Poverty Alliance urges UK Government to re-think child poverty strategy

EAPN National Networks News

26/06/2014 – Following the publication of the Child Poverty Strategy 2014-17, the Poverty Alliance has called on the UK Government to re-think their approach to child poverty. The current strategy ignores the macro-economic context and the demand side of the labour market, choosing instead to focus on the individual causes of poverty. The strategy also pays no regard to independent child poverty predictions and focuses too heavily on work as a way out of poverty. 

Europe-plus

EAPN co-signs Europe+ letter to MEPs

EAPN News

01/07/2014 – Europe+, an alliance of 40+ European civil society organisations working together for positive democratic change in the EU through the active and better involvement of citizens, wrote a letter to the new MEPs to engage with them in a constructive dialogue to ensure civil society participates fully in this new legislative term. Europe+ builds on the recommendations of the 2013 European Year of Citizens Alliance that developed a policy agenda to ensure a vibrant European democracy where decisions are made in line with citizens’ needs, aspirations and visions for society. 

BAPN: BMIN holds conference on adequate and accessible minimum income

EAPN National Networks News

10/06/2014 – BMIN (Belgian Minimum Income Network) organized the conference “Towards the progressive realization of an adequate and accessible minimum income.” The first results of the project were presented as well as BMIN’s recommendations for European and national levels. The following political parties took part in the conference: CDH, Ecolo, FDF, Groen, MR, N-VA, PVDA, Sp.a and PS. All parties confirmed the need for a strong minimum income above the poverty line, and recognized the importance of easy access to minimum income, inter alia, through the automatic granting of rights. Several parties also reaffirmed the target to take 530,000 people out of poverty by 2020  If political parties keep their promise, then the punitive conditions that restrict peoples access to minimum income schemes should be removed.