Frank Vandenbroucke: The EU Needs a Social Investment Pact

23/05/2011

Opinion Paper by Frank Vandenbroucke et al.

 

In this Opinion Paper, we argue that long term-goals of social and economic policy in the EU must not fall victim to short-term policy orientations prompted by the banking crisis that hit the global economy in 2008 and the subsequent financial and fiscal problems affecting the Eurozone and the EU at large. We capture these long-term goals with the notion of a 'social investment imperative'. Social investment is not a new idea per se. We first revisit the social investment perspective as proposed towards the end of the 1990s and draw some lessons from past experience. We maintain that a social investment impetus, given Europe‟s adverse demography, is today more acute than ever before. Subsequently, we examine how a renewed social investment perspective can be rescued from one-sided policy orientations prompted by the economic crisis.

 

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Frank Vandenbroucke is a Member of the Flemish Parliament. He is a former Deputy Minister-President of the Flemish Region and a former Belgian Deputy Prime Minister. His ministerial portfolios have included foreign affairs, employment, social affairs and education.