News

On November 21, the European Commission published its Policy Roadmap for the 2013-2014 implementation of the Social Investment Package (SIP). Social investment, which is being heavily promoted by the Commission as the new tool to help fight poverty and social exclusion, seems to have disappeared from the EU agenda in the last few months: No follow up  or even reference to the Package was made in the Annual Growth Survey for 2014 and the publication of the Roadmap was announced several times and postponed.

The aim expressed by the Commission is to "facilitate Member States' progress towards implementing the Social Investment Package" and to "support Member States’ policy reform to help reach the objectives set in the Europe 2020 strategy to reduce the number of people living in poverty and social exclusion by at least 20 million by 2020".

Whereas we are happy to see the Commission has been able to finally decide on the Roadmap, nine months after the publication of the SIP itself, we regret that it comes only after some of the measures being already finalised or launched. Furthermore, civil society organisations have been hardly involved in the development of the Roadmap, whereas the Commission could have used their specific on the ground knowledge and experiences of the social situation in Europe.

With the Annual Convention of the European Platform Against Poverty and Social Exclusion taking place on November 26-27, only a few days after the SIP Roadmap, it is not clear yet what approach the Convention will take on social investment nor if and how the implementation of the SIP will be addressed.

2013-11-25