EU money for poverty reduction!
EUROPEAN ANTI-POVERTY NETWORK ■RESEAU EUROPEEN DES ASSOCIATIONS DE LUTTE CONTRE LA PAUVRETE ET
L’EXCLUSION SOCIALE
SQUARE DE MEEUS, 18 – 1050 BRUXELLES ■TEL : 0032 2
226 58 50 – FAX : 0032 2 226 58 69
13
September 2012
EAPN challenges National Governments to
come clean about whether they back EU money for poverty reduction
MEP Elisabeth-Chartier, Rapporteur on the Regulation for the next round of the European Social
Fund (ESF) has signalled, in an interview with EAPN, the determination of the
European Parliament to support the Commission’s proposal: “As parliamentarians, representing the European
citizens, we want and we’ll fight for this 20%, ring-fenced for the fight
against poverty”.
The strong endorsement of the
European Parliament gives a new impetus to the Campaign of Social NGOs to
achieve increased ‘EU money for Poverty Reduction’ as a concrete follow up to
the target set to reduce poverty as part of the Europe 2020 Strategy and their
conclusion at the June European Council where they assigned a clear role to the
European Social Fund to develop and implement “effective policies to combat
poverty and support vulnerable groups”.
In light of the reality that many
Governments seem set to reject the proposal for increased funding to fight
poverty, EAPN has written to the Member States negotiators to ask them to back the
Parliament’s position and to be transparent on the position being adopted by
their Government in this negotiation.
EAPN intends to make the positions adopted by the Governments known at
the end of September. In addition,
Social NGOs will continue with their petition to bring pressure on the
Governments to support increased funding for fighting poverty.
“This
is a key test to see if Member States are ready to respond to their commitments
and secure the necessary budget to the fight against poverty and social
exclusion, as a follow up to their
agreed poverty-reduction target!”, says Sergio Aires, President of EAPN.
/END/
·
Sign Social NGOs campaign’s petition:
·
See webpage EU Money for Poverty
Reduction NOW! Campaign:
·
EAPN interviews MEP E.
Morin-Chartier, Rapporteur in the European Parliament:
EAPN’s letter to Member States representatives http://www.eapn.eu/images/stories/docs/campaigns/2012-Letter-COREPER-31-08-12.pdf
·
Background note for Journalists
This Autumn, 2012 key decisions will
be made on the Structural Funds’ Regulations for the next programming period
(2014-2020). The Members of the EU Campaign ‘EU Money for Poverty Reduction, NOW!’ want to increase the pressure
on the Member States to defend the minimum
shares for the European Social Fund (ESF) as proposed in the draft regulation
by the European Commission (i.e. at least 25% of the Cohesion Policy’s budget
for the ESF, and, at least 20% of the ESF earmarked for social inclusion and
poverty reduction). This proposal has been severely undermined by the Council during the June General Affairs
Council meeting. Key dates for
final decisions about the next round of the ESF will be the General Affairs Council meeting (late
November) and the extraordinary
European Council meeting on the (22-23 November).
Prior to these meeting the
organisers of the Campaign will send a joint letter to all the Prime Ministers,
along with the list of signers to our petition.
For further
information,
contact Fintan Farrell (Director) fintan.farrell@eapn.eu, Sian Jones
(Policy Coordinator), sian.jones@eapn.eu,
Vincent Caron (Policy officer) vincent.caron@eapn.eu
or Nellie Epinat (Communications
officer) nellie.epinat@eapn.eu. Tel: +32 (0)2 226 58 50.
