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The “Europe 2020 strategy” is the EU’s growth strategy for this decade. Launched in 2010, it aims to achieve “smart, sustainable and inclusive growth” through the achievement of 5 overarching targets including, reducing school drop-out rates below 10%
and at least 20 million fewer people in or at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

Eurodiaconia is particularly interested in the “inclusive growth” objective as well as the stakeholder’s involvement in the process. The economic and financial crisis has pushed many Member States to forget the social inclusion dimension of Europe, and the requirement to involve stakeholders in policy making. This is slowly being recognized and corrected but the fact is that there were still 1.9 million people at risk of poverty or social exclusion more in 2016 than in 2008 (reference year for the Europe 2020 strategy)[1].
Eurodiaconia is following the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy, pushing for a better balance between economic and social policies in the EU, and working for a stronger engagement of diaconal actors in the overall process of the European Semester.
The European Semester is an annual process for coordination of the national budgetary and economic policies. It is also the framework for Member States to reach the Europe 2020 objectives. The proclamation of the European Pillar of Social Rights in November 2017 strengthens the recent evolutions of the European Semester towards more balance between economic and social policies. Setting up 20 principles in the field of social rights as an objective for all 28 Member States, the Social Pillar is to become the compass for the European Semester in which it shall be streamlined. For more information on what the European Semester is, why it is relevant for diaconal organisations and how to be involved, please have a look at Eurodiaconia’s Toolkit.

To know more about Eurodiaconia’s work on Europe 2020 and the European Semester, please contact our Policy Officer Laure Drege at laure.drege@eurodiaconia.org.

[1] http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Europe_2020_indicators_-_poverty_and_social_exclusion