The Poverty Alliance (EAPN Scotland): New edition of Poverty in Scotland

08/03/2014 – 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 18 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.

Semester Alliance presents its initial assessment of the Semester for Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive EU

11/04/2014 – The EU Alliance for a democratic, social and sustainable European Semester (Semester Alliance) presented its initial assessment of the Semester: Proposals for 2014 Country-Specific Recommendations (CSRs): Progressing on a Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive EU, proposing country-specific recommendations in country fiches, at its launch at the EESC on 07 April 2014. This draws on the work of Alliance partners’ national members, who are attempting to engage in the Semester, particularly through the National Reform Programmes (NRPs) and Country-Specific Recommendations (CSRs) at national level, and represents initial attempts to assess macroeconomic, social, environmental and equality policies being delivered through the Semester and to present combined proposals for CSRs that could help achieve progress towards the social, equality and environmental goals and targets of Europe 2020.

Belgian Anti-poverty networks react to national authorities’ contradictions on poverty

21/03/2014 – The Belgian Anti-Poverty Network (BAPN) and the Flemish Anti-Poverty Network (Netwerk tegen Armoede) reacted to the declarations of Maggie De Block, Belgian Secretary of State for Social Inclusion and the Fight against Poverty, who reacted to the increase in poverty in Belgium (1/5 children in Belgium grows up in poverty, 1/3 in the Brussels Region) by the National Plan for the Fight against Child Poverty. One of the objectives of this Plan is to be readable and accessible for children themselves.However, BAPN and its Flemish regional network point out numerous counterproductive measures taken by the current federal government, clashing with their ‘well-intentioned’ objectives described in the National Plan for the Fight against Child Poverty, as these measures clearly contribute to aggravate poverty: