2015

EAPN Task Forces: Social Innovation:

Measuring the impact of the 20% ESF allocated to the fight against poverty: Two important efforts of EAPN to follow these areas or work. Unfortunately, on both cases, and due to different visions amongst the members about the relevance and focus of the theme’s, there weren’t big achievements as outputs.

EAPN position about TTIP:

“People before trade: EAPN’s position on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the EU and USA: Under an initiative of the German Network of EAPN, a position paper was produced. The basis for this input was the belief that international trade should promote sustainable social equality, justice and development in a globalised world and should not be left unregulated and controlled by the market. International trade should primarily serve the people and bring added value to the economy. EAPN rejects the notion that the main objective of free trade agreements and the TTIP should be “removing barriers to trade and investment”. EAPN insists that the free trade agreements and any removing of barriers to trade and investment must be at the service of the achievement of sustainable, social, economic and environmental development. EAPN was particularly concerned about the impact of enhanced free trade on socially disadvantaged people, such as those who work in low-wage sectors, benefit from social services or receive state benefits. Moreover, the entry into force of such free trade agreements is likely to further increase poverty and exclusion, through an abrupt erosion of social, employment, and environmental rights and standards, as further explored in the sections below.

14^th European Meeting of People Experiencing Poverty:

“Social convergence in the EU”. The 14th Meeting on “Social Convergence in the EU” took place in Brussels from 19 to 20 November 2015.

27^th GA – Bilbao (Spain):

“The actions of the European Institutions together with the IMF are putting the lives of people of Greece at risk – we need to re-assert the role of the European Union as a democratic and social project.”

Europe 2020 national projects:

In 2015, EAPN, within the budget of the EC, supported its National Networks in launching ‘Europe 2020’ national pilot projects aiming to raise awareness at national level amongst key stakeholders like decision makers, civil-society stakeholders on the Europe 2020 Strategy and European Semester process. They also aim to build capacity and promote better participation of all stakeholders in policy- and decision-making processes. As this pilot initiative also fosters cooperation and mutual learning amongst the national networks and organisations involved, some of the 5 pilot actions were carried out by a lead organization or network together with another support organization or network. The five projects were:

• EAPN Portugal, in cooperation with EAPN Bulgaria
• EAPN Macedonia, in cooperation with EAPN Serbia
• EAPN Spain, in cooperation with EAPN Italy
• EAPN Hungary, in cooperation with EAPN Croatia
• EAPN Ireland

Transnational exchanges in ESF:

Transnational cooperation in the ESF helps develop better and more effective employment and social policies and improve the delivery of reforms, essentially by enabling people to learn from experiences and good practice in other countries. In this project, led by AEIDL (European Association for Information on Local Development),EAPN offers technical assistance to the European Social Fund transnationality Platform 2015-2019.

Sustainable Development goals – Agenda 2030:

Adopted in September 2015, by all United Nations Member States in New York, the agenda 2030, follows the Millennium Development Goals and beyond 2015 agendas and provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

Paris agreement for climate change:

The Paris Agreement central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Additionally, the agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. To reach these ambitious goals, appropriate financial flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building framework will be put in place, thus supporting action by developing countries and the most vulnerable countries, in line with their own national objectives. The Agreement also provides for enhanced transparency of action and support through a more robust transparency framework.