2022
Faced with the current situation, EAPN France is taking a stand to fight against inflation which is hitting people in poverty even harder. Solutions can therefore be found at two levels, the first being structural and lasting:
- A decent minimum income guaranteed from the age of 18, equal to 50% of the median income, i.e. €918 per month for a single person (value 2019).
- Intensifying the fight against long-term unemployment thanks to individualised support over time, including during employment.
- Reorient the Common Agricultural Policy to support farmers who make an effort to preserve the climate and territorialise the fight against food insecurity to encourage the development of sustainable models.
- Promote access to health care, food, culture and leisure activities, in accordance with the principles set out in the European social rights base that France adopted in November 2017.
- Increase of the construction of social rental housing (150,000 social rental housings including 60,000 very social housing at the lowest rents).
- Massive renovation of thermal loopholes, with increased aid thanks to European credits for social rental housing and low-income owners (EAPN France Seminar on 1st June 2022).
2021
In 2008, the number of people at risk of poverty and/or social exclusion in France was 11 150 000, or 18.5% of the population. In 2019, there were 11 120 000 people or 17.9% of the French population. Between 2008 and 2019, there was a reduction of 30 000 people at risk of poverty and social exclusion. France is, in fact, far from the initial goal.
Poverty Watch Main Findings
Most Affected Groups
Women
Young people
Unemployed people
Inactive people
Workers in precarious employment
People with low-level of education
Single-parent households
Migrants (especially non-EU)
French overseas territories
Main Priorities
- EAPN France is currently focusing its activities on three themes. Working groups have been set up: the right to sustainable food for all, people living in poverty and minimum social standards.
- EAPN France would also like to see solid measures for access to housing and accommodation for the homeless whose asylum seekers and refugees are in place.
- Concerning the Universal Income of Activity (RUA – Revenu Universel d’Activité), it is regrettable that its implementation has been (temporarily) abandoned. Indeed, and all the more so following the health crisis, a universal income from work could allow many people to avoid falling into extreme poverty.
- The fight against poverty must also be seen as a profitable and indispensable investment in the economic and social needs of the most precarious in order to fight against growing poverty. Like EAPN Europe, EAPN France believes that poverty and social exclusion constitute a denial of fundamental rights and a failure to respect and protect human dignity.
On the right to sustainable food:
- Develop studies and approaches on the right to food in northern countries: based on the elements of the definition that we believe are important: systemic approach, food democracy, dignity, non-discrimination, sustainability, the contribution of territorial approaches.
- Develop work on the need to deal separately with the challenges of the fight against food waste and those of the fight against food insecurity.
- Develop policy evaluations concerning the PANTHER approach (human rights-based) in the development, implementation and monitoring of the food policies of European countries.
- Support initiatives other than food aid to respond to food insecurity and enable their financing, notably through the FEAD.
- Access to food is a sovereign mission whose financing must be long-term.
- Involve all actors in the food system and, particularly those affected by precariousness in the evaluation, monitoring and implementation of policies, and allow the real conditions for their participation.
2020
France remains one of the European countries with the lowest poverty levels. However, over the past ten years or so, the number of poor people in France has increased to reach more than 9 million in 2018, i.e. more than 14% of the total population. This aggravation is one of the most striking phenomena among the trends analysed by the Inequality Observatory. Covid has weakened the position of mainly the young and female people at risk of poverty.
Poverty Watch Main Findings
Most affected groups
Young people (NEETS)
Single-parent families
The unemployed & the homeless
Undocumented people and Roma
Main priorities
- Government strategy for poverty reduction:
– Equality of opportunity
– Guarantee fundamental rights for children
– Guaranteed training path for all young people
– More accessible, equitable and incentive-based social rights
– Invest for the accompaniment of all towards employment - Minimum Income guarantee
- Extension of Zero Long-Term Unemployment territories
- Housing and accommodation for homeless people, asylum seekers and refugees
- Access to fundamental rights for everyone and establishing a global policy including health, housing, food, employment, education and culture
- Food security
Contact details
M.Guy Janvier
15 Rue Albert
75214 Paris (France)
Tel: +33 659 733 368
Intern/Uniopss interlocutor: +33 153363551
E-mail: janvierguy (@) icloud.com
Website: www.eapn.fr