EAPN

The Seminar “What Future for Social Europe?” on the impact of the UK Referendum on Poverty and Social Exclusion
2016-06-14 09:00 - 13:00 UTC | Glasgow Concert Hall, 2 Sauchiehall Street , Glasgow, G2 3NY, United Kingdom
EAPN UK and the Poverty Alliance will organise a seminar to discuss the future of social policies at EU level and the impact of a UK referendum on the fight against poverty.
The event will focus on whether the goals of poverty reduction and social justice are best served with the UK remaining part of the EU, and highlight what is understood by “Social Europe”, in a time when the effects of the 2008 economic crisis still reverberate across the continent.
The session will open with Robin Hanan, Director of the European Anti-Poverty Network Ireland. After that, selected speakers will contribute with short inputs on some of the main challenges currently faced by the EU: the refugee crisis, creating an equal Europe, and the fragile state of employment across the Union.
During the second session, a debate will be held between those in favour of the UK EU membership and those against, giving the audience the opportunity to actively participate in the discussion.
This seminar is FREE and open to all. Click here to register and know more about the event.

The 2016 FEAD European Conference
2016-06-02 - 2016-06-03
On June 2 and 3 EAPN will contribute to the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived European Conference titled The FEAD Network: Sharing Knowledge, Finding Synergies to Break the Vicious Circle of Poverty and Deprivation to share the network’s experience in the field and disseminate the key findings of the latest publications.

The Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) supports EU countries’ actions to provide material assistance to the most deprived. This includes food, clothing and other essential items for personal use, e.g. shoes, soap and shampoo.
Material assistance needs to go hand in hand with social inclusion measures, such as guidance and support to help people out of poverty. National authorities may also support non-material assistance to the most deprived people, to help them integrate better into society.

EAPN’s Acting Director Fintan Farrell will speak at session F panel The way forward for the FEAD Network.
EAPN is part of the FEAD network and contributes to the project by performing following tasks:

Structuring the themes and tools for exchange of experience, capacity building and networking in relation to the FEAD Fund and the establishment of the FEAD Platform
Ensuring online presence of FEAD (web pages and electronic networking tools)
Organising Network Events
Collection of good practices
Expert and logistic support

Click here to visit the FEAD website for more information and here to see the draft programme of the conference.

EAPN Participates to Round-table meeting with the United Nations Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights
2016-05-30 16:00 - 2016-06-03 19:00
EAPN will participate to a round-table meeting with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR) to discuss impact of the financial crisis on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights in EU countries. The event will reunite representatives of European civil society networks and organizations.

The visit to Brussels will result in the publication of an official report to the UNOHCHR to complement the latest report on the effects of the financial and economic crisis within Greece on social and economic rights (A/HRC/31/60/Add.2). It is also intended to reflect more broadly on lessons learned from European countries which have completed adjustment programmes and are currently under post-programme surveillance, such as Cyprus, Ireland, Spain and Portugal.

The visit will focus on the following issues:
• Human Rights obligations of European institutions and European States in relation to economic reform and austerity policies implemented in Eurozone countries;
• Human rights impact of recent economic adjustment programmes implemented in Europe to overcome the sovereign debt crises (Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and other countries under post-programme surveillance) with particular focus on the economic, social and cultural rights, e.g. right to work, social security, health, education and adequate housing;
• Human rights impacts of the financial crisis and of the economic adjustment measures on individuals and groups in situation of vulnerability, such as persons with disabilities, refugees, migrants, members of minorities, unemployed, highly indebted persons, children, the elderly, and women;
• Efforts undertaken by .European institutions to prevent negative social and human rights impacts in past and current adjustment programmes and to ensure non-discrimination in their implementation;
• ) Main lessons learned from the implementation of economic reform programmes in the different countries (success stories, unintended side-effects and failures) in particular in relation to the enjoyment of human rights;
• The right to participation, transparency and accountability in contexts of economic reform policies supported by European institutions;
• Other topics related to the mandate of the Independent Expert.

Click here to know more about the objectives of the visit and background information about the work of the Independent Expert.

Youth Partnership Symposium ‘(Un)Equal Europe? Responses from the youth sector’
2016-05-30 - 2016-06-02 | Unnamed Venue, Budapest, Hungary
The Symposium ‘(Un)Equal Europe? Responses from the youth sector’ will take place in Budapest to explore the range of social, geographic and economic inequalities that young people face in today’s Europe and develop solutions through a dialogue between practitioners, researchers and policy makers.
The event will also highlight some of the personal experiences of individuals who have encountered structural and contextual barriers to inclusion and discuss the impact of the most recent refugee migration fluxes on the youth sector.
The Objectives of the symposium are:

To discuss and disseminate the knowledge on inequalities, participation and social exclusion concerning young people in Europe;
To share good practice in youth work and youth policy relevant to the key questions of the Symposium;
To identify challenges and research gaps, draw conclusions and formulate recommendations, as well as to propose models of youth policy and youth work interventions;
To support knowledge-based youth policy and practice for fighting against inequalities through networking, dialogue, and peer learning;
To connect youth, policy-makers, practitioners and researchers.

Mr. Fintan Farrell, Acting Director of EAPN Europe, will speak about youth poverty in Europe at the event, at which about 80 to 100 experts representing the various fields of policy, research and practice will participate.
For more information on the EU-CoE youth partnership, please see their website.

The 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Development
2016-05-20 - 2016-05-22 | Unnamed Venue, Thessaloniki, Greece
Maria Jeliazkova, Vice-President of EAPN and member of EAPN Bulgaria, will represent the network at the 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Development in Thessaloniki, an event organized by the independent student group Students for Sustainability in collaboration with the International Hellenic University and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
The conference aims at promoting the personal social responsibility of students and citizens through awareness and engagement, as well as presenting sustainable development theories and best practices in a non-academic context.
The event will last three days and include workshops, the main conference and an exhibition of local agri-food products. Several international speakers will be called to contribute to discussions concerning six key topics that are at the core of sustainable development:

Topic A – The importance of Sustainable Development Strategies in the 21st Century
Topic B – Politics and Sustainable Development: tool or throwback?
Topic C – Agriculture and Sustainable Development
Topic D – 1st Pillar of Sustainable Development: Society – Can Poverty be tackled through Sustainable Development Policies?
Topic E – 2nd Pillar of Sustainable Development: Economy – Green Economy – Trick or Treat?
Topic F – 3rd Pillar of Sustainable Development: Environment – Environmental Protection: a matter of local, state or international mobilization?
Round Table Topic – Crisis, Conflicts, Refugees, and Global Sustainable Development.

Ms. Jeliazkova will give a speech concerning the Topic D, “Can Poverty be tackled through Sustainable Development Policies?”
Click here to know more about the event and here to access the e-book produced by Students for Sustainability in order to explain and raise awareness about issues concerning sustainable development.

EAPN speaks at "Public policies for accessible social services" conference in Romania
2016-04-07 - 2016-04-08 | Unnamed Venue, Bucharest, Romania
Amana Ferro, Senior Policy Officer at EAPN, will speak at the conference Public policies for accessible social services – Building bridges between social service providers in Bucharest on April 7-8.
The event is organised by Foundation for the Development of Civil Society. Other panelists will be from EASPD, AGE Platform, and the Social Platform.
See programme.
