The Madrid Declaration on social innovation has continued to grow, reaching 92 supporting organisations from 19 European countries. What began as a position paper built on input from across 14 countries has now become a wider European call for the next EU budget to give social innovation a clearer place, a clearer funding pathway, and stronger support for the infrastructure that makes it work in practice.
The effort started with the concern that in the current debate on the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework for 2028 to 2034, social innovation is still only marginally visible, even though many of the Union’s stated priorities already depend on the kind of work social innovation makes possible, which is testing solutions, adapting them to local realities, connecting institutions and communities, and scaling proven projects. The position paper that launched this process drew on input from 23 actors active in 14 countries and argued that social innovation should be recognised as a practical implementation capability within the next MFF.
That paper was grounded in examples from across Europe. In France, the Territoires zéro chômeur de longue durée initiative redesigned the response to long-term unemployment by creating jobs around unmet local needs and the capacities of people excluded from the labour market. In Belgium, Papillon addressed energy poverty by combining access to efficient appliances with maintenance, energy advice and social support. In Romania, Dăruiește Viață / #NoiFacemUnSpital showed how large-scale civic mobilisation can improve public infrastructure where institutional delivery has fallen short, even in a complex system such as healthcare. The paper also looked at experiments in childcare in Latvia, territorial governance models in Italy, social investment instruments in Portugal, and labour market inclusion initiatives in Germany, among others. Taken together, the examples showcase how social innovation is already helping tackle systemic problems across Europe, even if policy and funding frameworks have not fully caught up.
The argument in the position paper was also broader than social policy alone. It showed that social innovation matters in areas such as employment, access to services, territorial cohesion, public service reform, housing, energy poverty, local development, inclusion, skills and competitiveness and it called for five amendments in the next MFF: (1) recognition of social innovation as a transversal delivery approach; (2) visible support through the National and Regional Partnership Plans and the EU Facility; (3) a stronger and clearer place in the European Social Fund; (4) better integration into competitiveness, research and business support; and (5) stronger backing for ecosystem infrastructure such as competence centres, intermediaries, impact measurement and scale-up support.
Support for the paper grew in the weeks that followed and, on 5 May, during the National Competence Centres Mutual Learning Event in Madrid, the Romanian National Competence Centre for Social Innovation presented the effort publicly as the Madrid Declaration for Stronger Recognition and Funding of Social Innovation in the EU Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034. The declaration was welcomed by many organisations present at the event and became the next step in turning a shared analysis into a wider political signal.
The Declaration on the position paper is now backed by 92 organisations from 19 countries, including National Competence Centres, public authorities, universities, support organisations, social enterprises and civil society actors, who carry the message that social innovation needs a clear place in the next EU budget, not only in principle, but in the actual architecture of funding and implementation.
In the current state, supporters continue to build on the declaration, use it in their advocacy work, and reach out to EU representatives who are involved in shaping the next MFF. The effort is also being pushed further through direct engagement with Members of the European Parliament and committees working on the budget, competitiveness, employment and related files. The goal is straightforward: to make sure that when the next MFF is settled, social innovation is reflected in the budget in a way that matches the role it already plays on the ground.
There is also a bigger point here. The position paper already argued that social innovation is advancing in practice faster than it is being stabilised in policy, and that the next MFF will help decide whether the progress made in recent years is consolidated, diluted or interrupted. That remains true now. The declaration has grown, the support base is wider, and the message is clearer, but the window is still open only for a limited time.