Concrete actions to tackle poverty and rising inequality based on social rights are necessary to ensure AGS 2017 delivers on signs of hope | Letter to the EPSCO Council

At the EPSCO meeting on the 8-9 December, the Social Ministers will discuss their first response to the 2017 Annual Growth Survey, in the context of the upcoming European Pillar of Social Rights. EAPN wrote a letter to the EPSCO Council to highlight our key concerns regarding this topic.

In this letter, EAPN calls on Social Ministers to send a message that social rights, standards and infrastructures are essential public goods and pre-requisites for sustainable development and more equal, socially cohesive societies. We call on Social Ministers to press for increased priority in the AGS to guaranteeing social rights, putting the fight against poverty back at the top of the agenda and supporting civil society engagement, both as dialogue partners in the European Semester and other EU policy processes. We call on Social Ministers to ensure better use of existing EU Financial Instruments and increased EU Funds to promote integrated actions to fight poverty.

Read EAPN’s Letter to the EPSCO Council
Read the EAPN Assessment of the European Semester and the National Reform Programmes 2016
Read the Executive Summary of the EAPN NRP Report 2016
Read the EAPN Position Paper on the European Pillar of Social Rights

For further information, contact Sian Jones (Policy Coordinator) sian.jones@eapn.eu, or Elke Vandermeerschen (Communications Officer), elke.vandermeerschen@eapn.eu | Tel. +32 2 226 58 50

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