Commission puts faith in 'social innovation' to tackle exclusion

László Andor, the EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, spoke at the opening session of the launch event for the 'Social Innovation Europe' initiative. He said that social innovation is a theme that runs through most of the seven flagship initiatives being developed at EU level in the framework of the 'Europe 2020' Strategy.

Andor noted that the commission had already been supporting social innovation projects since 2000, using money from the EQUAL and PROGRESS programmes. He said that these projects had "created a solid knowledge base" across a wide range of topics including "inequalities and social exclusion, service innovation and social entrepreneurship" - among others.

"Social innovation is not only about finding alternative solutions to gaps in the market and public sector, but it is about finding the best ways to empower people - especially deprived groups - through their active involvement in the innovative process.  It is also about creating and improving social relations and models of governance through new forms of organization and interactions between public sector, civil society organization, private enterprises and citizens," said Andor.

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, the EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, spoke at the closing session of the conference in Brussels. She said that Europe needs innovation "to flourish not just in our laboratories, factories and boardrooms, but also in our schools and community centres, our hospitals and care homes".

The Irish commissioner promised that the EU's 'Innovation Union' initiative will include support for  research on public sector and social innovation, using money from the 7th Framework Programme (FP7). "We will set up a Social Platform on Innovative Social Services which will allow the relevant stakeholders - researchers, policy makers and civil society - to collaborate on drawing up a European research agenda focusing on health, welfare and education services," she said.

Geoghegan-Quinn promised that by 2013, the Commission will "launch a large-scale mapping of social innovation in Europe, and develop indicators to measure the achievements of social innovation in different countries, regions and localities. We will pay special attention to monitoring and collecting data on the excellent social innovations that continue to spring up in Europe's cities and regions."

Klaus Niederländer, director of Cooperatives Europe, also welcomed the 'Social Innovation Europe' initiative, which he said "will put forward co-operatives as a key driver for change towards the sustainable Europe of tomorrow".

"Co-operatives are by their very nature at the forefront of innovation: instead of putting financial capital at the heart of their business, they put people, with their needs and ideas," he said.

"Co-operatives have been providing innovative solutions to people's needs for more than a century, and they have been showing an unprecedented resilience to the economic downturn which has been affecting the global economy in the last few years," he added.

Ruth Owen of the European Federation of National Organisations Working with Homeless People (FEANTSA) told EurActiv: "There are risks as well as opportunities in the emerging social innovation framework. One risk is an overly fragmented approach with inadequate linkages to the targets and key priorities of the Europe 2020 strategy and its flagship initiatives."

"In the area of poverty and social exclusion, it is important that social innovation is best used to help make progress towards the headline target of lifting 20 million people out of poverty and to follow up the commitments of the European Platform Against Poverty, including the European Commission's commitment to identify methods and means to best continue the work it has started on homelessness," said FEANTSA's policy officer.

The European Foundation Centre (EFC) welcomed commitments made by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso to consider establishing a legal statute for European foundations that are active in more than one member state.

EFC Chief Executive Gerry Salole told EurActiv: "A European Foundation Statute could be a new tool to promote social innovation in Europe and beyond. [It] will allow foundations and funders to develop their full potential in the internal market to address citizens' needs and well-being and sustainable development also in a cross-border context."

"Foundations have much to contribute, including multiple resources, expertise, flexibility and creativity but they need the appropriate legal tools to do so, particularly with a growing number of them engaging in cross-border activities," said Salole.

"A European Statute would enable simpler management, more efficient administration, and increased mobility and responsiveness, while facilitating the pooling of expertise and resources in those areas that require increased scaling-up of funds and help Europe to meet global challenges," he added.