- The level of social protection that exists in a society is the most appropriate indicator to measure what public policy is carried out to combat inequality and increase solidarity. For this reason, at the international level, a homogeneous statistic is often used to measure social protection, taking into account functions such as health care, old age (including pensions), disability, unemployment, housing, social exclusion, family benefits, etc.
This statistic is called “Social Protection Accounts” and it reflects how much of the wealth generated in a territory is destined to this area (that is, it measures the percentage of GDP used in social protection). The fluctuation of this percentage indicates the extent to which policies are social: the larger they are, the more social policies will be; on the contrary, the smaller they are, the less social policies will be.
The share of wealth destined for social protection is decreasing in the Basque Country
The Basque Institute of Statistics, Eustat, has just launched the Social Protection Accounts, which cover the situation in the Basque Country in 2015, as well as its evolution. The economic resources allocated to social protection in 2015 amounted to €16,938 million, or 24.5% of GDP:
- In recent years, the amount has come to a standstill: the share of wealth devoted to social protection has fallen by almost one point since 2013 (25.4% of GDP this year).
- The stagnation has been caused by the institutions of the Spanish State (pension expenditure has increased but unemployment benefits have decreased), but also by the UAE (Basque Government, Provincial Councils and City Councils).
The share of wealth that has been used for social protection in the Basque Country is in the final positions at European level, far from the EU average level.
Taking the data published by Eustat, the economic effort in social protection in the Basque Country can be compared with that in other parts of the European Union.
Our authorities and the media that control them want to convince us that the situation in the Basque Country is privileged; that in almost no other place in the world is more money allocated to health, social benefits, housing policy, etc. (denouncing the fervent propaganda of the Basque Government through the public media, especially the EITB group, without balance or rigour).
The truth has nothing to do with this propaganda. The official data are clear. The last year for which we have information at EU level is 2014; in this regard, the following is noteworthy:
- The average level of social protection in Europe was 28.7%, 3.8 points higher than in the Basque Country. To reach this average level, social protection resources in the Basque Country should be improved by 3 billion euros per year.
- The level of social protection in the Basque Country is only higher than in the countries of Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Ireland and Luxembourg. Our level of social protection is below that of Portugal, Greece and Spain, which channel more of their wealth.
- On the other hand, if we compare it with other Member States, the difference is even greater, and in some cases enormous. For example, 29.1 per cent of wealth is used for social protection in Germany, 29.6 per cent in Sweden, 30 per cent in Belgium and 34.3 per cent in France. Thus, in these countries, the expenditure on social protection is almost 10 percentage points higher in each case.
- If this difference is expressed in euros, the conclusion is that if the same economic effort were made in the Basque Country as in the Spanish State, the resources for social protection would have to be increased by 420 million euros per year, by 1.4 billion to reach the level of Portugal, by 3.570 million to equip it with Italy, by 4.2 billion to join the Netherlands and by 6.580 million to reach the level of France. We could also give more examples.
This article has been published by the Manu Robles Arangiz Foundation and we have brought it to LUZ under the Creative Commons license.