The Path Taken Is the Right One

The single market has represented the EU's principal stronghold since its inception, hand in hand with fundamental economic freedoms. The EU's social focus developed later on, as the initial assumption on which the EU was founded, i.e. that the single market would foster social equality and growth by removing all restrictions on the movement of people, goods, capital and services, has been partially debunked by the course of EU history. Although the single market certainly fostered economic growth and social development and cohesion across the European continent, it was not enough to protect and support to a satisfactory extent individuals who are at the mercy of market dynamics, workers in particular.
Therefore, there has been a steady but sure propulsion towards a truly socially conscious EU, where social rights go hand in hand with economic freedoms and take on equal importance.
In the past few years, the social agenda driven by the European Pillar of Social Rights has been at the center of the attention of the European institutions and especially of the European Commission. In this framework, the Covid pandemic served as a trigger to accelerate some processes and to add to the EU's to-do list a number of social issues that were neglected in the past.
We could mention a number of initiatives in this regard.
Undoubtedly, a good example is represented by the Guidelines About Collective Agreements Regarding the Working Conditions of Solo Self-Employed People, adopted in 2022 by the European Commission as an attempt to address the complex issue of equating self-employed workers to undertakings for the purposes of Art. 101 TFEU and the consequent serious limitations on their collective rights, specifically the right to collectively bargain over pay and working conditions.

Significantly, a regulation on promoting fairness and transparency for concerning business users of online intermediation services has recently been enacted: it represents a fundamental step forward in ensuring full transparency of contractual terms, ranking, and procedural safeguards if user-created accounts are restricted or suspended.
The regulation seeks to protect those who operate on online platforms and partially meets the need for protection spelt out in the Proposal for a Directive on Improving Working Conditions in Platform Work, submitted on 9 December 2021. Such proposal represents a major step in the understanding of new social needs in the labor market, especially of those workers, such as platform workers, who often lack union representation and in most cases are not contractually classified as employees, therefore missing the opportunity to enjoy the legal protection granted at the European and national level for subordinate employees.
Other initiatives include Council Decision 2020/1512 of 13 October 2020 on guidelines for the employment policies of Member States. Moreover, the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, "Europe's Moment: Repair and prepare for the next generation" states that "[t]he crisis is a test for our social protection systems and necessary investments need to fill the gaps in coverage that have become apparent in the crisis."
Finally, a politically hot debate has been risen on the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Adequate Minimum Wages in the European Union, that in its intentions shall foster collective bargaining on minimum wages, make effective the access to minimum wage for workers who are entitled to it and more in general make sure that workers receive a fair salary for their personal work.

The path is still long and most probably never ending, as it needs constant review and constant acknowledgement of the social needs of the populations in a global context.
Still, the recent initiatives signaled an overall realization by the European institutions of new issues related to the social protection of European citizens, in a context of rapid technological growth and of increasing economic disparities among people and also among generations.
Definitely a long way to go, but off to a good start.