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On June 16, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and Eurofound organised a joint conference focused on the measures taken at European level to step up active inclusion and social investment. During the event, discussions were held on the importance on an integrated implementation of active inclusion and what role the Europe 2020 Strategy can play in making active inclusion and social investment happen. Pierre Baussand, Director of Social Platform, participated in the debate to discuss how a more systemic inclusion of social policy in the European Semester can be achieved.

In his keynote speech, Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Lazlo Andor stressed the importance of implementing European policies at national, regional and local level. He also pointed out how member states that implemented social policy reforms over the last years in cooperation with stakeholders, were more successful. This is reinforcing the need to involve all stakeholders in the revision of the Europe 2020 Strategy in order to reach the social targets of the strategy in the next five years. According to the Commissioner, reforming the Economic and Monetary Union will be a key priority in the next years, and in particular strengthening its social dimension through for example measures on EU level automatic stabilizers, minimum income and minimum wage.

Looking at Europe 2020 and the European Semester, Pierre Baussand pointed out how the tools are there to reach the social targets of the Strategy on poverty and social inclusion, employment and education, but what is really missing is a proper implementation and the much needed political commitment at EU and member state level to do so. At the moment, we still see an ongoing imbalance in European governance with economic policies being the main priority and too little attention being paid to social policies. He formulated some recommendations on how to correct the situation, calling on the EU to put in place concrete action plans on how to reach the targets and to formulate country-specific recommendations on poverty for every member state. Also member states themselves have to set more ambitious national targets as well as formulate and implement concrete actions to reach these.

In her closing speech, Maureen O'Neill, President of the Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship of the EESC, called for a real commitment to resolve poverty and pointed out that we will not get there with one single European measure. She also referred back to the intervention of Social Platform reiterating the importance to balance out economic policies with strong social policies.

Read the official conclusions of the Conference