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…
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.
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.
06/05/2015 – EMIN (Anne Van Lancker) and EAPN (Fintan Farrell) took part in radio debate on minimum wages in Europe with several MEPs and EESC officials. It was an opportunity to say that not only is a minimum wage important but the level that the minimum wages is set at is also key and that the EU needs to play a role to ensure an upwards convergence in the levels of minimum wage to ensure that all people in employment can have access to decent pay as part of quality jobs.
06/05/2015 – EAPN President Sérgio Aires is presenting today at the Social Protection Committee EAPN’s Assessment Report and proposals on CSRs based on national inputs. Mr Aires highlighted the need to rebalance the European Semester and economic governance to ensure economic priorities support social objectives and deliver on the poverty and other social targets of Europe 2020. Effective stakeholder dialogue at national level is also crucial to restore credibility and better policies. EAPN also presented its proposals on the New European Commission Integrated Guidelines in the economic and employment areas with a strong message aiming to make progress on Europe 2020 and invest in people for a fairer EU.
EAPN welcomes the election of its Director Barbara Helfferich as Vice-President of the Social Platform and congratulates all new Management Committee members; Eurochild Director Jana Hainsworth (President), AGE Platform Director Maciej Kucharczyk (Vice-President), PICUM Director Michele Levoy, European Youth Forum Secretary General Allan Pall (Treasurer), John Dolan and Borbala Juhasz.
Looking forward to keep working together for a more #social and democratic #Europe!