01/06/2015 – The Council of Europe at a recent meeting in Chisinau, Moldova, discussed the need for a citizen income. The debate supported the need for an adequate minimum living income as a means of protecting human dignity and autonomy. The Rapporteur for the report is Ms Nunzia CATALFO, from Italy. Fintan Farrell, Project Coordinator EMIN, presented the results of the EMIN project.
In 2015, EAPN is supporting its National Networks in launching ‘Europe 2020’ national pilot projects aiming to raise awareness at national level amongst key stakeholders like decision makers, civil-society stakeholders on the Europe 2020 Strategy and European Semester process. They will also aim to build capacity and promote better participation of all stakeholders in policy- and decision-making processes. As this pilot initiative also fosters cooperation and mutual learning amongst the national networks and organisations involved, some of the 5 pilot actions will therefore be carried out by a lead organization or network together with another support organization or network.
20/05/2015 – The EU is failing to deliver an inclusive recovery strategy, which is urgently needed to bring the Europe 2020 Strategy back on track – in particular to combat poverty, create quality jobs, invest in early child development, equality for all, including gender equality and ensure environmental sustainability. This is the critical assessment of the Semester Alliance, a broad European coalition bringing together environmental, social and equality NGOs and trade unions, responding to the European Commission’s Country-Specific Recommendations (CSRs) published on 13 May 2015.
Brussels, 15 May 2015 – The European Anti-Poverty Network reacted sharply to the Commission’s proposals for country-specific recommendations, which were published on the 13th of May. “The new recommendations may be closely aligned with President Juncker’s key priorities in the Annual Growth Survey: boosting investment, structural reforms and responsible fiscal policies, but they offer little in the way of a vision to turn the tide for the more than 120 million people in poverty in Europe,” said Sérgio Aires, President of EAPN. EAPN is very concerned about the increasing invisibility of Europe 2020 Strategy together with its commitments to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and to deliver on the targets – particularly to reduce poverty by at least 20 million by 2020.
Brussels, 15 May 2015 – The European Anti-Poverty Network reacted sharply to the Commission’s proposals for country-specific recommendations, which were published on the 13th of May. “The new recommendations may be closely aligned with President Juncker’s key priorities in the Annual Growth Survey: boosting investment, structural reforms and responsible fiscal policies, but they offer little…
On 02-03 June 2015, EAPN members from EAPN Luxembourg and EAPN Latvia will participate and represent EAPN in Social Platform NGO Networking Meeting & Cconference on the Social Dimension of the EU Presidency in Luxembourg, ahead of the upcoming Luxembourgish Presidency of the EU. This event is bringing together a wide range of key stakeholders including governmental representatives and Luxembourgish and EU civil society.
12/05/2015 – EUROCITIES organised a panel debate on Urban dialogues (1): Tackling unemployment with Europe’s cities with Sian Jones, EAPN’s Policy Coordinator as one of its key speakers. The purpose of the debate was to present the EUROCITIES Work Declaration and engage relevant stakeholders on a dialogue with cities. NGOs have a very important role to play in creative inclusive labour market and they are key partners of local governments.
04/05/2015 – All UN Member States have recognised that the human right to water and the human right to sanitation are part of binding international human rights law. This publication by Amnesty International and WASH United gathers the evidence of the universal recognition of the human rights to water and sanitation. It gives an overview of the most important resolutions and declarations that recognise the human rights to water and sanitation, including the positions that individual states have taken when those documents were adopted.
07-08/05/2015 – EAPN spoke in Alliances to Fight Poverty/ Re-InVEST Seminar, May 7-8, Madrid. How can we make Europe more social, democratic and sustainable? How useful are existing instruments, like the Annual Growth Survey, the European Semester, the Juncker investment plan? Secondly, are human rights an useful tool? And how must they be implemented? The seminar was delivered as part of the new Re-INVEST project, financed by Horizon 2020, aiming to reframe the social investment approach as a strategy to humanize Europe.
01/04/2015 – Sian Jones, EAPN Policy Coordinator spoke in the EMPL Committee hearing to prepare the own initiative report: “Reducing inequalities with a special focus on child poverty”, with rapporteur Ines Zuber (GUE). EAPN underlined the importance of giving more priority to the systemic causes of poverty rooted in inequality of distribution of resources – ensuring adequate income through the life cycle through quality jobs and social protection with guaranteed access to key public services financed by tax justice, rather than blaming parents and focusing only on individual solutions.