Brussels, 16/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - Following the Commission's adoption of the report on Member States' social inclusion policies (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.11), the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) considers that "the National Action Plans on social inclusion (NAPsincl) are recognition by all Member States that poverty and social exclusion do exist in their countries, and that something must be done about them". However, EAPN noted in a press release, these plans contain weaknesses, due to governments having had to draw them up at pretty short notice.
According to EAPN: - overall, mot governments have seen the NAPsincl more as an opportunity to list and sometimes link existing policies and programmes than to innovate or add to policies; - the Network is concerned at the predominance of labour market policies, which at times rest on a conservative approach to social welfare that focuses on responsibilities of people facing poverty and exclusion rather than on their rights; - most NAPsincl fail to face challenges relating to specific groups such as asylum-seekers, refugees and immigrants, and do not take the "gender" aspect into account; - consultation of people experiencing poverty is a weak aspect of all plans; - few of the PANs contain satisfactory proposals regarding the 4th objective of the European strategy to combat poverty and social exclusion, i.e., the mobility of all players, yet a crucial element. Significant progress has to be made in this field in implementing and evaluating the current plans and in the groundwork for the next plans for 2003-2005, the Network stresses.