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Social Investment Now! Advancing Social EU through the EU Budget

Author: Anton Hemerijck, Corti Francesco , David Rinaldi, Robin Huguenot-Noel

• Social Europe
• social rights
• Social Investment,

In her 16th of July 2019 Opening Statement to the European Parliament, Ursula von der Leyen identified Social Europe as one of her main objectives as new President of the European Commission. In her opening statement, Ms. Von der Leyen not only projected an ambitious EU climate change agenda but also pointed to the need to “creating a fairer and more equal Union”, “leaving nobody behind”. More specificaly, she stressed the importance of “bringing our Pillar of Social Rights to life”, called for the European Semester to be better aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and highlighted the key contribution that tools such as a Child Guarantee, a European Unemployment Benefit Reinsurance Scheme, or “flexibility in the rules of the Stability & Growth Pact” could play in achieving these objectives.

The present report sheds light on how the objective of “bringing the Pillar of Social Rights to life” may be pursued through the adoption of an EU social investment strategy in the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

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