Authors: Alessia Palladino Research Assistant, Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity in EU Law: Exploring New Paths (DANCING) and Prof. Delia Ferri, Co-Director of ALL Institute and Professor of Law, Maynooth University.
Research Stream: Social Lives
On Thursday, 27th of March, the School of Law and Criminology and the ALL Institute hosted an event to launch a new Horizon Europe project called SWINS- Sustainable Well-being through INvestment in Social Services.
SWINS wants to present a new framework for measuring the return of social services investment both in an economic and social perspective, considering how these investments influence key aspects of life like employment, income or economic growth, but also inclusive and sustainable well-being. SWINS aims to introduce a groundbreaking framework to measure the impact of social service investments from both economic and social perspectives. Therefore, ‘SWINS seeks to help policymakers determine where to allocate their resources, in order to be sustainable and yield the highest social returns’. In this respect the project speaks to the core objectives of the ALL Institute and to its ethos, and supports ALL’s comprehensive and human-rights based approach to social inclusion.
The SWINS project is coordinated by Università di Firenze – PIN ARCO, and includes a broad consortium of which Maynooth University is a member. The Maynooth team involves Professor Delia Ferri and Dr Charles O’Sullivan, who will specifically investigate the role of the European Union (EU) in supporting (or constraining) social investments. Prof. Ferri and Dr. O’Sullivan will carry out a ‘legal mapping’, focusing on state aid, competition and free movement law.
The event was warmly opened with welcoming remarks by Professor Fergus Ryan, Head of the School of Law and Criminology, and Professor Deirdre Desmond, Co-Director of the ALL Institute. Dr Federico Ciani, Coordinator of the Inclusive Development Research under ARCO, presented the core tenets and objectives of the project, highlighting how the EU is currently facing structural changes that require rethinking of the current model of social investments. In his talk, Dr. Ciani discussed the links between productivity and sustainable development, highlighting the necessity of providing a new framework for assessing these factors. In this connection, the role of SWINS will be pivotal in reconstructing the relation between social services and economic growth in a sustainable framework.
In their speech Prof. Ferri and Dr. O’ Sullivan highlighted how SWINS builds on a rights-based approach to social services and their deployment. They further discussed the potential role of EU law and policy in supporting investment in social services, considering the EU competences.
The event proceeded with a very thought-provoking presentation by Vincent Power, SC Adjunct Professor at Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology. Vincent Power focused on the role of the EU in enabling, rather than constraining, national investments in social services. He further highlighted that there still is a large margin for change, allowing for fundamental developments in the field of social services.
The idea of the EU as a constantly evolving legal entity was also picked up by Professor Bernardo Cortese, whose presentation revolved around social citizenship, debating its inclusivity in European societies. Prof. Cortese discussed the links between individuals and the community they live in, considering how the concept of society itself demands for rights. He also discussed the ‘diminished’ rights enjoyed by third country nationals and the ‘shades’ of EU citizenship in relation economically active and non-economically active citizens .
The event continued with a stimulating presentation by Prof. Juan Jorge Piernas López on state aid and its links to social services, considering both the national and EU competence in this field. Professor Leigh Hancher subsequently built on her experience as a legal practitioner and scholar to discuss the role of the EU in relation to housing services and sustainable energy, highlighting the challenges in reconciling EU and national competence. Dr Christopher McMahon then provided insightful comments on all presentations that gave inputs on the future of the SWINS research.
On the whole, the event afforded the opportunity to reflect on the need to conduct interdisciplinary research which responds to current challenges. SWINS emphasises that the EU can and will play a fundamental role in the evolution of social services, especially through the array of policy strategies it currently presents. At the same time, SWINS also embeds one of the core principle of the ALL Institute, that of Leaving No One Behind, a commitment that aligns with the EU’s broader social agenda.
