On June 26th, the Consortium of the EU-funded project Social Protection for Self-Employed (SP4SE), of which CEPLIS is a beneficiary member, gathered in Brussels at the European Economic and Social Committee for its highly anticipated final conference. This event marked the culmination of two years of unwavering dedication and hard work, providing an excellent platform for the Consortium to present its achievements and discuss the future of social protection for self-employed individuals across the EU.
Led by Confprofessioni, the conference saw the participation of numerous attendees from various EU Member States. The focus was on addressing the challenges faced by self-employed individuals in accessing decent and adequate social protection. The event kicked off with a comprehensive presentation of the project, followed by a roundtable discussion with beneficiary partners who delved into the most pressing issues affecting their socio-economic category. In that context, our Director-General, Theodoros Koutroubas, and the representative of our Belgian member UNPLIB, Michaël Van Gompen, highlighted the significant legislative progess realised in Belgium as good practice to follow. Professor Koutroubas underlined the need of deepening gender equality in the workplace, and the necessity of fostering harmonization in social protection to ensure uniform coverage for all self-employed individuals.
The conference also featured representatives from the European Commission, who shared their work and priorities on social protection. Their insights provided an additional perspective on the ongoing efforts at the EU level to support the self-employed.
As the SP4SE project concludes, the discussions and outcomes from this final conference will pave the way for future initiatives aimed at improving social protection for self-employed.