EU 2020 and social inclusion: Re-connecting growth and social inclusion in Europe

Abstract

The diagnosis of European social policy presented in this article in general, and the inclusion policy in particular, hardly paints a rosy picture. Poverty has not reduced in the first decade of the Lisbon Strategy. One explanation for this is undoubtedly that the major choices in EU policy (the enlargement to take in Central and Eastern Europe, the liberalisation of services, the knowledge-based economy) were driven primarily by economic interests, and have consistently allowed the free market to prevail over solidarity. Even EU social policy (activation and social protection) is imbued with a fundamental distrust of social assistance benefit claimants, rather than being a truly effective integration policy. If we genuinely wish to take a decisive step towards eradicating poverty in the coming decade, three principles are key in our view: genuine mainstreaming of the social inclusion policy; a different inclusion strategy; and a more systematically coordinated policy.