Harrowing examples showed of how the austerity measures are pushing more people into poverty while driving those already in poverty into deeper and more desperate situations. It was also the occasion for EAPN to present its key recommendations about how to address the emergency situation we now face and re-build trust in the European and National Institutions.
“We’re not only fighting poverty, we’re fighting to safeguard our democracy and to create the conditions to meet the original objective of the European cooperation to maintain peace” was the message of EAPN President, Sergio Aires.
The conference provided a space for people experiencing poverty, EAPN national networks, European Organisations and other key stakeholders to tell EU decision makers what the reality of poverty and exclusion is, raise the alarm on poverty and debate potential solutions.
Speaking as an activist with direct experience of poverty, João Rodrigues Seabra from Portugal told the conference that “Not only aren’t the EU policies to combat poverty delivering but that the measures to combat the economic crises have increased the insecurity and precariousness of most citizens and therefore increased poverty”.
Lieve Fransen, Director, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, addressing the conference said “the testimonies given today are valuable and shocking. They prevent us to forget the emergency of the situation. The need to do better is clear and the Commission will push for greater participation of all actors to make the Europe 2020 Strategy work better”. She informed delegates that the Commission is working to introduce a social investment package to strengthen the cooperation to fight poverty.
Philippe Lamberts, Belgian Green MEP in his intervention said “We are sitting on two time bombs: a model of development that goes way beyond the capacity of the planet and we stretch the social fabric of our society to an extent we never did before.” He warned that “if we fail to disarm these time bombs, it will be a violent future for us, by the violence of the nature disturbed and by the human violence, remembering that Europeans are not immune to violence”.
The conference Is Europe 2020 delivering on poverty? focused on the progress made on the Europe 2020 Strategy’s pledge and target to reduce poverty by 20 million by 2020 and on the so-called commitment to engage with stakeholders at national level to find solutions. In reality, ambitious poverty targets have not been set at national level, representing an 8 million shortfall on the EU target, and poverty and social exclusion have actually increased by 2 million since 2009 to 115 million.
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The key Recommendations from EAPN that were presented at the conference were:
- EU urgently needs to change tack and back Social Europe and use Europe 2020 to balance economic and social objectives, giving priority to an inclusive exit to the crisis and inclusive growth.
- A new explicit commitment to deliver on a viable poverty target – restricting austerity and backing integrated antipoverty strategies to ensure access to rights, resources and services.
- Launch a new Social Investment package, beyond quality jobs and backing adequate social protection and minimum income, access to quality services in education, housing, health, childcare and other vital services and financed through Tax Justice.
- Make Structural Funds a key instrument to deliver on poverty – implement the European Commission’s proposal to allocate at least 25% of the Cohesion Policy budget to the European Social Fund (ESF) and to earmarking at least 20% of the European Social Fund to poverty reduction and social inclusion.
- Re-launch the Europe 2020 Strategy as a democratic, participative social process in National Reform Programmes and National Social Reports and in the country-specific recommendations and directly support NGOs and people experiencing poverty engagement as direct partners.
Key speakers included:
- Georgios Papageorgiou – Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance, Cyprus
- Lieve Fransen – Director Europe 2020: social policies, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission (see video interview below)
- Philippe Lamberts – Member of the European Parliament, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, Member of the EP Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, Co-President of the European Green Party
- Hugh Frazer – Coordinator of the EU network of independent experts on social inclusion (see video interview below)
- Henri Lourdelle – Political Advisor, European Trade Union Confederation
- Marcel Haag – Head of Unit Europe 2020, Competitiveness and Innovation, Secretariat General, European Commission
- Maureen O’Neill – European Economic and Social Committee, Vice President of Group III, Member of the Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship Section (see video interview below)
- Christine Chapman – National Assembly of Wales, Committee of the Regions, Member of the Commission for Economic & Social Policy (see video interview below)
- Vera Hinterdorfer – Person Experiencing Poverty and founding member of the Staying Visible Platform, established with other people in and fighting poverty, Austria (see video interview below)
- Sérgio Aires – EAPN President
- João Rodrigues Seabra – Portuguese participant in the European Meetings of People Experiencing Poverty, EAPN Portugal
- Graciela Malgesini – EAPN Spain
- Sian Jones – EAPN Policy Coordinator (see video interview below)
- Mary Collins – Policy Officer, European Women’s Lobby
- Silvia Ganzerla – Senior Policy Advisor, Eurocities
- Freek Spinnewijn – Director, FEANTSA
- Jana Hainsworth – Secretary General, Eurochild (see video interview below)
- Mik Woolley – Chair of the Employment Committee
- Fintan Farrell – EAPN Director
See also video interviews with:
- Lieve Fransen, Director Europe 2020: social policies, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission
- Maureen O’Neill, European Economic and Social Committee, Vice President of Group III, Member of the Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship Section
- Christine Chapman, National Assembly of Wales, Committee of the Regions, Member of the Commission for Economic & Social Policy
- Tadas Leoncikas, Eurofound
- Hugh Frazer, Coordinator of the EU network of independent experts on social inclusion
- Jana Hainsworth, Secretary General of Eurochild
- Vera Hinterdorfer, Person Experiencing Poverty and founding member of the of the Staying Visible Platform, established with other people in and fighting poverty, Austria
- Sian Jones, EAPN Policy Coordinator:
See EAPN’s conference webpage
(including programmes, key documents, presentations, video interviews): https://www.eapn.eu/save-the-date-for-eapns-conference-28092012-is-europe-2020-delivering-on-poverty.
For further information, Sian Jones (Policy Coordinator), sian.jones@eapn.eu, Fintan Farrell (Director) Fintan.farrell@eapn.eu or Nellie Epinat (Communications officer) nellie.epinat@eapn.eu. Tel: +32 (0)2 226 58 50.
- You can read the press release in Slovak.
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