Solidar, a partner European network of NGOs fighting for social justice, is seeking to encourage decision makers to make social issues more of a priority in the next European semester (Europe 2020). They have set up the “Social Progress Watch Initiative” which evaluates Member States’ commitments to fighting social exclusion, poverty, inequality and unemployment.
On April 1st, Solidar hosted a roundtable at the European Parliament and presented their first results from the “Social Progress Watch Initiative”. At this meeting, Solidar also released their briefing “Europe 2020: How to spur social progress for a more inclusive Europe?”. With both of these items, Solidar presented several recommendations to the EU in order better achieve Europe 2020 goals focusing on reducing poverty and social exclusion. Solidar recommendations include: having more civil society involvement in the European Semester process, creating comprehensive strategies for inclusion that go beyond the labour market sector, and strengthening social policies connected to Europe 2020 targets.
To find out more about what Solidar is doing to promote social inclusion policies through this initiative please see: http://solidar.org/Active-Inclusion-Social-Progress.html.