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.
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?
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.
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.
Ahead of the EPSCO Council of the 5th and 6th of December, EAPN calls on the EU Ministers of Employment and Social Affairs to strengthen the place of social inclusion in the Lisbon agenda.
Read the full report of the sixth European meeting of people experiencing poverty which took place on 4th and 5th May 2007 in Brussels under the German Presidency.
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.
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.
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.