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8th European Meeting of People Experiencing Poverty:
“Housing, Financial Inclusion and access to basic services” The 8th Meeting of people experiencing poverty took place in Brussels on 15 and 16 May 2009.
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20th GA – Vienna (Austria):
“Social Progress in a time of Crisis – Building the EU WE Want.”
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Lisbon Treaty:
The approval of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the elements on the social mainstreaming and participatory democracy was particularly important for EAPN and its members
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End of the European Community Initiatives:
Without finalising the evaluation of the last European Initiative (EQUAL) and with not enough political and legitimated power the EC decided to put an end to these initiatives, which were running since the 90s. This was quite problematic for NGOs, particularly for EAPN members since that was a field where money and resources were made available directly from the EU budget (although with co-funding efforts from the member states) and mostly devoted to social inclusion fields, namely for social experimentation of new policies. This decision was even harder since it excluded totally the new member states (and, therefore, also new national networks of EAPN) from these kinds of resources and access to the patrimony resulting from the past experiences.