The RE-InVEST project

The RE-InVEST project aims to contribute to a more solidary and inclusive EU, through an inclusive, powerful and effective social investment strategy at EU level. Moreover, the project itself adopts a participative approach that gives voice to vulnerable groups and civil society organisations.

Although ‘inclusive growth’ is one of the pillars of the Europe 2020 strategy, the social dimension of the strategy has lost momentum with the Eurocrisis and the ensuing priority given to macro‐economic stabilisation policies.

Meanwhile, inequalities are growing, with unemployment and poverty reaching new records, particularly in the peripheral regions of the EU. In 2013, the Commission launched a major endeavour to rebalance economic and social progress with the Social Investment Package (SIP).

RE-InVEST aims to strengthen the theoretical as well as the empirical basis for the social investment approach as a strategy to humanise Europe, building on the capability approach of Amartya Sen and philosophy of human rights.

Our consortium is embedded in the network ‘Alliances to fight poverty’, a network of civil society organisations, trade unions, policy makers and academics co-ordinated by the Flemish Christian labour movement beweging.net, and committed to a more inclusive Europe. European citizens who were severely affected by the crisis are actively involved in the design of a powerful and effective social investment agenda.