POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012

1. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Building a common vision Chair: Sérgio Aires President of EAPN, EAPN Portugal

2. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Workshop 1 Chair: Stephan Backes Rapporteur: Giedre Kvieskiene Presentations: Poland: Ryszard Szarfenberg France: Jeanne Dietrich European organisation: Stecy Yghemonos (Eurohealthnet)

3. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Key messages 1. Both absolute and relative measurements of poverty are needed to fit with diverse national traditions and context 2. NGOs should be closely involved in the shaping and monitoring of poverty indicators and targets. We should lobby in this direction. 3. Stigmatisation of people in poverty is increasing together with the crisis/austerity measures 4. Growing poverty and polarisation of societies undermine social cohesion and lead to social disaffectedness (emigration, no vote...) 5. Disinvestment in core policies (employment, social services, housing, education, prevention) is in some countries the rule rather than the exception 6. Recommendation to invest in social innovation and social economic experiment

4. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Workshop 2 Chair: Robert Urbé Rapporteur: Vito Telesca Presentations: Italy: Nicoletta Teodosi Belgium: Manuel Chiguero, Elke Vandermeerschen European organisation: Luigi Leonori (SMES-Europa)

5. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Key messages • 1. Poverty as an outcome of social exclusion, and social exclusion as an outcome of poverty = Crucial to promote a binding and equal access to knowledge • 2. Strategic vision lacking at Government level, leading to hitting even more those who are the most vulnerable • 3. Important to strengthen the link between EAPN and National Networks to get a better understanding of the realities on the ground • 4. Indicators on access and knowledge on one’s rights, persistence and flows • 5. A set of local indicators should complement the national ones • 6. EAPN should be associated to the updating of the poverty indicators (especially the severe material deprivation one).

6. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Workshop 3 Chair: Daniella Orobej Rapporteur: Dag Westerheim Presentations: Portugal: Helder Ferreira Slovakia: Zuzana Kusa European organisation: Catherine Mallet (Eurodiaconia)

7. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Key messages Currentindicators do not capture realities on the ground – weneedimproved, alternative, evidence-basedones. Indicatorsneed to go hand in hand with the active participation of people experiencingpoverty. Toomuch focus on monitoring the problem, not enough on monitoring the solutions. Need to spread information, build arguments, raiseawareness and empower people to take an even more active role. REVO-SOLUTIONS!

8. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Workshop 4 Chair: Katherine Duffy Rapporteur: Eugen Bierling -Wagner Presentations: Greece: Maria Marinakou Denmark: Per K. Larsen and Leif El Andersen European organisation: Ian Johnston (International Federation of Social Workers - Europe)

9. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Key messages The rising of poverty increases not only the necessity of feeding people, or having more and better jobs, access to jobs, better or more welfare institutions. What we see also is a rising problem of democratic decisions, the participation of people in democratic discussions and acceptance of political decisions. We are seeing increasing inequality and rising of racism in our countries. The idea of relative measures of poverty is good, but most of us didn´t know which of the European, or EAPN Indicators are used in our countries. We have so many definitions of poverty, finally one no longer knows what poverty means, how it feels, how is the poorest, the feeling of poverty, and so on. Our definition, our common view is: The rate of Participation in the daily life in our country would be a good measure. What we need for our political work is a common measurement to compare our countries, to compare our view, in our common work in EAPN. A minimum income may be a measure for us all. 3, 11 or 25 indicators is an academic question, not useful for our daily work.

10. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Key messages cont.. • Agreed that relative poverty understanding should remain 2. Agreed that to know if people are achieving a better life we need adequate minimum income – budget standards 3. Need to look at polarization because it’s driving up absolute poverty and driving the middle class down 4. Need to look at access to services because of welfare state argument 5. Campaign for solidarity and identify a participation measurement 6. Equality – inequality… 7. Procedures/bureaucracy creating obstacles to accessing entitlements 8. Quality of services offered to people in poverty.

11. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Workshop 5 Chair: Kirsi Väätämoïnen Rapporteur: Saviour Grima Presentations: Ireland: Paul Ginnell, Alan McMenamin Cyprus: Marina Koukou European organisation: Liz Gosme (FEANTSA)

12. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Key messages 1. Poverty is multidimensional. Both relative and absolute definitions are important, reflecting different aspects. Relative indicator captures also the distribution of resources, and is linked to inequality, it has to be combined with material deprivation and other indicators, but measured separately 2. The human dimension gets easily lost. Indicators are tools to develop policies that must put people first. The focus should be on implementation as well as measurement of policy impacts 3. Policy priorities at national and EU level now focus on economy. Social dimension is reduced to trickle-down theory

13. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Key messages cont.. 4. Policy prioritiesat national and EU levelnow focus on economy. Social dimension isreduced to trickle down –theory. Priority in all countries is to reduce the deficit and the way to do that is by cutting services / austerity. In troika countries it is being used to dismantle welfare state. What is the EU role? 5.Situation of Migration - (EU Countries and from the 3rd Countries) Internal migration in the EU is increasing and the situation of these migrants is becoming more precarious. This puts into question the EU freedom of movement of people and its implementation, undermining the basic social rights and increasing racial tensions as poor people comnpete over diminishing resources.

14. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Key messages cont.. 6. Homelessness and indebtedness are increasing – crises in housing – Banks are the priority 7. Employment is crucial but it has to be quality employment, ensuring adequate income and acceptable working conditions. Low wages should not be used to drive down social benefits. Different individuals/groups need different solutions 8. The crucial question is: how do we finance our welfare societies based on the principle of universality? In the long run, inequality becomes very expensive.

15. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Workshop 6 Chair: Colin Hampton Rapporteur: Anu Toodu Presentations: Bulgaria: Douhomir Minev, Maria Jeliazkova Netherlands: Marjo van Vliet, Quinta Ansem

16. POVERTY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUILDING A COMMON VISION FOR ACTION – 27/09/2012 Key messages 1. We need a large set of Indicators (building on the EU Social Indicators) enhanced by ‘Budget Standard Indicators’ and indicators which measure extreme poverty (homlessness…). 2. We need to concentrate on indicators that address redistribution and polorisation (80/20 - top 1% …) and look at what is happening on taxes , wealth and what is happening to wages. 3. There needs to be far greater independence in the development, monitoring and analysis of indicators and this requires a major step forward in participation processess (should be supported by EU Funds).