Paradigms in EU social policy: a critical account of Europe 2020

This article offers a critical account of the 'social' in the Europe 2020 strategy, focusing on the new poverty target and the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion. The article reaches three main conclusions. First, while poverty is given a prominent place in the strategy and the recourse to targets is intended to harden up Member State and EU coordination in the field, the poverty target is loose and risks being rendered ineffective as an EU-wide target. Secondly, the social goals and philosophy of Europe 2020 are under-elaborated. While it is important that the poverty-related measures are treated on a similar basis to the other elements of Europe 2020, it is not made clear how growth will bring about the planned reduction in poverty. 'Inclusive growth' has little meaning in itself. This leads to the third conclusion which is that Europe 2020 lacks a coherent model of social development. Philosophically, it draws mainly from social investment and liberal approaches, neither of which has a strong orientation to addressing poverty.