On 12 December 2006, the “Directive” on Services in the Internal Market was finally approved, following the 2nd Reading in Parliament. The final text closely reflected the negotiated Council position from July 2006 which took on board many of the concerns raised by the European Parliament related to “social dumping”. What are the key concerns for EAPN networks?
The work and activities of EAPN in 2007 once again proved to be of importance in seeking continuous attention for the situation of poverty and social exclusion, where it is now estimated that 78 million are confronted with this reality in the EU Member States.
Read the final declaration of the EAPN General Assembly that was held on 8-10 November 2007 in Budapest, Hungary. This was the first General Assembly of EAPN to be held in one of the Member States that joined the EU in its historic enlargement in 2004.
In this report, EAPN have set out to evaluate progress made under the ‘light year’ of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), and in particular on the National Action Plans (NAPs) Inclusion in 2007, and to ask what has been the benefit for the fight against poverty and social exclusion?
This document sets out the EAPN’s response to the Communication highlighting possible elements for a future Charter on the Rights of Energy Consumers that the European Commission published following the opening up of Europe’s gas and electricity markets to competition on the 1st July.
At a time when the common principles on Flexicurity to be adopted by the Council on Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs in December are being elaborated, EAPN calls on the EU Employment Ministers to make Flexicurity deliver the social cohesion citizens are expecting.
{jathumbnail}This issue of Network News looks into what participation really means.
This tool kit is designed to help EAPN national networks engage with this “light year process”, specifically targeting action around the NAP inclusion, both at national and EU level and to provide supporting information that will enable networks to contribute to the questionnaire which will form the basis of the EAPN EU Report on Social Inclusion and Poverty 2007.