EAPN Explainers tackle key issues and debates, which are also priorities within the EU poverty discourse, in understandable, everyday language. They are aimed primarily at people working in civil-society organisations, but also at anybody who is concerned with how to make progress on reducing poverty and social exclusion in the EU.
This explainer, firstly published in 2007 and updated in 2009 as part of EAPN’s build-up campaign around the 2010 European Year Combating Poverty, was the first of a series of explainers aiming at making poverty more visible, understood and acted on. This version (2014) provides an update, incorporating the latest EU SILC data, and the new EU policy context, namely the Europe 2020 Strategy.
The booklet is equally intended as a tool for other civil society organisations, trade unions, academics, the media and other stakeholders, including public opinion, to understand the causes and the impact of poverty, social exclusion and inequalities for those directly experiencing them and also for society as a whole.
Poverty in the European Union is a very real problem which brings misery to the lives of many people, curtails their fundamental rights, limits the opportunities they have to achieve their full potential, brings high costs to society and hampers sustainable economic growth.
This explainer was drafted by Claire Champeix (EAPN Secretariat, Brussels) with support from Sian Jones (EAPN Secretariat) and the EAPN EU Inclusion Strategies Group. It is an update of the explainer on Poverty and Inequality in the EU produced by EAPN in 2009. The original explainer was the result of a fruitful collaboration between Hugh Frazer and the EAPN Social Inclusion Review Group.
The Other Explainers
EAPN has already issued a series of 5 explainers:
- Poverty and Inequality in the EU (2009)
- Adequacy of Minimum Income in the EU (2010)
- Wealth, Inequality and Social Polarisation in the EU (2011)
- Towards Children’s Well-being in Europe –Explainer on Child Poverty in the EU (2013), jointly with Eurochild.
- Quality of Work and Employment in the EU (2014)
All EAPN’s publications are available on EAPN’s website www.eapn.eu.
