78 organisations active in the field of children’s rights strongly welcome that this year’s European Forum on the Rights of the Child focuses on protecting children in migration. Children represent a significant…
Fintan Farrell, Acting Director of EAPN, made an input to the European Commission’s structured dialogue session on the ‘future of work and welfare’ in the context of the debate about…
EAPN and its members are horrified by the recent attacks in Paris and the day before in Beirut against innocent civilians. These are horrible tragedies in a world where too…
On 27 November 2015, the EU Alliance for a democratic, social and sustainable European Semester (EU Semester Alliance) will hold a stakeholder meeting in dialogue with key representatives from the European Commission and the Council of Ministers who are engaged in the Semester process: Michele Calandrino, Policy Officer from Directorate D, Policy Coordination 1: Europe 2020, European Semester and Economic Governance, in DG Secretariat General and Muriel Rabau, SPC member for Belgium and Vice Chair of the SPC Bureau. The purpose of the meeting is to establish a regular dialogue between the EU institutions and representatives of the 16 member organizations of the Alliance (see below) with key officials on the occasion of the launch of the Annual Growth Survey 2016.
13/11/2015 – Sian Jones, EAPN Policy Coordinator, was invited to participate in a small Reflecting Group composed of experts from EU institutions and stakeholders alike, to provide essential feedback for the completion of the final report due beginning of December 2015 on ‘Further Socializing the European Semester: Moving forward for the social Triple A’. The report provides the ‘state of play’ of how social and employment issues are being considered in the semester process – including important new developments in the 2015 cycle.
04/11/2015 – EAPN participated in this important conference organized jointly by EESC and the ESC of Luxembourg on “Common social values and principles & social governance”. The aim was to promote dialogue with decision-makers and stakeholders on key new inputs aiming to influence the Commission’s upcoming proposals for the EU’s Social Pillar or “Social Triple A’ as proposed by President Juncker.
23/10/2015 – The Intergroup organized a special meeting to celebrate the world day, linked to the Global Day to eradicate poverty, to which EAPN participated. The key speaker was Mario Monti, followed by a panel debate, including the intergroup chair, Caritas Secretary General and ATD activists with direct experience of poverty. The session closed with the traditional Ceremony at the stone in the Parliament forecourt.
The European Meeting of People experiencing Poverty takes place this year on 19-20 November 2015 in Brussels as a consultation with people experiencing poverty to gather their input on policies to foster social convergence in Europe and to strengthen the participation of people experiencing poverty in policies that affect them. Delegations of people experiencing poverty from 30 countries in Europe exchange with EU officials and other policy makers. It is expected that the outcomes of this Year’s meeting will feed into the Annual Convention on Poverty and Social Exclusion that is likely to take place early 2016.
12/10/2015 – Sian Jones, EAPN Policy Coordinator spoke as expert witness in the Employment Committee Hearing for Tamas Meszerics’ own-initiative report “Meeting the Anti-Poverty Target in light of increasing Household…
On the eve of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17 October 2015) EAPN issues this open letter to the heads of States and Governments in the European Union.
Since 1987, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty invites states to “present and promote concrete activities with regard to the eradication of poverty and destitution”. The Europe 2020 Strategy commits Member States to achieve a poverty-reduction target. The newly adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals commit governments to take action to “end poverty”. It is now time for the EU to bring coherence to all these commitments and adopt a comprehensive and integrated strategy to eradicate poverty, which is built with and for people experiencing poverty.