On the eve of the Informal Meeting of the Employment and Social Affairs Ministers, EAPN has reacted to the Commission’s proposals for a new framework for the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) on Social Protection and Social Inclusion.
Can activation schemes work for social inclusion? This is the question to which EAPN tries to answer in a recent position paper. According to the Network, the answer is ‘yes’ provided that these schemes aim to meet individual person’s needs, wishes and priorities.
The continuing scandal of widespread poverty in a rich society, such as the European Union where 68 million people live in poverty, is intolerable. The next round of National Action Plans for Inclusion must move Europe substantially towards the agreed EU goal ‘to make a decisive impact on the eradication of poverty by 2010’. As the participants to the Liverpool EAPN General Assembly repeated: we cannot wait any longer!
EAPN has sent a letter to the EU Heads of State and Government and to Commission President Barroso, expressing its concerns that having announced an informal summit on the European Social Model, the focus on Social Europe is now getting lost. “If this is the case, this is likely to have the impact of further alienating people concerned about Social Europe from the European Project”, states Fintan Farrell, Director of EAPN.
On the occasion of the Fourth European Round Table on Social Inclusion to be held in Glasgow on 17-18 October, EAPN points out that the strongest welfare states in the EU are also the most competitive.
Giving access to a wide range of good practices on the ground is the aim of LOCIN – www.locin.info, the European website on local initiatives to combat social exclusion, which has been officially launched today in Brussels.
On the occasion of the informal meeting of the ministers responsible for regional policy to take place tomorrow, Friday 20 May, EAPN has issued a response to the Commission’s non-paper on the “Community Strategic Guidelines on Cohesion Policy in support of growth and jobs”, which is to be discussed at the informal ministerial.
A new Eurostat report confirms EAPN’s point of view that holding a job is not always sufficient to escape poverty.
EAPN welcomes the fact that the Lisbon Strategy remains focused on the three dimensions, economic, social and environmental, and that social cohesion remains part of the overall objective of this strategy… but expects concrete actions in the coming months.