In-person event
On 26 April 2023, the European Commission presented a proposal for a reform of the economic governance framework. The objective is to strengthen debt sustainability and promote sustainable and inclusive growth through gradual fiscal consolidation, as well as via reforms and investments that should be growth-enhancing, support debt sustainability, and respond to common EU priorities, including the European Pillar of Social Rights.
Following the EC proposal, the Spanish Presidency and the Belgian Presidency of the EU has launched an Informal Working Group on Social Investment (IWGSI). The main objective of the IWG is to open a political debate on empirical evidence on micro and macroeconomic economic and social returns of social investments and reforms as well as monitoring and evaluation methodologies for tracking social investment returns. The IWG will further reflect on the contribution of social investments to economic growth and debt sustainability.
The IWG counts on 23 Member State, DG EMPL, the chairs of EMCO and SPC, the EP EMPL Committee and the European Social Partners. The activities of the IWG will be the basis for the preparation of the ECOFIN-EPSCO (JUMBO) council meeting that will take place in March 2024. In that occasion, Economic and Finance Ministers and Employment and Social Affairs ministers will be invited to discuss about the interplay between social investments and reforms, economic growth, macro-economic stabilization, and upward social convergence.
This High-level Conference will be the occasion to present the key messages and preliminary findings of the Informal Working Group activities.
Full agenda available here
