Brussels, 20/12/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament Fourth World Committee intergroup, under the chairmanship of Spanish Christian Democrat Inigo Mendez de Vigo, devoted virtually all its recent meeting in Strasbourg to the setting up of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency. It noted with alarm that, in the thematic areas for consideration by the Agency in its multi-annual plan, the issues of severe poverty and social exclusion did not feature at all. The ATD Fourth World International Movement's delegation to the European Union pointed out this omission at the start of the month to British Labour MEP Michael Cashman, rapporteur on this matter in the relevant parliamentary committee - LIBE. On Tuesday 18 December, this committee adopted an amendment from Mendez de Vigo, which added extreme poverty and social exclusion to the list of issues in the multi-annual framework. In a press release, ATD Fourth World expresses its fervent wish that this amendment to a decision on which the Parliament is only consulted will not be rejected by the EU Council of Ministers. (O.J.)