Brussels, 18/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - Social NGOs, particularly the European Network of Anti-Poverty and Social Exclusion Associations (EAPN), has reacted with stupefaction to the Commission's Communication to the Spring European Council, describing as incomprehensible the fact that the Communication has dropped social cohesion as a priority objective, does not mention the European inclusion strategy, and makes no mention of the pledge made in Lisbon by heads of state to promote a strategy aiming to eradicate poverty in the EU. According to the EAPN, the Communication only answers with one voice, that of the Kok Group, dominated by economic interests and excluding the views of social NGOs. Fintan Farrell, Director of the EAPN, says that the message given by the Commission's communication seems to indicate that the EU works for profit rather than for people, and this is not the Europe we want.
In a press release, the EAPN says that the Communication is a return to the past, to a failing development model. What proof does the Commission have to suggest that everyone will benefit from the future the Lisbon Agenda is attempting to forge? Where did the Commission get the idea that an approach based on the shipping maxim, a rising tide lifts all ships, works when applied to society? Asks the EAPN, noting that the facts tend to demonstrate the opposite, without conscious effort to redistribute the profits of growth, everyone does not benefit. The EAPN asserts that the Commission has also forgotten to say it is important to get good social protection systems that can provide the necessary security to a flexible and adaptable workforce. The EAPN says the Commission ignores reality, namely that while 4.5 million Europeans are unemployed and in poverty, the number of working poor is now above the 10 million mark. Another shocking fact in the EAPN's view is the fact that the Commission says nothing about its own joint report on social protection and social inclusion. This suggests that high level politicians have no time to address this type of issue, regrets the EAPN. How, it asks, to explain to 68 million people living in poverty and exclusion, and the people concerned by social inclusion, that progress to date is neither recognised nor considered an integral part of a balanced Lisbon Strategy?