The latest one:
EAPN letter to the EPSCO Council: Put People and Respect for the European Social Model first
Ahead of the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) on 9-10 March 2009, EAPN has written to the Ministers regarding the impact of the crisis on people in poverty and anti poverty organisations. In their letter, EAPN puts forward short and long term proposals to ensure that the needs of people experiencing poverty are included in the response to the crisis.
Download the letter: English – French – Spanish
Other EAPN policy papers on…
Social Inclusion
Building Security, Giving Hope: EAPN Assessment of the National Strategic Reports on Social Protection and Social Inclusion (2008-10) Read
Read more
Employment
EAPN Letter to EAPN to EU Ministers of Employment: “The adequacy of Minimum Income Schemes is a key way to address the economic crisis” Read
The Lisbon Strategy
>>Will the economic crisis force a stronger social pillar in Lisbon? EAPN Social Inclusion Scoreboard on the National Reform Programmes (2008-10) Read
Structural Funds
Services
Participation and civil Dialogue
EAPN recently submitted its contribution to the second stage wide-ranging public consultation entitled “Modernising social protection for greater social justice and economic cohesion: taking forward the active inclusion of people furthest from the labour market”.
The present paper focuses on a more detailed reading of pieces of the ‘employment part’ of the Lisbon package, the European Employment Strategy (ie the draft Joint Employment Report and the proposals for new guidelines), and assesses to what extent our social inclusion concerns have been taken into consideration.
In its response to the Commission’s public consultation on Europe’s ‘social reality’, EAPN calls on the European Commission to build upon the outcomes of the Social Reality Stocktaking exercice to develop an ambitious Social policy agenda.
Replying to the European Commission consultation on the future of EU cohesion policy, EAPN stressed the need to see structural funds as a tool not only for growth and jobs, but also for the fight against social inequalities.
This new Guidance note therefore sets out to provide the guidelines for member states and stakeholders on the objectives and process for the new cycle in the development of the National Strategic Reports (2008-11) and its relationship to the Lisbon National Reform Programmes (2008-11). In its response to the guidance note for the Strategic Reports 2008-11, EAPN would like to highlight its satisfaction, but insists it would have liked more time for consultation.
EAPN organized a seminar on 13-14 September 2007 to assess the reasons behind the loss of momentum in the fight against poverty in the EU, but also ways to develop innovative thinking and strategies towards a more social Europe (in particular ahead of the 2010 Year Against Poverty).
This guide therefore aims to give more information on the type of social inclusion indicators that can be applied to structural funds. It will be of particular interest to NGOs sitting on the monitoring committees of the European Social Fund and European Regional Development Fund.
The EAPN assessment of the 2007 Annual Progress Report on the revised Lisbon Strategy highlights 5 key ways that the Report has not responded to the proposals of social NGO’s or the promises made by the Spring Council to strengthen the social dimension of the Lisbon Strategy.
In this report, EAPN sets out to evaluate the 2007 Implementation Reports of the National Reform Programmes for their contribution to Inclusion.
As Member States were still negotiating their strategic priorities (National Strategic Reference Frameworks and Operational Programmes) with the European Commission, the EAPN seminar aimed at examining the place given to social inclusion in the new programming period of structural funds, focusing more specifically on mechanisms that can support social NGOs’ access to the funds.