EPIM | October 2015 edition of the EPC Policy Update

16/10/2015 – The October 2015 edition of the EPC Policy Update specifically prepared for organisations engaged in EPIM (European Programme for Intergration and Migration) is now available online. This edition’s special focus is dedicated to analysing the legislative, political and humanitarian developments that have recently taken place concerning the EU’s so-called “refugee crisis”.

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AGE Platform | International Day for the Eradication of Poverty: Start acting on the Europe 2020 poverty target!

16/10/2015 – While the UN is celebrating the international day for the eradication of poverty, and the global community has set itself the goal of ‘ending poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including by eradicating extreme poverty by 2030’ in the Sustainable Development Goals, the European Union faces major challenges in meeting its own target to reduce poverty by 20 million between 2008 and 2020. For one in five Europeans over 50 living at risk of poverty, decisive action is needed.

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Video: Increasing ‪inequality & ‪segregation in ‪EU ‪cities explained in 1 minute

19/10/2015 – Poverty, inequality and segregation are increasing in European Cities. The widening gap between rich and poor is leading to segregation in more and more European cities. The rich and the poor are living at increasing distance from each other, and this can be disastrous for the social stability and competitive power of cities. Check out this video to get an idea of this rigorous comparative research on socio-economic segregation in 13 European cities: Madrid, Milan, Tallinn, London, Stockholm, Vienna, Athens, Amsterdam, Budapest, Riga, Vilnius, Prague, and Oslo. Led by Professor, Maarten Van Ham “Segregation Europe” argues that a strong EU Urban Agenda is needed to create attractive, inclusive and competitive cities.

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Housing Europe | New Guide on Structural Funds & Housing in 2014-2020

19/10/2015 – Housing Europe has just released a new guide to provide housing practitioners and policy makers with up-to date information and figures on the funding allocated to housing in each country. The publication includes and detailed country profiles as well as good examples, and provides the reader with a broader view of on how housing will be supported between 2014 and 2020.

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EAPN calls for implementation of poverty target and EU framework Directive on minimum income at European Parliament Employment Committee Hearing

12/10/2015 – Sian Jones, EAPN Policy Coordinator spoke as expert witness in the Employment Committee Hearing for Tamas Meszerics’ own-initiative report “Meeting the Anti-Poverty Target in light of increasing Household Costs”. EAPN called for the poverty target to be confirmed and implemented, putting Europe 2020 at the heart of the Semester, with an explicit integrated…

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European Policy Centre discusses the refugee crisis

On 1st of October 2015 the European Policy Centre hosted a Policy Dialogue on the European response(s) to the refugee, migrant and humanitarian crisis: Will the EU and Member States succeed? The speakers called for the EU-coordinated approach in facing the high increase of refugees entering the EU, which could include more effective implementation of the Commission’s proposal for relocation and resettlement, the harmonization of the national asylum systems, the reorientation of the EU funds to the issue of migration, improving the EU monitoring of the flows of immigration, the cooperation between the EU and countries of emigration and, most importantly, facing the root causes for crisis in Syria.

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EAPN Challenges the EU to live up to its Values and Beliefs – Open Letter

On the eve of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17 October 2015) EAPN issues this open letter to the heads of States and Governments in the European Union.

Since 1987, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty invites states to “present and promote concrete activities with regard to the eradication of poverty and destitution”. The Europe 2020 Strategy commits Member States to achieve a poverty-reduction target. The newly adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals commit governments to take action to “end poverty”. It is now time for the EU to bring coherence to all these commitments and adopt a comprehensive and integrated strategy to eradicate poverty, which is built with and for people experiencing poverty.

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OSE & ETUI | Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2015

The sixteenth edition of Social policy in the European Union: state of play has a triple ambition. First, it provides easily accessible information to a wide audience about recent developments in both EU and domestic social policymaking. Second, the volume provides a more analytical reading, embedding the key developments of the year 2014 in the most recent academic discourses. Third, the forward-looking perspective of the book aims to provide stakeholders and policymakers with specific tools that allow them to discern new opportunities to influence policymaking.

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