EAPN Ireland and the Community Workers Cooperative (CWC) carried out 10 meetings across Ireland in preparation for the 2014 Social Inclusion Forum which took place on 1st April.
19/03/2014 – March 31st marks the end of the winter break, which means evictions suspended during winter will resume and emergency winter accomodation facilities closing down. While figures of the Barometer 115 for the month of February 2014 show an extreme saturation of the accommodation in the 37 departments studied with only 44% of accommodation requests that were responded to (55% in Paris), several hundreds of places will close down on March 31 without any solution for people.
13/03/2014 – EAPN Poland organized in Warsaw a seminar “In work poverty in the EU and Poland”. The seminar started by presentation of Peter Kelly from the Poverty Alliance (EAPN Scotland) who told the participants about EAPN’s recommendation on in-work poverty and about the similarities in that respect between Scotland and Poland.
EAPN Ireland is preparing the Social Inclusion Forum 2014 to be held on 1st April 2014. The network is also organising workshops in each constituency for anti-poverty groups,where all candidates are invited to take part.
18/03/2014 – APF Malta welcomes the Green Paper ‘A Framework for Poverty Reduction and for Social Inclusion’ issued by the Maltese Government, with satisfaction and considers this document as an important step to combat poverty and social exclusion. The Green Paper stands as a thorough and positive roadmap to tackle this reality. As a network of NGOs working with people experiencing poverty, APF Malta collected feedback from all member organisations on this Green Paper and forwarded feedback to the Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity.
19/03/2014 – EAPN Spain held its Executive Committee, represented by local networks (19) and state agencies (16) more than 8,000 institutions throughout the State, on the premises of the Platform of the Third Sector. The meeting focused on the EAPN campaign on the European elections 2014, which calls on the candidates for the upcoming elections to commit to the fight against poverty, social exclusion and inequality in Europe.
20/03/2014 – The Child Poverty Action Group in association with the Poverty Alliance (EAPN in Scotland), the Open University and Glasgow Caledonian University have published a new edition of Poverty in Scotland series of books. The latest edition focuses on the key social justice and anti-poverty issues facing Scotland as it decides its constitutional future on the 18th of September 2014. As well as looking at the Scottish situation, the collection contains articles look at the experience of tackling poverty in Germany, Belgium, the Basque Country, Catalonia and others.
24/02 – On the occasion of the celebration of Estonian Independence Day at St. Olaf’s Church, EAPN Estonia organised an awareness-raising event around poverty and extreme poverty. The event aimed at gathering Tallinn’s homeless people, people who consider themselves to be living in poverty as well as decision makers. This event, open to the public, was also attended by two MEPs Indrek Tarand and Ivari Padar. In Strasbourg that day, Tunne Kelam however expressed his support.
04/03/2014 – Most EAPN National Networks have alerted national and local media on the launch of EAPN’s campaign around the European Elections Electing Champions for a Social Europe. Along with European Organisations, some of which also participated in the press briefing with MEPs and candidates to the 2014, they have also been active on social media and are on board for this active 2-month campaign!
05/03/2014 – The lead MEPs in charge for the second pillar of banking union, the single resolution mechanism, have begun preparing texts for Parliament’s April plenary vote. These texts will take on board concerns of some member states in a spirit of compromise, while at the same time maintaining a credible and fair system, able to reach the fundamental goals. The MEPs restate that they will not sign up to a system with serious and evident flaws.