The European Commission wants to move forward, in 2026, with a future Quality Employment Law and has already defined a roadmap to guide Member States, according to the Spanish newspaper La Razón. The initiative is presented as a way to promote “quality and future-proof” jobs in a competitive European Union, although the details of future legislation are still being developed.
What Brussels means by “quality employment”
In practical terms, the concept is not yet closed to a single definition, but the Commission points to a set of elements that, together, describe what it intends to encourage. These include fair remuneration, safe and healthy working conditions, protection against stress and other risks at work, job security, work-life balance, gender equality, access to skills, training and professional development, social protection and collective bargaining coverage, according to the same source.
The logic presented by Brussels links the quality of employment to well-being and a more robust “social Europe”, but also to economic objectives. According to the newspaper, the Commission argues that workers in higher quality jobs tend to boost innovation and productivity. The idea is that companies that offer better conditions can more easily attract and retain talent, reducing turnover and associated costs.
The European Semester and the diagnosis of the labor market
The topic is also associated with the European Semester, the EU’s economic and social policy coordination mechanism. The same source states that the Commission’s analysis points to structural weaknesses in European labor markets and highlights the need to raise the quality of employment as a response to these failures, including through documents such as the joint employment report.
Five axes that serve as the basis of the roadmap
The strategy presented by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, organizes the path into five priorities. According to the same source, measures are at stake to encourage job creation, promote adequate working conditions, advance modernization, promote fair transitions for workers and protect key elements such as respect for existing labor rights.
What can change and what still needs to be finalized
Even though the final legal text is not finalized, the published framework points to a review and update of minimum worker protection standards, combined with competitiveness concerns, especially in the case of small companies. According to the same source, Brussels says it wants to find a balance between strengthening guarantees and the business fabric’s ability to adapt.
In practice, this can translate into greater attention to areas such as working conditions, safety and health, time organization, work-life balance, access to training and social protection, in addition to the weight of collective bargaining. The way in which these dimensions will be transformed into concrete obligations for employers and effective rights for workers still depends on the final design of the proposal.
Although the roadmap points to 2026 as the year for proposal and legislative advancement, the exact scope of the measures, implementation deadlines and possible transition periods, as well as the articulation with existing rules, remain to be clarified. According to the newspaper, the Commission intends to combine legislative and non-legislative initiatives, but the real impact will only become clearer when the final text is known and goes through the negotiation process at European and national level.
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