According to EAPN, the Kok report fails to grapple with the complexity of the Lisbon Agenda, and ignores the commitment made in Lisbon in March 2000 in relation to the eradication of poverty and social exclusion.
The report of the High Level Group chaired by Wim Kok in many ways contradicts the ‘Lisbon Agenda’ that was agreed by Heads of State and Governments in 2000 and ignores the commitment that was made in relation to the eradication of poverty and the combat of social exclusion.
EAPN welcomes the proposal as a step towards guaranteeing a future to the learning gained to date through the OMC.
This document (35 pages) gathers the EAPN position papers presented on the occasion of the Third European Round Table on Poverty and Social Exclusion, Rotterdam, 18-19 October 2004.
This EAPN statement is based on the responses by NGOs to the first Round of National Action Plans on Social Inclusion in the new Member States and to the Joint Inclusion Memoranda in the candidate countries.
This position paper was presented on the occasion of the Third European Round Table on Poverty and Social Exclusion which took place in Rotterdam on 18-19 October 2004.
The document is the report of the reflection seminar EAPN held in Porto on 29 and 30 April 2004 on the current trends in the European Employment Strategy.
The report identifies the major achievements of the National Action Plans on Inclusion to June 2004. It must be remembered that the NAPs Inclusion process is not quite four years old.
In this position paper, EAPN is arguing is that the commitment made by Heads of State and Government in Lisbon in 2000 to bring forward a strategy to make a decisive impact on the eradication of poverty is as relevant, if not even more relevant, today.
It is clear that we will not reach or even move towards the objective to ‘make a decisive impact on the eradication of poverty and social exclusion by 2010 with ‘more of the same’. To achieve this, we need a serious boost to the strategy.