On Monday 2 October, MEPs debated precariousness in the European Union and ways of helping the most disadvantaged.
In the presence of the European Commissioner for Social Affairs, Nicolas Schmit, they spoke in particular about the greater influx of people to food banks and highlighted the precariousness caused by Covid-19, the war in Ukraine and inflation.
While income support measures have helped to limit the impact of inflation, “more structural measures are needed to tackle poverty”, acknowledged the Commissioner, who called on Member States to make full use of the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD), which can disburse €5 billion.
He also called on Member States to assess the impact of national policies on the most vulnerable and to combat unjustified price increases.
Belgian EPP member Cindy Franssen called for the social rights pillar to be completed under the next Commission and for “more than just the most urgent measures to be taken, if we want to lift 15 million people out of poverty by 2030” (compared to 2019), as the EU27 decided in Oporto in 2021.
Socialist Pedro Marquès (S&D, Portuguese) pointed to the increased risk of poverty for women and called on the Commission to put pressure on Member States to ensure that recovery plans put more emphasis on social housing.
Sara Matthieu (Greens/EFA, Belgian) deplored the fact that Ursula von der Leyen had “not said a word about poverty” in her State of the Union speech. She called on European leaders to think of the working poor. “We need to support companies that create good jobs, engage in social dialogue and pay good wages”, she insisted.
According to Eurostat, 95.3 million people were living in poverty at the end of 2022. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)