Tag: poverty

The EU, which is the world's biggest aid donor and gives over €53 billion a year to developing countries, could save €4 billion by managing more effectively the grants and loans it provides to help reduce poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

By refusing to set a national target for employment, the UK government has set itself on a collision course with the European Commission, and is threatening to undermine the 'Europe 2020' strategy for growth that was agreed last summer by the leaders of all 27 member states.

The EU should encourage member states to work towards ending homelessness and ensuring decent housing for all. So says a group of social policy experts, who are calling on the European Commission to develop an EU-level strategy for tackling homelessness.

With poverty and social exclusion affecting the daily lives of more than 100 million EU citizens, the European Commission yesterday (16 December) unveiled a raft of policy initiatives designed to address the causes and impacts of deprivation.

Looking beyond the 2010 European Year for combating poverty and social exclusion, Employment and Social Policy Commissioner László Andor says the EU and its member states must keep working to find new and more effective ways to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged groups. He spoke to EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

The Belgian Presidency has said it will keep social issues high on the EU agenda in the coming six months, with NGOs hoping the country will ensure that social protection is safeguarded amid a proliferation of austerity budgets announced across Europe.

Following months of disagreement, EU member states - in a move described as "surprising" by officials -yesterday (7 June) agreed on a specific plan for reducing poverty as part of the bloc's 'Europe 2020' strategy for growth in the coming decade.

After three years of EU membership, Bulgaria is still one of the poorest countries not only in the EU but in the Balkans as a whole. Dnevnik, EurActiv's partner in Bulgaria, reports.

The Czech Republic has been a democratic country for twenty years and an EU member state for six. Although it still faces social problems, the situation is improving and the country is in a relatively good situation compared to older member states. EurActiv.cz reports on the country's efforts to fight poverty.

''Being Polish is not a nationality but a profession,'' goes an old popular saying in the former Communist bloc. Even today, for many Poles, resourcefulness remains the only responses to an economic crisis in which the problem is not prices but salaries. EurActiv Poland reports.

Romania, one of the poorest countries in Europe, has never dealt with poverty reduction in the twenty years since its transition to a market economy, which makes any commitment to the EU's 2020 poverty reduction goals seem "utopian". EurActiv Romania reports.

The European Commission and Spanish EU Presidency will today (21 January) launch the 2010 European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion under the slogan 'Stop Poverty Now!' at an event in Madrid.

More should be done by the EU and member states to increase the quality and accessibility of financial services for Europe's poor, a group of activists and people experiencing poverty said on Friday (15 May).

The European Commission is failing to pay its "fair share" in funding research into the main poverty-related killers HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, according to health NGOs.

In a new communication, the Commission has made recommendations to member states on how marginalised people can be re-integrated into the labour market in order to meet the Lisbon target of eradicating poverty. 

Half the Earth’s population will live in urban areas by next year, making cities key in the climate change battle, according to the 2007 State of the World Report by Worldwatch.

Asylum seekers and 'sans-papiers' are some of the most vulnerable groups of the EU population, finds Caritas Europa's third report on poverty in Europe, which highlights poverty and social exclusion of migrants in Europe.

While national and European authorities struggle to put flesh on the bones of the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs, Sarah Bouquerel and Pierre-Alain de Malleray (Robert Schuman Foundation) discuss progress made in the EU fight against poverty.

Sixteen per cent of EU citizens are at risk of poverty, say the latest Eurostat figures. Half the countries that joined the EU in 2004 do a better job protecting their citizens from poverty than the average for the EU-15.

EU foreign and development ministers have agreed to double the EU's development aid by 2015 in a bid to respect the United Nations' 'Millennium development goals'.

In a follow-up to the global strategy adopted by the World Health Organisation to tackle obesity European experts are gathering to discuss action against this 21st-century 'epidemic'.

The EU's drug agency has drawn attention to the growing use of drugs in the EU, candidate and accession countries (as well as in Norway) in its annual report.

"Sustainable development and principles of environmental protection must be clearly enshrined in the constitutional principles of the EU," says UNEP Executive Director, Dr. Klaus Töpfer.