FEANTSA: Policy Conference
18-20 June, Hotel de Ville (City Hall) Paris, France
Two dimensions of “Social Europe”
Social Europe consists of two fundamental dimensions: 1. The European political arena in Brussels with all its institutional and non-institutional players pushing the EU social agenda 2. The transnational political arena which spans 28 EU countries and neighbouring countries, regularly bringing together social practitioners to exchange innovative policies/practices. Funded mostly by the European Commission, FEANTSA’s key objective is to tackle and prevent homelessness, working in both these arenas.
There are currently two new emerging trends: on the one hand, the new European Commission (which started a 5-year mandate on 1st November 2014) wishes to get closer to local communities and citizens, to show the relevance of its work in their daily lives; on the other hand, experts in the field of homelessness (people with experience of homelessness, social workers, researchers, national/regional civil servants, local policy-makers and others) are increasingly interested in Brussels and neighbouring countries, always on the lookout for solutions and innovation.
FEANTSA is a European network which knows well these two (sub)national and European realities, and we would like our next conference to link these two worlds in order to create new synergies.
Objectives of the 2015 conference
1. Support policy and practice in the field of homelessness, with a focus on social service/policy innovation.
2. Link local realities to different European policy/legal frameworks, demonstrating where synergies exist already and reflect on potential synergies.
3. Provide space for the emergence of new transnational dynamics through organised networking hotspots.
Participants in our 2015 conference will therefore be able to collect good practice and better understand the impact of Europe on their daily work.
