1996

• European court blocks the 4th EU Anti-Poverty Programme:

  The final decision of not having a 4^th European anti-poverty programme came only in 1996. Despite the efforts made to keep the social area and the fight against poverty to stand on the top of the agenda, namely by the EC and some members of the Parliament, since then never again a concrete effort to have an integrated anti-poverty strategy was taken seriously. Even if the Lisbon Strategy was seen as an attempt and Europe 2020 announced to have that kind of objective.

 

• Election of the 4^th President:

  Fintan Farrel (Ireland) and he will stay for four years (two mandates) as President

 

• International Year Against Poverty:

  In December 1993, the UN proclaimed 1996 to be the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. EAPN followed very closely this action although it didn’t have much impact in Europe.

 

• Establishment of the EAPN Task Force North / South:

  EAPN established a concrete Task Force to prepare an International Conference (Rome, October) with the following objectives:

1. To learn from development NGOs and from the most significant networks of social enterprises and of self-help groups in the South of the world, which are the most efficient strategies to combat severe poverty and exclusion encountered especially, but not exclusively, in the poorest countries.
2. To contribute to the setting up of a thorough and coherent analysis of the process of social exclusion, with particular attention being paid to the differences and similarities in trends between the North and South.
3. To try and identify innovative strategies, with particular attention to the methods of the so called ‘social economy’ (with social enterprises) and to community development (with local development agencies) which are being put to work in various ways both in the South and the North of the world.
4. To reinforce the links between on the one hand, E.U. programmes aimed at combating poverty and promoting community development, and on the other hand, bilateral or multilateral programmes geared to human development in the South of the world.

 

• Establishment of the Strengthening the Network Task Force:

  Functioning between 1996 and 1997, the main purpose of this Task Force was to produce a report characterizing the National Networks of EAPN:

  • gives an overall vision of the situation of EAPN in the fourteen countries of the European Union where national networks of EAPN exist. It was prepared based on a questionnaire circulated to the networks during July/August 1995. Since then, some information has been updated.
  • gives information on the situation in each national network on five aspects: legal status, membership, organisation, finance and activities.

This Task Force was followed by the Development Officers Group (1997-2003).

 

• 7^th GA – Naples (Italy)