Despite numerous alerts sent by organisations to the Government on the social difficulties throughout the country, the Collectif des Associations Unies (United organisations network) deplores the lack of consideration of…
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.
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.
EAPN responds to the European Commission’s legislative proposals regarding the future of Structural Funds, to make sure that Cohesion Policy will fully deliver on the poverty reduction target.
On 21 December, EAPN submitted its response to the stakeholder consultation organized by the SPC adhoc group on Child Poverty, following the stakeholder meeting held on the 14th December.
{jathumbnail}The figures of 72 million people at risk of poverty, 18 million unemployed and 14 million working poor in the EU, raise the following question: is the revised Lisbon Strategy really delivering employment policies that work for people experiencing poverty and social exclusion?
18/09/2015 – At the EPC event today, Vice President Dombrovskis provided an update on the latest developments on deepening the EMU, implementing the 5 President’s Report. The main priorities up to 2017 were outlined as 1) implementing the macroeconomic rule through the European Semester, 2) Financial Backstops and 2) Banking Union. The key slogan was ‘deepening by doing’ – implementing closer macroeconomic governance through the European Semester, by focussing more clearly on Social and Economic Challenges and improving visibility and ownership of the Semester by involving more Member States, European parliament and Social partners. Sian Jones, EAPN, intervened on 5 key elements:
30/05/2014 – EAPN-ES commitment with citizens, especially the most vulnerable, is not only in the run up to European elections last May 25 work. During the campaign for a Europe free…
10/06/2014 – The Belgian Network on Minimum Income (BMIN) – gathering networks, trade unions and academics invovled in the fight against poverty and social exclusion is organising a conference on…
04 October 2013 – The European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) sent an urgent letter to President of the European Commission Mr Barroso which concluded that the European Semester had failed to deliver on its promises on poverty reduction and stakeholders had not been able to engage and contribute to the Europe 2020 decision-making processes in any meaningful way. The letter also made reference to previous statements by President Barroso when he referred “the pressing need for effective policies” to address poverty, or called them an “economic necessity”.