News

On June 7, the European Commission organised the 6th Stakeholder Dialogue meeting on the European Platform Against Poverty and Social Exclusion (EPAP), focusing on how to go further with the Social Investment Package (SIP) that was published in February this year.

During the meeting, the Commission voiced their commitment to a more effective and efficient cooperation. Two stakeholder meetings a year though is not enough, in particular considering that we are not on track with the Europe 2020 Strategy and its five objectives (including poverty, employment and education). At the moment the Commission is finalising the Roadmap on the implementation of the SIP that will be presented within the next two weeks.

Our President, Heather Roy, pointed out that the SIP contains a paradigm shift to considering social policies as an investment instead of as a cost. However, the devil is in the detail. Much will depend on how the Package is going to be implemented. In particular it is important not to forget that social investment also implies investment in social protection, if it wants to be effective. She furthermore raised the issue of a lack of one coherent strategy to address poverty and inequalities in the EU, and questioned the coherence between all different tools and processes that have already been put forward, such as the SIP, the EPAP or the social dimension of the EMU. This incoherence is also reflected in the recently published Country Specific Recommendations (CSRs), where there are some recommendations on fighting poverty but these could be very likely undermined by the recommendations on more fiscal and budgetary consolidation. Related to this question of coherence, our member AGE Platform asked for more clarification on the Commission's position to the social OMC.

The Commission acknowledged the social protection dimension of social investment and expressed their aim for the SIP to be taken up by, and reflected in, the European Semester through the Annual Growth Survey and the CSRs.

In the autumn of this year, the Commission will again organise the Annual Convention of the EPAP and is starting the preparations. The idea is again to have different workshops and to involve stakeholders in the organisation. It was suggested by Heather Roy to also consult with stakeholders on the topics of these workshops.