A large proportion of MEPs, meeting in Strasbourg on Wednesday 20 May, regretted the absence of concrete measures and adequate funding in the EU’s new Anti-Poverty Strategy, presented by the European Commission on Wednesday 6 May (see EUROPE 13863/10).
While poverty or the risk of poverty affects one in five Europeans (93 million people) and one child in four in the EU, most of the so-called pro-European groups pointed to this lack of concrete support.
For the Greens/EFA Group, this also simply shows a “lack of political will” to tackle the problem, as Finnish and French MEPs Maria Ohisalo and Marie Toussaint said.
The S&D Group, through Estelle Ceulemans (Belgian) and Gabriele Bischoff (German), also deplored the lack of funding to support the actions presented on 6 May, including a new Child Guarantee and a recommendation on housing exclusion.
Moreover, Estelle Ceulemans deplored a target set for 2050, “far too distant”, to eradicate poverty.
The Left Group, through Portuguese MEP João Oliveira, called for tackling the root causes of poverty and working towards a “fair distribution of wealth”, while the Commission plan “lacks the funding and commitments needed to succeed”. French MEP Leïla Chaibi also mocked the reliance on dialogue platforms and all manner of guides to solve the problem of poverty. “For defence, billions are found, but for poverty, we have to talk about it”, she said ironically.
The Renew Europe Group, for its part, considered that the Commission’s promise also to help reduce poverty through the legislative act on quality jobs, expected at the end of 2026, may not be kept, as a single legislative act cannot solve every problem.
For their part, during this debate, many ECR and PfE members stuck to the same talking points, namely that poverty is mainly linked to the European ‘Green Deal’ and the ETS emissions trading system. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)