Social Investment Package

Unemployment, poverty and social exclusion levels have reached record highs, placing people outside the labour market and society, while public budgets are under pressure. On 20 February 2013, the European Commission launched its Social Investment Package, calling all Member States to put more emphasis on social investment as part of their social policy reforms so as to better respond to the social emergency caused by the economic crisis and the longer-term demographic challenges Europe is facing. The size of the working age population in Europe is shrinking, while the proportion of older people is expanding rapidly. This calls into question the way Member States can finance their social protection systems to ensure their sustainability and adequacy. Social investment means putting resources on those policies that enhance people’s capacities to participate in society and the labour market. Aiming also to reduce poverty, social exclusion and inequality, the SIP package states that preventative services keep larger economic and social costs from arising in the future, and in the support of the common EU objective to lift at least 20 million people out of poverty and social exclusion by 2020.