The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU on Tuesday argued for greater investment in social policy to close the productivity gap in Europe.
The European Council held a debate on Tuesday morning on the importance of social investment for resilient economies. The Belgian EU Presidency oversaw a discussion which put forward the case for both public investment and economic competitiveness. The meeting was chaired by Belgian Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem.
The discussion was held against the backdrop of Belgian and European trade unions taking to the streets of Brussels to protest the EU's new fiscal rules, which will force Member States to cut social and public spending to reduce budgetary deficits.
At Tuesday’s meeting, EU ministers discussed the impact of social investment on economic growth and fiscal sustainability, inviting EU social affairs, health and employment ministers to join them for the discussion. Belgian ministers Pierre-Yves Dermagne (economy) and Frank Vandenbroucke (social affairs) joined.
Over the last decade productivity, growth stagnated despite lower social spending. "We need to look at how to close that productivity gap," Van Peteghem said after the meeting, inviting greater collaboration between social affairs and finance ministers.
"We know that productivity for example is a main driver of that competitiveness. And if you look to our productivity growth over the past decade, we saw that [it] is actually stagnating and especially with the US, there is a productivity gap that is increasing," Van Peteghem continued.
From left to right: Pierre-Yves Dermagne (Belgian Minister for the Economy and Employment), Vincent Van Peteghem (Belgian Minister for Finance, Frank Vandenbroucke (Belgian Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health, Belgium)
Belgian Minister of Health and Social Affairs Frank Vandenbroucke called the meeting "extremely useful". He welcomed the many examples raised in the meeting which showed how well-organised social policy contributes to economic growth, competitiveness, productivity and social well-being.
Speaking to reporters outside the meeting, Vandenbroucke stated: "I think we all agree that economic and social policies must be approached from an integrated perspective." He stressed the importance of developing skills, investing in human capital, education and care, particularly mental health, which can help keep people in work.
The Belgian EU Presidency will thus seek to make these principles "operational" by setting up a way of measuring the impact of social investment and social reform, on productivity, growth, on fiscal sustainability.
"We think it will be possible to develop guidelines, voluntary guidelines, on how Member States measure quantitatively the impact, the return of social policy, Vandenbroucke said.
"That is a matter of data capabilities, administrative data, methodologies that need to be refined. But I think there's been a real willingness expressed this morning from many, many Member States to pursue that work," the Belgian Health Minister concluded.
