European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities: EU needs to boost social infrastructure investment, new report says
On 23 January, the high-level task force on Investing in Social Infrastructure in Europe presented their report on how to boost investment in healthcare, long-term care, education and social housing in the European Union. Highlighting important under-investment in these areas, the high-level task force – led by former President of the European Commission Romano Prodi – recommends practical steps the European Union and relevant stakeholders should take to meet the funding gap.
A year ago, the European association of Long-Term Investors set-up a high-level task force to assess how to unlock investment into social infrastructure in Europe. Led by former President of the European Commission Romano Prodi, the task force brought together a wide range of stakeholders from different backgrounds (former minister, economists, bankers, social sector organisations and social partners) to identify and assess the real needs on the ground and to recommend what instruments could help to finance such needs. As part of the task force, the European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) contributed with its broad experience of investment in the social sector.
The outcome of the task force was a report, drafted by experts Lieve Fransen, Gino del Bufalo and Eduardo Reviglio: “Boosting Investment in Social Infrastructure in Europe”. The main findings of the report are that investment in social infrastructure has decreased by 20% since 2009 in the EU, and that the investment gap is estimated at €150 billion per year for the next ten years. The report recommends to:
- Set-up geographic and/or thematic investment platforms for social sector investments to help bundle projects
- Create new financial instruments, suitable to the specificities of the sectors (social outcome contracts, social bonds, etc.)
- Develop far-reaching systems of technical assistance to build capacity at local, national and EU level
- Improve data collection for social infrastructure
- Facilitate and simplify the blending of resources in the EU28 (public, private, local, national, EU)
Mr Luk Zelderloo, Secretary General of EASPD and member of the task force, welcomed the report, stating that “this report will prove to be a turning point as to how policy-makers, bankers and social experts can come together to provide concrete investment solutions to those working on the ground to improve the quality of life of people in Europe. More permanent structures are needed at EU and local level to continue such co-production of solutions. This is what a Social Europe should look like!”
Mr Thomas Bignal, Investment Policy Advisor at EASPD and member of the task force added that “the task force report brings solutions to many of the challenges we hear from social service providers, who lack the financial resources to improve their services. It’s great to see this new report complement our own work and activities on the matter”; adding that “private investment into the social sectors can only work if there is sufficient public investment to back it up”.
EASPD will continue to actively work on this matter in 2018 with a series of activities at both European and local level; including setting-up social investment platforms, national events to promote EU instruments, and much more.
