15/10 – Rebecca Lee, worker at EAPN, joined the March of the Indignants on 15/10 and reported that it was far bigger than the 500 people spoken of beforehand and felt bigger even than the 2000 people mentioned on the day.
22/10 – On 22 October, Romania was, for the second time, the host of a JSC public conference, with the explicit objective of fostering the inclusion of new partners from Central and Eastern European Countries.
Has the EU made progress in terms of reducing the number of people faced with poverty and social exclusion in Europe, as per their Europe 2020′ strategy commitments?
EAPN is now in the process of making the evaluation of the First Annual Convention of the European Platform Against Poverty, held on the 17th October in Krakow. The network had sent its messages to the Annual Convention on Friday 14 October, calling for the Convention to push for urgent action to prevent the Europe 2020 Strategy increasing poverty. EAPN participated along with over 40 national and European-Organisation members and people experiencing poverty, invited by their national delegations.
19/10 – EAPN participated in the presentation of an important new report commissioned by the Greens, analysing the impact of the Economic Semester, NRPs and Recommendations in pursuing the objectives of Europe 2020.
{jathumbnail}The reality for people experiencing poverty and social exclusion facing employment, work and job difficulties was at the centre of the 10th EU Meeting gathering about 130 delegates representatives of people experiencing poverty and 80 guests coming from EU Institutions in Brussels.
Olivier Marguery, Vice-President and Fintan Farrell, Director attended the recent meeting of Dignity International and Ekta Parishad held in India’s most southern State Tamil Nadu. The meeting with Dignity International was an opportunity to share experiences of building mobilization actions to defend economic, social and cultural rights.
05-08/10 – The Annual European Health Forum, was held in Gastein, Austria from the 5th to the 8th October, on the topic : Innovation and Well-being: European Health in EU2020 and beyond. EAPN participated in the forum and spoke in the final plenary on: Health by design – the road to well-being,
responding to the key note addresses of John Dalli, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy: J Dalli and Ms Jakab, Regional Director for Europe for the World Health Organisation.
26/09 – Social Platform and EAPN attended a Ministerial conference of the Polish EU presidency in Wrocław, Poland, to discuss responses to the social impact of the economic crisis and how to intensify the support to innovation within social policies. Katherine Duffy, EAPN UK presented the key findings and outcomes of EAPN’s conference: getting out of the crisis together.
{jathumbnail}This conference aimed at providing a unique space for exchange between anti-poverty activists, trade-unionists, other NGOs activists, policy decision makers and researchers on the causes and the consequences of the crisis and on possible alternative approaches. As a participative network, the voice of people experiencing poverty was at the centre of the debates which gave a large space to the presentation of members’ experiences and mobilisations.