January/March 2008: The EAPN campaign for Adequate Minimum Income schemes
{jathumbnail}This new issue looks at the campaign EAPN launched last December for Adequate Minimum Income schemes.
DetailsCivil dialogue also requires transparency and openness
Who gets Community funding? What influence do lobbies have? What rules of conduct do those in charge of EU institutions have to follow? As more than 15 000 lobbyists are active in Brussels and their interactions with EU institutions have considerably increased, the development of civil dialogue also requires a more open and transparent EU…
DetailsTowards better participation of excluded groups
The development of civil dialogue has faced numerous developments in the EU over the last decades, which were marked by a growing acknowledgement of the contribution of civil society to the governance process and led to the inclusion of a specific article on participatory democracy in the draft constitutional Treaty, but also the launch of…
DetailsServices and Social Services: a general overview
One of the main ambitions of the revised Lisbon Strategy is to complete the internal market in the area of Services, which provide 75% of EU jobs and 65% of GDP in the EU. This means enabling the Service Sector to operate across member state boundaries. The main interest is in opening up the market…
DetailsKey action areas
Through the EAPN Services Group, in 2007/8 we have taken action on the following areas: 1) Monitoring the impact of the Services Directive on people experiencing poverty EAPN has developed an EAPN explainer and a Glossary on the Services Directive, explaining the specific relevant of the Services Directive and analysing the likely impact on EAPN…
DetailsEAPN’s key concerns
The refusal of the EU to establish a strong horizontal framework on all Services of General Interest as a balance to the liberalization of the market through the Services Directive and other sectoral initiatives. The unwillingness to affirm the overarching priority of a social Europe = guaranteeing the implementation of universal services obligations (accessible, affordable,…
DetailsEAPN action against the Services Directive: In defense of quality universal services
EAPN actively campaigned against the Services Directive since its inception, (known as the Bolkestein Directive) on three key areas: To get Services of General Interest excluded from the Directive. To get the specificity of social and health services recognized and excluded. To get the “country of origin” principle abolished, which could have led to social…
DetailsStructural Funds: a general overview
The Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund are intended to narrow the gaps in economic and social development among the regions and Member States of the European Union. Representing more than one third of EU’s budget, the Funds constitute substantial financial assistance that shapes the long-term development of the recipient countries and regions. What can…
DetailsBuilding upon the EQUAL programme
One of the success stories of the last round of the structural funds was the EQUAL Programme, which operated on the basis of social inclusion, innovation, transnationality, empowerment and the bottom-up approach, with over 2,000 projects, mainly for NGOs. There will be no CIPs in the new round, but these principles should be integrated in…
DetailsProviding the right framework for NGOs to access the funds
To ensure that the funds deliver on tackling poverty, it is crucial to enable access of those organisations engaged with the most excluded, and to provide tailored mechanisms. Key tools to support NGOs in accessing structural funds, global grants (system allowing the provision of small-scale grants through an intermediary body) and training to NGOs (financed…
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