Spain
Please return before 15 January to Cüneyt Söyler (InfoSocial@solidar.org ) and Elsa Laino (Elsa.Laino@solidar.org)
Benchmark
Report 2013
Feedback (comments, analysis, feedback)
Main issues that were indicated
by SOLIDAR members in a joint
meeting of the Education Expert
Network and the Social Affairs
Committee as policy priorities to
make concrete steps towards
realising active inclusion and
social cohesion within the
upcoming policy cycle:
Statements extracted from the 2013 EU
Staff Working Document, the 2014 EU
Annual Growth Survey, the 2013 EU
Employment and Social Situation Quarterly
Report, the 2014 EU Draft Joint
Employment Report, the 2013 EU
Education and Training Monitor and the
2012 Analytic Report: Participatory
Citizenship in the European Union. Please
consult these complete reports on
SOLIDAR website.
Please insert your comments and feedback on the developments within your
country, indicate if you agree with the European Commission analysis (or not),
provide feedback on the indicated statements and include issues that you
consider to be missing in the analysis and provide examples.
1. Reduce unemployment
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Unemployment in Spain is amongst
the highest in the EU; long-term
unemployment and youth
unemployment (57.3% in 2013) are
on the rise. A high proportion of
unemployed people are without
formal qualifications (35.2% in 2012)
and the insufficient relevance of
education and training to the labour
market contribute to this high youth
unemployment rate.

Strong effort is needed to reduce the
number of young people not in
employment, education or training
(NEETs) and the high number of
young unemployed without formal
qualifications, partly by developing a
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2. Improve access to and
quality of healthcare and
social services

system of early career counselling
(cooperation between schools and
PES), job-search assistance for the
young unemployed and early school
leavers and improved systems for
the validation of competences
acquired at work to facilitate re-entry
to education and training and
targeted re-skilling.
In-work poverty rates remained at
12.3 % in 2011, above the EU
average, reflecting the deterioration
of the situation for some clusters of
the employed population (notably
young people, the low skilled and
temporary workers).
Poor language skills constitute an
important obstacle to studying and
working mobility, with negative
implications for youth employment.
The employability and working
conditions of older workers, partially
addressed with the measures on
early and part-retirement introduced
in March 2013, also deserve
attention to support the planned
increase in the statutory and the
effective retirement age.
According to the latest long-term
projections, public healthcare
spending in Spain will increase by
1.3 percentage points of GDP by
2060. Crisis-related expenditure
cuts have helped contain the growth
in spending. Public healthcare
expenditure decreased from 7.1% of
GDP in 2010 to 6.7% in 2011. In
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3. Promote access and
participation in lifelong
learning

4. Strengthen active
citizenship and volunteering
for social cohesion

2010 and 2011 savings originated
from cuts in the wage bill and
pharmaceutical expenditure. In
2012, measures specifying the
common basket of healthcare
benefits and an extension of copayments on pharmaceutical
products were adopted.
The National Competition Authority
refers to numerous competition
problems at regional level
(especially restrictive regulation) and
local level (protection of incumbents
in the area of public services).
In Spain there is a need to reinforce
the contribution of the education and
training system at all levels to
human capital formation. Major
challenges in the education system
are the transition from education
and training to the labour market, a
persistently high rate of early
leavers from education and training
(24.9% in 2012) and insufficient
tailoring of skills and capabilities to
market needs. Some 29% of 25-29
year-olds in Spain are not in
employment, education or training,
and vocational training remains
insufficiently used.
In Spain Participatory Citizenship is
about 'an individual's fundamental
right to participate and exercise
influence on the development of
society'. It incorporates a political
dimension (democracy, duties,
freedom, respect and participation),
a cultural dimension (identity,
diversity, multiculturalism,
interculturalism) and a social
dimension (equality, cohesion,
pluralism).
Political civil society activities:
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5. Fight discrimination and
social exclusion

Of those European countries that
provided an assessment of the
degree of policy emphasis of this
dimension: 11 countries assessed it
as having some policy emphasis
including Spain.
There has been relatively little
change in voting in national
elections in Spain.
Almost all EU countries have low
rates of adult volunteering for trade
unions and there was a complex mix
of countries across the range. There
was less than 1% engagement in
Spain.
France achieves the highest rates
with almost 45 per cent of the
population having been engaged in
legal protests and Denmark and
Spain are also above the 30 per
cent level.
Spain has moved further away from
its target of reducing the number of
people at risk of poverty and/or
social exclusion. On the contrary,
the latter rose by 0.7 million in 2011
alone, on top of the 1.1 million
increase in 2010. Meanwhile, the
social protection system has been
intensely challenged by the
recession. Poverty and social
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exclusion keep increasing, mainly as
a result of the labour market
situation, high household debt levels
and the limited effectiveness of the
social protection system to respond
to growing needs.
No progress has been made
towards meeting the target of
reducing the number of people at
risk of poverty and social exclusion
by 1.4-1.5 million by 2020. Severe
material deprivation affected 3.9 %
of the total population in 2011, while
the at-risk-of-poverty rate rose to
21.8 % and the at risk of poverty
and social exclusion to 27 %.
The share of people living in
households with very low work
intensity rose to 12.2 % in 2011.
Children are at particular risk of
poverty, showing the highest rate
among all age groups, especially in
low work intensity households.
6. Promote the social economy
General remarks and other
comments

Please add feedback on issues not
indicated in the above mentioned
bench marks
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