The European Anti-Poverty Network Portugal (EAPN Portugal) and the European Anti-Poverty Network Europe (EAPN Europe) hosted the People’s Summit in Porto on 17 March 2023, bringing together people experiencing poverty, associates, political stakeholders and grassroots organisations to assess the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) Action Plan through various workshops and plenary sessions. A living example of what active participation is, as Portuguese Minister Ana Mendes Godinho said in the opening session. Quoting Juliana Wahlgren, EAPN Europe’s Director: we wanted to bring a new methodology to our Policy Conference: we wanted to try a more inclusive bottom-up approach, and advocate for real deliberative democracy in the monitoring and evaluation the EPSR and its action plan with people. In the words of EAPN Portugal’s President, Agostinho Jardim Moreira, this is an opportunity to reduce the alienation and detachment felt by many people towards the European institutions, by seeking to mobilise them for causes that really matter to the people.
The members present at the Summit would like to highlight the following key messages:
- It is necessary to define and implement a European Strategy to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion that addresses the structural causes of poverty, includes preventive measures and promotes the human rights of all people.
- It is necessary to invest in social support and monitoring, with preventive measures, and a holistic vision of intervention in the areas of well-being, with less bureaucracy and closer to the people, aiming at their integral development.
- The European Pillar of Social Rights should be reinforced by binding documents, such as a Framework Directive on Minimum Income and a Directive on the Protection of Universal Public Services.
- Tax justice is an essential tool for redistributing wealth, reducing inequalities and for financing sustainable welfare states.
- Access to adequate income measures (minimum income and minimum wages) are essential to guarantee access to a decent life and to essential goods and services.
- The fight against poverty will only be effective if governance mechanisms include meaningful participation of people experiencing poverty, in all its diversity, both at the policy design stage as well as in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation stages.
- The promotion of digital access must be accompanied by physical, accessible, affordable and quality essential services available to all.
Read the event report with Key Messages from PEP from across Europe!
