The European Social Fund is sixty years old, like the Rome Treaty which created the European Economic Community. This issue of Social Agenda focuses on what it has achieved so far. As the mid-term interview with European Commissioner Marianne Thyssen in this same issue shows, human capital investment is also key to implementing the latest EU-level employment and social policy developments: The New Skills Agenda for Europe, the Youth Guarantee, the customised pathway put in place for the long-term unemployed, the Action Plan for welcoming third-country nationals including asylum-seekers and refugees, the European Semester Recommendations etc. Looking ahead, Social Agenda n°47 also explains how the European Pillar of Social Rights is taking shape.

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