EU Statement - 113th ILC - General Discussion Committee on Promoting Transitions towards Formality - Opening Statement and Discussion point 1

European Union

Statement 

International Labour Conference
113^th session

Geneva, 2 - 13 June 2025

________

General Discussion Committee on Promoting Transitions towards Formality

Opening Statement and Discussion point 1

________

Geneva, 2 June 2025

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International Labour Conference

113^th session

Geneva, 2 - 13 June 2024

General Discussion Committee on Promoting Transitions towards Formality

EU Statement - Opening and Discussion Point 1

DP1: Since the adoption of Recommendation No. 204 in 2015, what have been the main drivers of informality and trends in the levels and forms of informality, as well as the major developments that impacted workers and economic units (including enterprises, entrepreneurs and households) in the informal economy, the pathways to formality, the risks of informalisation, and their social and economic implications? What are the main barriers to, and opportunities for accelerating, the transition to formality?

Chair,

I speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

The candidate countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania*, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova, the EFTA countries Iceland and Norway members of the European Economic Area align themselves with this statement

1. Informality concerns 58% of the global workforce and 80% enterprises. It concerns us all. It presents a major challenge to the realisation of workers’ rights, including social protection, and working conditions. It hinders productivity, undermines sustainable enterprises, public revenues and governments’ scope of action.

2. We reaffirm our full commitment to ILO Recommendation No. 204, which remains the global reference for addressing informality through rights-based, inclusive, and sustainable approaches rooted in social dialogue. We are committed to tackling informality across all sectors and employment forms, in line with the SDGs, especially Goal 8.3, and the ILO’s fundamental principles and rights at work. We also support EU candidate countries in this endeavour.

3. For most people, informality is not a choice but a result of limited opportunities in the formal economy, low incomes, and the absence of alternative livelihoods. Informality deprives individuals of skills development, lifelong learning, social protection, and the realisation of decent working conditions.

4. We advocate for integrated and coherent responses, coordinated across ministries and sectors – including employment, vocational training, tax, social protection, and enterprise development – and tailored to national realities through formalisation strategies and action plans.

5. Informality is a complex, structural, and evolving challenge that affects all regions. In the EU, informality is below the global average but persists in forms such as undeclared work, under-declared wages, revenue concealment, bogus self-employment, and certain non-standard forms of work including platform work. These practices create gaps in labour and social protection and undermine the rule of law, public finances, fair competition, and institutional capacity.

6. Formalisation must go beyond registration. It should lead to the effective realisation of rights, better working conditions, access to adequate and effective social protection, decent jobs, gender equality, non-discrimination, and access to justice and public services.

7. Effective and inclusive social dialogue is a prerequisite for formalisation and preventing informalisation and for the realisation of all other fundamental principles and rights at work. Those in the informal economy must enjoy freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, including the right to join and establish organisations of their own choosing.

8. Ensuring compliance with laws requires good governance, incentives, effective deterrents, and enforcement systems, including well-resourced tax administration, labour inspection systems or other compliance mechanisms. New technologies can play a powerful role in strengthening compliance, provided that data protection is fully respected.

9. We call for stronger multilateral cooperation, with the ILO in a coordinating role, aligned with the Global Coalition for Social Justice and initiatives like the UN Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection. Partnerships with international financial institutions and development banks are crucial, and formalisation should feature prominently in the post-2030 development agenda.

10. On Discussion Point 1, we recognise that drivers of informality are multifaceted: insufficient formal job creation, a lack of or inadequate social protection for some non-standard and some self-employed workers, lack of coordinated policies, discrimination and inequality, the unequal gender distribution of unpaid care work combined with lack of care services and inflexible formal jobs, regulatory complexity, limited access to education and training, financial exclusion, low productivity, weak enforcement capacity, lack of representation and voice for informal workers, lack of evidence-based policies, crises and external shocks, transitions and work mutations.

11. We observe growing informality within formal enterprises and global supply chains. We stress the need for responsible business conduct and due diligence in preventing informalisation. 

12. Women and groups and persons in vulnerable or marginalised situations such as youth, low-skilled workers, persons with disabilities, older workers, migrants and ethnic minorities – are particularly affected. Formalisation strategies must be inclusive, rights-based, and tailored, combining targeted measures with system-wide reforms.

13. Social dialogue, targeted policies, evidence-based approaches, knowledge sharing, use of new technologies, and institutional capacity-building remain key to advancing formalisation.

Thank you.

*North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.