The realities of people experiencing poverty and social exclusion are mostly absent in the discussions around the EU enlargement. The situation as portrayed in this issue of Network News deserves however to get the outmost attention.
Through its contacts with NGOs in the acceding countries, the European Anti Poverty Network has gathered information on the views of NGOs in some of these countries on the process of drawing up the Joint Inclusion Memoranda and on their content.
This election campaign and the public debates it generates offer an important opportunity to reduce the alienation from the EU project that is felt by many citizens and residents in the EU.
How are they worked out and worked up? How can the experience of people experiencing poverty and social exclusion inform them? How do existing indicators apply to the future Member States? These are the questions that this issue sets out to address.
This General Assembly welcomed the Bulgarian Anti Poverty Network as the first member from a candidate/acceding country to join EAPN. At the end of the General Assembly, the EAPN delegates adopted the following declaration.
This report presents the EAPN’s initial reflections on the second round of National Action Plans on Inclusion (NAPs Inclusion 2003-2005). It is based on the assessment made by the EAPN National Networks of the Plan submitted by their respective Government.
EAPN & Eurocities have just published a joint report on the EU Social Inclusion Strategy, on the basis of the outcomes of the conference they organised in Athens on 28 February and 1 March 2003.
In response to the Commission proposal, EAPN would like to stress first of all the importance of maintaining visible the social inclusion strategy within the streamlining process.