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On 1 April, the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee (EMPL) adopted with a broad majority the opinion on the proposal for a Regulation on the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). The opinion contains EMPL’s proposals for amendments to the EFSI with the clear aim of ensuring it takes into account social considerations and is in line with the European Union’s (EU) social policies. Social Platform very much welcomes the report as it reflects many of our concerns.

In general, EMPL would like to see guaranteed that projects benefiting from the EFSI contribute to achieving the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy and that they bring not only economic but also social added value. In line with this, EMPL is calling for experts on employment and social affairs in the different structures of the EFSI, such as the Investment Committee, and for the inclusion of social preconditions in the investment guidelines. This will help to ensure that selected projects have a positive employment and social impact. EMPL also wants to see the scope of projects eligible for EFSI funding to be broadened to investments supporting the social field, including social services and social infrastructure, and investments in the social economy. Furthermore, a regular assessment should be made of the contribution of the EFSI projects to the poverty reduction, employment and education targets of Europe 2020.

The opinion of EMPL was communicated to the European Parliament’s Economic and Financial Affairs (ECON) and Budgets (BUDG) committees that have the lead on this file and will adopt their postion on 20 April. We wish Danuta Jazłowiecka, the Member of the European Parliament (MEP) responsible for authoring the EMPL report, all the best for her negotiations with these committees and hope to see a true social dimension in the Parliament’s final position on the EFSI.