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Last week I participated in a seminar organised by our member, the European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD), on how the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) can be used to support investments in the social sector.

The EFSI Regulation means that this instrument can support investment in human capital, culture and health, including education and training, social infrastructures, and social and solidarity economy.
Despite this potential, only 4% of EFSI investment has been dedicated to social infrastructures. According to research conducted by EASPD, this percentage primarily includes investment into hospitals and social housing projects, with little evidence of sufficient investment into social services.

Social services have significant investment needs given the rising demand for services, the important job creation that comes alongside such demand and the necessity to develop high quality, personalised and user-centred services in line with European Union’s human rights principles.

If money is available and the social sector has clear investment needs, why is it so difficult to implement EFSI in this sector?

Speakers highlighted some of the main difficulties. From the banking sector, national legal constraints on lending money to entities that are not able to pay back even in the presence of a guarantee, and complex monitoring and reporting requirements set by the European Investment Bank (EIB), were pointed out.

The small size of projects that do not reach the high ceilings required to be eligible for funding, the difficulties of social actors to deal with the mechanisms of private finance when they are used to grants, and a lack of information about EFSI available to actors looking for investors were some of the other difficulties listed by representatives of the social sector and institutions.

During the meeting, I asked if there are examples of EFSI projects used for the development of human capital, even from other sectors. Even if human capital is one of the investment priorities set for EFSI, it emerged that there are no projects in this area. Sometimes some projects about infrastructures include some measures to develop human capital, but these are just accompanying measures.

EASPD developed some recommendations to unlock EFSI investment in social services, including:

• Better targeting instruments to the sector’s needs and capacity.
• Creating national/regional platforms to bring relevant stakeholders together.
• The further inclusion of social services experts in EFSI procedures to better assess the quality of projects.

Romana Tomc, host and Member of the European Parliament, underlined that the main aim of EFSI should be to create growth, a dynamic labour market and well-being for EU citizens and that we need to find ways to make EFSI a tool suitable to respond to the increasing demand for investment in social services. It was also suggested by an official of the European Commission to develop better complementarities between EFSI and the European Structural and Investment Funds, also in terms of structures and dedicated staff in the Member States and in regional authorities. Still a lot of work ahead!