10 November 2011, Brussels – In advance of the European Commission adopting the new Annual Growth Survey (AGS) on 23 November, launching the new Economic Semester and next phase of Europe 2020 Strategy, EAPN has written to President Barroso presenting their assessment of the first year of the Strategy and outlining 5 priority areas for action to meet the EU poverty reduction target.
This report highlights the presentations and discourse which took place during the public hearing in the European Parliament on “Preventing Undocumented Pregnant Women and Children from Accessing Health Care: Fostering Health Inequalities in Europe”, 8 December 2010.
03-04/11 – EAPN Iceland held its General Assembly. On this occasion, Tanya Basarab, EAPN’s Development Officer, visited the Network on 3-4 November together with Johanna Engen, Dag Westerheim and Svein Karlsen from the Welfare Alliance/EAPN Norway.
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.