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On January 14-15, 2014, the Belgian Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion organised an event on the Peer Review in Social Protection and Social Inclusion 2014. At this occasion, our President Heather Roy shared Social Platform's views on stakeholder engagement in the context of Europe 2020 from a European perspective. She expressed how we want to see more ambitious stakeholder involvement framed in clear processes.

The analysis of the current social situation in Europe is very negative: instead of making progress on the EU target of reducing poverty and social exclusion, poverty keeps increasing across Europe and there is increasing evidence of the impact of austerity on social protection systems as well as on social and public services. To do something about this ongoing crisis, actions have to be taken based on policies that are developed in cooperation with stakeholders, including civil society organisations. Such stakeholder involvement is about participating in policy processes and about being listened to as equal partners. This participation should not be limited to the development of social policies, but has to be extended to the whole EU policy spectrum, including economic policies.

Looking at the European Semester, the purpose of involving social NGOs should be to ensure the best possible design, implementation and evaluation of policies promoting social inclusion and cohesion as to generate a maximum positive impact and change. This could be achieved already partially by the European Commission engaging in a more formal consultation during the preparation of the Annual Growth Survey, as it does already with the Social Partners. Furthermore, to support stakeholder engagement at national level, European guidelines should be developed on how to engage with all relevant stakeholders in the elaboration of National Reform Programmes. But also more in general, clear and transparent procedures have to be developed and applied at all levels to allow for structural and meaningful stakeholder involvement in developing, implementing and evaluating policies under the Europe 2020 Strategy. Favourable environments with sustainable funding for social NGOs need to be created to underpin their meaningful involvement.

The implementation of the Social Investment Pact must be done in full cooperation with civil society, and to this end it would be also more than useful to have guidelines on how to involve stakeholders. More effective involvement processes at EU and national level, would allow for a better monitoring of how the social investment approach is taken up at all levels and in different policies.

One of the most important areas for stakeholder involvement in the context of Europe 2020, is the European Platform Against Poverty and Social Exclusion (EPAP) and its Annual convention. It was said in advance that voluntary guidelines on participation in relevant policies could be developed, but this unfortunately did not happen. Nonetheless, the EPAP has a rather broad stakeholder base and the number of Stakeholder Dialogue meetings has increased. To bring greater clarity as to the purpose of these meetings and their anticipated outcomes, the Commission could among others work towards a common agenda setting with NGOs, bringing forward suggestions for discussion. Since the first Convention in 2011 the involvement of stakeholders has improved. One of the things to focus on further is to also clarify the anticipated outcomes, so the Convention can be organised in view of achieving these. Further work still needs to be done to ensure effective engagement of people experiencing poverty and engaging those who would normally not participate in debates on poverty.