion
“Spain faces challenges regarding social protection and inclusion,” begins the analysis of the European Commission, which notes that in 2023 the population at risk of poverty and social exclusion increased to 26.5% overall and 34.5% among children, “well above” the 21.3% and 24.8% average in the EU, respectively.
Brussels believes this can be partly attributed to the difficulties of social protection systems in providing adequate coverage, to regional disparities in access to public services, and to the persistently high rate of poverty among those who have jobs.
It also adds that, despite having improved, income inequality remained high in 2023, at 5.5 compared to 4.7 in the EU measured as a ratio between the incomes of the richest 20% and the poorest 20%.
The Commission highlights, on the other hand, that the impact of social benefits (except pensions) on poverty reduction fell to 22.9%, compared to 34.7% in the EU, and that these are particularly ineffective in tackling child poverty.
Unemployment and school dropout
As for the Spanish labor market, Brussels highlights that “it has improved significantly but still faces challenges”.
The employment rate increased “substantially” to 70.5%, but is below the 75.3% in the EU, and the unemployment levels (12.2%) and long-term unemployment (4.3%) are “still very high despite large declines”, so these indicators are out of last year’s “critical” level but remain “weak”.
The report also asks to monitor the still high rate of “ninis”, despite having fallen to 12.3% in 2023, and notes that although household per capita incomes registered a “strong increase”, this indicator remains “weak”.
On the other hand, the Commission highlights as “critical” the level of school dropout, 13.7% compared to 9.5% in the EU, despite it having decreased and emphasizes that it is particularly high in the south and east of the country.
On the positive side, the report highlights that Spain is among the best in the EU in terms of the employment gap for people with disabilities, which is one of the lowest in the bloc and continues to decline, and is above average in the number of children under three years old in nurseries and in the proportion of citizens with digital skills.
The country is in line with the average in other analyzed indicators, such as housing cost, access to healthcare, adult training, and gender employment gap.
Spain thus remains for the second consecutive year among the red lanterns of this report, which was drafted for the first time in 2023 precisely at the request of the Spanish and Belgian governments, which promoted an initiative for the European Semester, which coordinates the economic policies of the Twenty-Seven, to also analyze social indicators. (December 18)
“`