Brussels, 17/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - The closing conference of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion 2010 took place on Friday 17 December but, as Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Commissioner László Andor pointed out: “This is not the end but the start of a new challenge”. Ministers signed the final statement, prepared by the Employment and Social Affairs Council on 6 December, in which they call for results and highlight the challenges to be met. Ministers called for the good work to be continued in the flagship initiative “European Platform against Poverty” and called on the EU and its member states to continue to work together. The huge support from the European institutions to this anti-poverty year 2010 and by the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, with its wide range of initiatives and conferences, were highlighted by Commissioner Andor.
At the final session, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said that the European Year 2010 had been “a clear symbol of the European Union's commitment to a society in which all Europeans have a place”. The call had been given for a better Europe, more social and with greater solidarity. The great success of a European year can only be determined once the year has ended and the 2010 year has been a real success. The future will prove this, Barroso said: the major change, he felt, was the EU 2020 strategy with the commitment by Europe to a more inclusive Europe. “If they (those living below the poverty line) were a single country, they would be the biggest member state,” he pointed out. “This is not acceptable in a Union based on solidarity between people and nations,” he railed.
Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme thanked in particular all the associations and public services which had worked throughout this year. “This Friday is the appropriate day for saying that the fight against poverty must go on.” He stressed the need for a holistic vision - public finances and inclusive growth have to go hand in hand. He said that the target of getting at least 20 million people out of poverty “has not been achieved!” Now member states must show efforts to ensure active inclusion for these people. Employment still remains the best way out of poverty. Leterme said he had “the firm hope that 31 December 2010 would not be the end of the European Year of Combating Poverty and Social and Exclusion but the start of the continuation of what had been accomplished, begun and strengthened, and the move on to new action”.
“It is with a paradox that this year closes when we have just set the quantified objective for the EU 2020 strategy. It was the European Parliament that obtained this objective. We stubbornly worked through the fine detail,” said European Parliament Vice-President Isabelle Durant. She invited those attending to the conference on “Crises and Poverty” in the EP citizens' agora in Brussels from 26 to 28 January 2011. She said that the fight against poverty included the creation of decent jobs, immigration policy (situation of the migrants and illegal immigrants in the EU with no rights), cultural policy, and acknowledgement of the dignity of others. Then there has to be follow-up, she said, a point-by-point assessment of what has been done and what it has not been possible to do. She concluded that: “Today is the starting point for an inter-institutional network (EP, Commission and successive Presidencies of the Council) and those taking part in this conference, a network which needs to keep working until 2020” - a follow-up described by Andor as extremely important. (G.B./transl.rt)