Active Inclusion Strategy : New Synergies in Fighting Poverty

The article presents the recent evolution of the so-called "Active Inclusion Strategy" launched by the European Commission in 2006. The strategy is aimed at increasing the efficacy of the national policies for the promotion of social inclusion. It should provide a policy framework able to take into account the variety of forms which social exclusion can assume and to combine promotion of employability and job quality with proper income support and better access to services for people at the margins of society. In the first part of this article we will present the historical background of this strategy, reviewing the development of EU social inclusion policies, from the seminal Recommendations in 1992, to the Lisbon Strategy and its revision. Secondly, we will introduce the recent interventions promoted by the European Commission, both on the definition of a new active approach to social inclusion policies and on the revision of the OMC for Social Protection and Social Inclusion. Finally, we will try to account for the potential of the strategy and its possible future evolutions.