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| 20/11/2008
Intervention of Marjorie Jouen author of" Social policy Experimentation in Europe: Towards a more complete and effective Palette of the EU Action for Social Innovation. Coming soon.
Foreword by the High Commissioner for active Inclusion against poverty
In several European countries, the renewal of social policy often has its roots in social innovations undertaken at local level. When these projects involve testing an initiative on a small scale in order to measure its effects, with a view to its possible generalisation, they are referred to as social experimentation.
This experimental tool for transforming public policy is attracting greater interest, both within member states and at European level. These successful experimentations provide results that can be exploited by decision makers in all the Member States.
This was one of the messages that emerged from the 7th European Round Table on poverty and social exclusion, and the first meeting of European ministers responsible for these issues, held on 15 and 16 October. Developing social experimentation was therefore encouraged, because it contributes to identifying good practice on the part of member states, helps determine appropriate levers for public action.
The European Commission also underlined the usefulness of this tool in the renewed social agenda adopted on 2 July. In a recent opinion, the European Economic and Social Committee took up a clear position in favour of its development.
The issue now is to follow up these positions in operational terms. This is the goal of our Forum. It should enable us to reach concrete results in order to reinforce the social Europe.
Promoting social experimentation in Europe means deepening the implications of this intervention method by learning from former experiences and discussing on the programmes that should be conducted in order to take benefit from a transnational perspective. This should involve specifying the benefits provided by this instrument and discussing the conditions under which it should be developed, implemented and evaluated, together with all the actors concerned. It should also involve determining the conditions for generalising the experimentations that yield good results on a national scale. Finally, it should enable us to better define the possibilities for sharing and transferring between member states the lessons learned from successful experimentations in order to reinforce European and national strategies for poverty reduction.
The Forum on Social Experimentation in Europe will contribute to better identifying the conditions for success and the possibilities for working together - through transnational programmes on social experimentation, in particular - to develop this tool effectively.
Such an approach to this concrete and innovative tool will strengthen our capacity to respond appropriately and decisively to the obstacles facing people living in poverty. By establishing a permanent working process, this Forum will contribute to this aim in a decisive way.
Martin Hirsch
High Commissioner for Active Inclusion Against Poverty
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