Brussels, 18/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The annual growth survey adopted by the Commission on 12 January (see EUROPE 10292) has provoked the ire of the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) which is unhappy that the initiatives focusing exclusively on growth and budgetary consolidation take no account of the consequences they produce: increased poverty, social exclusion and a wider inequality gap.
EAPN Director Fintan Farrell is critical of the fact that nowhere in the survey document is there a mention of an integrated approach to ensure inclusive growth. “It's not possible to focus on growth only, then tag on the other elements afterwards. This will just repeat the failures of the previous Lisbon Strategy,” he said, arguing: “We need an integrated approach committed to social cohesion right from the start”. He added that the approach to fiscal constraint “will increase poverty and dangerously weaken the EU's social cohesion, at a time when it most needs it”.
There are also inconsistencies between the annual growth survey, the progress report on the 2020 strategy and the employment report, EAPN President Ludo Horemans points out. “It seems strange that the Progress Report can emphasise, in its section on inclusive growth, that 'there can be no sustainable growth unless its benefits accrue to all'. It recognises the problems of growing inequality and the importance of ensuring that 'growth and social cohesion go together', when the main document focuses on Growth first,” he says. He issues a call to the Commission to “deliver on its promises of a consistent, integrated strategy from the start!” (G.B./transl.rt)