The third and final day of this autumn's plenary session of the European Committee of the Regions (14 October) saw a debate on the subject of social affairs and jobs with Nicolas Schmit, the EU Commissioner for jobs and social rights.

The debate opened with Mr Schmit outlining the European Commission's plans to create more jobs despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and to improve working life for European citizens. Mr Schmit also discussed the idea of implementing an EU-wide "minimum wage". ECR member and vice-chair of the SEDEC commission Matteo Bianchi spoke in response to the Luxembourg Commissioner. While agreeing that the intentions of the Commission were good, he argued that the way to achieve better results for European citizens would be through adopting policies that integrate the regions and respect national and regional outlooks in relation to local economies and jobs.

Mr Bianchi began his speech by describing the jobs situation and state of the economy in Italy where he serves as a member of Morazzone Municipal Council and a Member of the Italian Parliament. The ECR member illustrated how various sectors, especially tourism, had suffered and, as a result, how thousands of people had lost their jobs, saying: "We in Italy, like our friends in Spain and Greece, rely on tourism and the disposable income of EU citizens for our economic growth. The decline of tourism because of COVID-19 has greatly disadvantaged our workers, especially seasonal ones."

Mr Bianchi then turned to the subject of the proposed "EU minimum wage". Mr Bianchi cautioned against this, warning that a minimum wage that does not take into account various factors like the widely differing cost of living throughout Europe could actually be detrimental, specifically to young people who want to acquire skills and could actually be priced out of the labour market by an EU minimum wage.

"Two million young Italians have left Italy since 2008 because of lack of work. Instead of creating an EU minimum wage we should adopt policies that reflect national distinctions and allow young people to remain in their home regions and acquire skills so that they can pursue higher level jobs and start families."