EAPN: Fighting for a Social Europe Free of Poverty Investing in a Social Europe Convention of the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion Fintan Farrell Director EAPN 6 December 2012 EUROPEAN ANTI-POVERTY NETWORK RÉSEAU EUROPÉEN DES ASSOCIATIONS DE LUTTE CONTRE LA PAUVRETÉ ET L EXCLUSION SOCIALE
Presentation Overview Start from Reality Assessment of Europe 2020 What s needed Democracy and Participation (of people experiencing poverty)
Start from Reality Situation of Humanitarian Crisis in Europe (reality in in many EU Countries for example Bulgaria, Spain, Portugal, Greece.) Needs Emergency Response Complete failure to respond to the real causes of the crisis: growing inequalities, poor quality jobs, loss of respect for social knowledge, unsustainable forms of capitalism (Hedge Funds - Derivative Trading Tax Havens) - Needs Structural Response Competition rather than cooperation on social policy in Europe Union Rise of Racism (Ethnic Groups, Travellers/Roma Islamaphobia, attack on Migrants) Europe is not immune to violence and rise of fascist groups and parties is a cause for real alarm. swimming against the tsunami
Assessment of Europe 2020 Reality is that at least since (2007) there has been little or no distinct national stakeholder process associated to the EU Inclusion Strategy/Europe 2020 in almost all Countries Confusion re EU Inclusion Strategy: (Social OMC, PaP, SIP and how the relate to each other and to the Europe 2020 Strategy. Loss of Rights based approach (Social Open Method of Coordination has become the closed method for mutual learning) Europe 2020 totally over run by austerity and economic governance. Not influencing political choices but positive in shaping some second level approaches particularly at EU level (Structural Funds Research Agenda Cooperation across DGs )
What s Needed An honest assessment of the real causes and social impact of the crisis. Need to put social in all policies (ie Banking Europe) A distinct EU Integrated Anti-Poverty Strategy EU Inclusion Strategy (Impacting and contributing to the broader Europe 2020 strategy) Take the Europe 2020 strategy seriously Democratic accountability and meaningful dialogue with National Stakeholders, including people experiencing poverty A Coherent Social Investment package
Participation (of People Experiencing Poverty) The knowledge of people experiencing poverty PeP (including migrants) is essential. Need investment to access this knowledge just like we do to collect data. Need Indicators/guidelines on participation For NGO and PeP participation: We will continue to seek and to contribute to official stakeholder processes but if they can t have the ambition to address the reality then we need also to spend our time on activities that will hold our Governments and Institutions accountable and responsive to our social demands.
What a better future might look like
Thank you for your attention For more information, please contact : Fintan Farrell Director, EAPN fintan.farrell@eapn.eu EUROPEAN ANTI-POVERTY NETWORK RÉSEAU EUROPÉEN DE LUTTE CONTRE LA PAUVRETÉ ET L EXCLUSION SOCIALE SQUARE DE MEEUS, 18 1050 BRUSSELS TEL: 0032 2 226 58 50 FAX: 0032 2 26 58 69 www.eapn.eu - team@eapn.eu