Brussels, 23/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The latest Annual Growth Survey 2012 includes a new objective of a social nature for all EU member states, namely that of tackling unemployment and the social consequences of the crisis. However, the five states that are supported or monitored by the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) may be exonerated, states the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) in a letter addressed to Commission President José Manuel Barroso on Wednesday 22 February.
The EAPN underlines the fact that the 2012 guidelines for the preparation of the new National Reform Programmes (NRP), which have not been published by the Commission, stipulate the new social criterion to be met through poverty reduction targets, but also indicates that the five member states (Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Latvia and Romania) need no longer resort to NRPs, as the regular reports that they forward to the three institutions are a sufficient basis for assessing their progress. Such progress would thus be assessed mainly on a macro-economic basis, simply in relation to a country's ability to improve its national budgetary situation. The president and the director of EAPN, Ludo Horemans and Fintan Farrel, who both signed the letter, comment: “This immediately appears to exclude these countries from the overarching EUROPE 2020 strategy, its commitments to inclusive growth and poverty reduction and delivery on the targets.”
Even though the Commission will ask the above states to include in reports information on the subject of their “national EUROPE 2020 objectives” in the form of an additional letter, the EAPN considers that the “message these guidelines send is a particularly worrying one - that the EU is only concerned with fiscal austerity and macro-economic objectives, and not with the social impact of the measures proposed on the lives of ordinary people.”
To conclude the letter, the EAPN proposes five recommendations to the Commission president: (1) equal treatment should be given to all EU member states; (2) all NRPs should reconcile budgetary austerity measures with social protection programmes; (3) the participation of social partners and civil society should be mandatory in NRPs; (4) a delegation from the Commission and the Social Protection Committee should oversee the social implications for states placed under surveillance or supported by the troika; and (5) all member states should be subject to an exact assessment of their progress on combating poverty. (JK/transl.jl)