Brussels, 05/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - In 2012, 24.8% of EU citizens, i.e. 124.5 million people, found themselves in a poverty- or social exclusion-prone situation. The latest data from Eurostat (the EU's statistical office) published on Thursday 5 December confirm that the risk of poverty has been constantly on the rise since 2008 but that it gathered speed between 2011 and 2012. With every passing year, the likelihood of achieving the objective of the EUROPE 2020 strategy in this field becomes increasingly more remote.
Certain consequences of the financial crisis have been felt by EU citizens, out of step with the knock-on effect of the financial markets and stock exchanges. Between 2008 and 2011, the fringe of the population that was threatened with poverty or social exclusion went from 23.7% to 24.3%, i.e. a rise of 0.6%. Nonetheless, between the years 2011 and 2012, the EU suffered an almost identical increase, of 0.5%. The countries that are today the most affected by poverty and the risk of social exclusion are Bulgaria (49%), Romania (42%), Latvia (37%) and Greece (35%), which underwent a very strong rise of 3.6% in the space of 12 months.
Within the European institutions, there are now very few who consider that the objective of reducing the number of people affected or threatened with poverty and social exclusion to below 20 million by 2020 can still be attained, while this remains one of the main objectives that the EU has pledged to attain. The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durao Barroso, seems, moreover, to share this pessimism, although economic growth - albeit weak - is beginning to emerge. Speaking on Tuesday 26 November during the third annual convention of the platform against poverty and social exclusion, in Brussels, Barroso in fact warned that “we may be facing a recovery that is uneven, that will not touch all the sectors of our societies”.
The risk of poverty or social exclusion is calculated by combining the risk of poverty (a household with an income below the poverty level fixed at 60% of the national average income), the extent of the risk of severe material privation (privation of a certain number of goods), and the low intensity of work in households (below 20% of the work potential used). (JK/transl.jl)