Towards the Eradication of Poverty.
EAPN Vision and Recommendations
for the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy
EAPN welcomes the announcement of the first-ever EU Anti-Poverty Strategy, as announced by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on 18 July 2024. We have been advocating for a rights-based and comprehensive EU Anti-Poverty Strategy since the creation of our network in 1990.
Past and current initiatives of the EU to combat poverty and social exclusion have proven insufficient. This is evident, for instance, in the persistently high number of people living in poverty over time. In 2023, 94.6 million people in the EU were at risk of poverty and social exclusion1. Poverty harms millions of people, and the EU has not yet taken sufficient action to eradicate it.
EAPN believes the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy represents a crucial opportunity to work towards poverty eradication.
This position paper sets out EAPN’s vision for the policy content of the upcoming EU Anti-Poverty Strategy (EU APS). It complements our Roadmap towards an EU Anti-Poverty Strategy – Process proposal for an effective policy, published in October 2024, which focuses on the design process of the EU APS.
