Brussels, 10/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - There must be no change to the goal of reducing poverty and social exclusion that the EU set itself for 2020, nor should it be expected that possible economic recovery will be sufficient to attain this goal, stated Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Commissioner László Andor, closing the high-level conference “The EUROPE 2020 poverty target: lessons learnt and the way forward”, held in Brussels on Thursday 9 October.
According to Andor, “If poverty declines worldwide, there is no reason why it should be increasing in the EU”. The only problem is that the logic that underpins this assertion is at odds with reality: the number of poor in Europe continues to rise, making realisation of the EUROPE 2020 strategy of reducing the number of persons affected or threatened by poverty or social exclusion by 20 million impossible to achieve. 124 million Europeans live in, or are threatened by, poverty or social exclusion - 7.8 million more than four years ago. Failure is undeniable.
Of course, the economic crisis is, to a great extent, responsible and, yes, the EU has to start to recover. But Commissioner Andor warned: creating more jobs will not be enough. At the same time, the issue of the inequality of income has to be addressed and social protection systems reformed, as they struggle to find financial viability after being hit by cuts in public spending. Faced with these difficulties, should the European goal be amended? No, said Andor. Tackling poverty and social exclusion must not only remain a pillar of the European strategy, the member states should raise their level of ambition, he suggested.
With regard to efforts at EU level, Andor proposed that European finance ministers, too, take ownership of this goal. Other participants at the conference noted that monitoring of social development at EU level does not always contain comparative analysis of the performance of social policies, or early warning mechanisms, said the European Commission in a press release. The Luxembourg, Polish and Maltese ministers called for a better balance between macroeconomic, taxation and employment policies and the EU's social goals. (JK)