EAPN Talks: The Economics of Poverty
2025-11-12 15:00 - 16:15 UTC | Online
Speaker: Professor Daniel Zamora Vargas
Date: 12 November, 3 p.m., online
This opening session examines how inequality is structurally embedded in our welfare states. Drawing on key thinkers, we will explore the ideological shifts that have reframed social protection as a cost rather than a right. The discussion will place the upcoming EU Anti-Poverty Strategy in a vital historical and political context, asking:

What economic models have shaped today’s welfare systems?
How has neoliberalism undermined the universality of social rights?
What alternative visions exist for rebuilding collective welfare?

Fill the registration form to attend!
Link for the event: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86839398917?pwd=[REDACTED]

23rd PEP Annual Meeting Participation in Action
2025-12-11 09:00 - 2025-12-12 17:00 UTC
On 11–12 December 2025, EAPN will hold the 23rd PEP Annual Meeting in Brussels, bringing together people experiencing poverty (PEP) from across Europe. This edition consolidates and closes a year-long series of meetings and consultations focused on the upcoming EU Anti-Poverty Strategy.
The PEP Meeting is a key moment for driving political development and policy change, connecting people experiencing poverty from EAPN national members to discuss the challenges and advances in the fight against poverty. In this edition, participants will also have the chance to engage with political stakeholders, European institutions, civil society organisations, and foundations.
EAPN continues to strengthen meaningful participation of people experiencing poverty at all levels of governance — local, national, and EU. This year’s agenda reflects this focus, offering capacity-building workshops designed to equip participants with the skills, confidence, and tools to engage meaningfully, influence decision-making, and participate safely and effectively throughout the advocacy cycle. Workshops will cover communication, advocacy, inclusion, participation, fundraising, and more.
This year’s meeting follows two major milestones: the High-Level European Commission Consultation on Poverty held on 18 September 2025 in Porto, and the First EU Anti-Poverty Day held on 5 November at the European Parliament. The PEP Meeting aims to consolidate the outcomes of both events, providing a dedicated space for exchange and for amplifying the voices, experiences, expertise and proposals of people experiencing poverty — voices that drive change within political spaces.
At the heart of EAPN’s mission is the belief that the fight against poverty is also a fight to empower people living in poverty and social exclusion. Meaningful participation is not just a principle, it is a key driver for eradicating poverty.
Stay tuned to learn more about the PEP Meeting.

EAPN Talks: Digitalisation of the Welfare State – A Surveillance Trap?
2026-02-24 14:00 - 16:00 UTC
Speaker: Bastien Le Querrec, La Quadrature du Net

Date: 24 February, 2 p.m., online
This session will explore how digitalisation is reshaping welfare systems across Europe, from automated decision-making and data-sharing practices to the growing risks of surveillance and exclusion.
Together with Bastien Le Querrec from La Quadrature du Net, we will examine whether digital tools are strengthening access to social protection or creating new barriers for people experiencing poverty. The discussion will focus on fundamental rights, accountability, and the safeguards needed to ensure that technology serves social justice rather than undermining it.
Fill the registration form to attend!
Link for the event

Report Launch Webinar: Advancing poverty eradication through the European Pillar of Social Rights
2026-03-18 10:00 - 11:00 (Europe/Brussels)
EAPN is launching its newest report Advancing poverty eradication through the European Pillar of Social Rights with an online webinar moderated by Marie-Amah Kouadio.
In this discussion, we will explore how the renewed EPSR Action Plan, to be launched in July 2026, can align with the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy to ensure two frameworks with one goal: ending poverty in Europe by 2050.
During this discussion we will also cover:
– How EU economic governance can be aligned with the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR)
– The role of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) in financing social investment and structural transformation
– How can the EU shift from reducing poverty to eradicating it?
Register here and join us!

2025 European Poverty Watch Launch
2026-04-14 09:30 - 12:00 (Europe/Brussels) | european economic and social comitee, Rue Belliard 99/101, Brussels, Belgium
On 14 April, the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) will launch its latest EU Poverty Watch report, “Promoting and Strengthening National and Local Anti-Poverty Strategies” (NAPS & LAPS), at an event co-organised with the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) Civil Society Organisations’ Group in Brussels.
The report provides a comprehensive analysis of current National Anti-Poverty Strategies (NAPS), highlighting common challenges as well as good practices across Europe.
Built on a bottom-up approach, the report draws on findings from nineteen EAPN national networks. These findings clearly demonstrate the crucial role of coordinated action across all levels of governance, local, national, and EU, in achieving the eradication of poverty in Europe, a goal EAPN has been pushing forward. This objective has also gained renewed political momentum following commitments by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in September 2025.
Key highlights:
▪️ Insights from 19 EAPN’s national networks bottom-up research
▪️ Exploring how to promote and strengthen National and Local Anti-Poverty Strategies
▪️ Roundtable and Q&A with people experiencing poverty and EU representatives
Check the agenda
Webstream link: Follow Online

24th PEP Meeting "The Politics of Anti-Poverty: Participation, Power and Inclusion"
2026-06-04 09:00 - 2026-06-05 17:00 (Europe/Brussels)
The 24th European Meeting of People Experiencing Poverty will take place on 4–5 June 2026 in Larnaca, Cyprus, under the auspices of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
This year’s meeting, themed “The Politics of Anti-Poverty: Participation, Power and Inclusion” will make people with lived experience of poverty take centre stage of policymaking.
At a time when the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy is taking shape, this meeting will be an important moment to test what meaningful participation looks like in practice, who gets to shape it and what implementation looks like when lived realities lead the way.
It will bring together people experiencing poverty, civil society and other stakeholders to build a common understanding of the challenges ahead and strengthen the collective response to poverty and social exclusion.
Over two days, participants will explore what it means to move from strategy to reality in the fight against poverty, with a focus on the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy, participation, power, inclusion and implementation.
The meeting will also provide space to discuss shared priorities, advocacy pathways and the role of lived experience in shaping more effective and equitable anti-poverty responses across Europe.
At the heart of EAPN’s mission is the belief that the fight against poverty is also a fight to empower people living in poverty and social exclusion. Meaningful participation is not just a principle; it is a key driver for eradicating poverty.
Consult the Agenda

Thematic Meeting on Inclusive Language in Social Rights Communication
2026-06-18 12:30 - 14:00 (Europe/Brussels)
Our next Thematic Meeting on Inclusive Language in Social Rights Communication will explore how the words we use to talk about poverty and social exclusion shape perceptions, reinforce or challenge stigma and influence power relations.
Language is never neutral. The way we frame poverty in policy, communication and everyday discourse has a direct impact on how people are understood and treated.
Building on the COMM’ON Guidelines, which stress that communication should be not only accessible but also participatory, this session will reflect on how language can either reproduce or challenge exclusion.
🗓️ Date: Thursday 18th June
🕒 Time: 12:30 p.m. (CET)
📍 Format: Online
We’re happy to announce Dr. Keetie Roelen from the Poverty Unpacked Media Project and Karen Grech, a representative from Malta’s Anti-Poverty Forum, as our speakers. It will be an interactive session, in which everyone will have the opportunity to actively participate.
📩 To register, send an email to laura.ballester@eapn.eu
