AGS 2014: Missed opportunity to restore EU credibility!

EAPN Press releases

EAPN welcomes the new AGS 2014 priority on participation of national stakeholders, but deplores the failure to refocus on Europe 2020 and its targets and to propose a coherent strategy to tackle rising poverty

Brussels, 17 November 2013 –The European Anti-Poverty Network’s first reaction to the AGS, which the Commission adopted yesterday, is one of disappointment. EAPN criticizes the failure to re-focus the AGS on Europe 2020 and its targets (particularly the poverty and other social targets) and insists on the need for coherent integrated strategies, as called for in the EAPN letter to President Barroso on October 4th. The proposal to strengthen national stakeholder engagement in the Semester is however welcomed, but concerns raised about the overall aims.

2015 beyond2015 CSOs

CSO open letter to Vice-President Timmermans on the 2030 Agenda

EAPN News

16/09/2015 – European Civil Society Organisations and Networks, including EAPN, working on both international and domestic EU policies across a wide variety of sectors addressed a letter to Vice-President of the EUropean Commission Frans Timmermans also responsible for sustainable development, ahead of the UN Summit in New York (25-27/09) where Heads of State and Government will adopt the universal, people- and planet-centered 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (‘Agenda 2030’). “As European civil society, we now expect the EU to match the ambition of this Agenda with a clear EU implementation strategy, which reflects the integrated, interlinked and comprehensive nature of the Agenda, in order to ensure well-being for all within planetary boundaries“.

EAPN Spain: Retouching statistical data relative poverty – 27.3% of Spain’s population lives at risk of poverty and social exclusion

EAPN National Networks News

28/05/2014 – Yesterday new data from INE Survey of Quality of Life ( CVD) were published. 2013 final data , with the headline “In the last year, the population at risk of poverty has fallen to 20.4 % compared to 20.8 % last year.” This holder contains two distortions. The first is the so-called statistical effect: poverty is called “relative ” because it is related to the level of the average household income. And in Spain , the average household income has done nothing but fall since 2008 , from 30,045 euros then to the 27,747 euros now. It decreased in 3.5 % only in the last year. That means the poverty line has moved down has well. That actually means that the less we earn, the poorer we are, … the lower the percentage of ” relative poverty”. But therefore, those on fixed income, such as pensioners and retirees, with households ‘theoretically” individual, have gone over that threshold, even if only of a few euros. With this calculation , in 2009 , 23.8 % of older people were in relative poverty and only only 12.7 % today ! Likewise, according to that calculation,child poverty has dropped since 2009,from 28.9% of those under 16 years, to 26.7 % now.

20pc-STRIPE

Will MEPs give the ESF its full potential to reduce poverty?

EAPN Press releases

Brussels, 18 November 2013 – Last week, EAPN and the 19 other NGOs running the campaign EU Money for Poverty Reduction NOW! sent an urgent letter to the President of the European Parliament and the Presidents of the European political groups, on the eve of the plenary vote on the EU Budget and the ESF Regulation 2014-2020. The Coalition sees this vote as a test of the European Parliament’s commitment to reducing poverty by supporting a strong European Social Fund of at least 25% of the Cohesion Budget to back the 20% earmarked for poverty reduction. This would make a real difference for the 120 million women and men currently facing poverty and social inclusion across the European Union and would help to increase people’s trust in the European Parliament in these times of crisis.