Finance4EPSR project concludes with a call to strengthen the social dimension of sustainable finance

The Finance4EPSR project concluded yesterday with its final conference, marking the culmination of two years of work to empower providers of Services of General Interest (SGIs) to access sustainable finance and strengthen their role in delivering the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR).

Held at the Cardo Brussels Hotel and co-hosted by SGI Europe, HOSPEEM, HEAG Holding, and with the support of the European Commission, the conference brought together EU institutions, investors, providers of SGIs to present the project’s key deliverables, including a co-created Self-Assessment Tool and a Guiding Methodology tailored to the unique social missions of SGIs.

“The current institutional shift confirms a reality we know well: social progress is not always linear, or guaranteed, and further reinforces the importance of what we’ve done through the Finance4EPSR project” said Valeria Ronzitti, SGI Europe Secretary General, during the opening remarks. “In the absence of a formal regulatory framework, we moved ahead to fill the gap by developing a Guiding Methodology and a Self-Assessment Tool rooted in the European Pillar of Social Rights and aligned with market-based standards to go beyond measuring value solely in terms of economic turnover”.

The project’s core innovation, the Self-Assessment Tool, is a capacity building exercise developed for SGIs providers to be able to access financing to increase, and demonstrate, their contribution to social priorities. The Tool brings together different frameworks (ICMA Social Bond Principles, the proposed Social Taxonomy, and the EPSR) for reporting on social contributions to support SGIs in attracting socially-minded investment and setting the groundwork for a potential label based on the enhancement of inherent social contributions by these organizations.

Key take-aways from the conference included:

• The urgent need to reorient capital flows beyond environmental goals to include social outcomes;
• The risk of underfunded SGIs undermining accessibility and cohesion;
• The importance of practical, low-burden tools that reflect SGIs’ realities.

The conference brought together a wide range of experts, including representatives from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and sustainability professionals from the private sector and providers of SGIs. Discussions covered the policy relevance of the project, the strategic role of public investment in enabling social outcomes, and the technical value of the tools developed to reflect the importance of bridging regulatory framework, market standards, and the operational realities of SGI providers.

Finance4EPSR reaffirms the role of sustainable finance in enabling inclusive, high-quality SGIs, and provides a foundation to build a robust social investment framework at EU level.

For more information and download the tools developed through the project, visit the following page here.