News

SOLIDAR deplores lowered ambitions on poverty reductions


[11/06/2010]
 
In recent months, the question of having a binding objective and how to define the poverty reduction target, i.e. how precisely should poverty be measured? has provoked widespread disagreement amongst EU Member States. Following this week’s meeting of Ministers of Employment and Social Affairs on which poverty indicators should be used, it seems that the EU Summit on 17 June will decide on a compromise, which will replace the Social Protection Committee's proposal (one unifying ‘at-risk-of-poverty’ measurement) by a package of three alternative yardsticks.
 
The three yardsticks are 1) At-risk-of-poverty, i.e. people living with less than 60% of the national median income; 2) Material deprivation, i.e. people who experience at least four out of nine defined situations of social exclusion; 3) People living in jobless households, i.e. the population defined in relation to very low work-intensity or unemployment over a whole year. According to this compromise, EU Member States will then choose one of the three indicators to define poverty, depending on what is best suitable to their national needs.
 
SOLIDAR has advocated for indicator no 1 to be the single EU-level quantitative target on poverty reduction. If compromise is necessary, SOLIDAR could accept the addition of indicator no 2, because adopting a wider variety of measurements better reflects the ‘multi-dimensional nature of poverty’ and the differences between EU Member States. However, SOLIDAR warns the EU about indicator no 3, especially in this multiple choice approach, as it includes the risk of reorienting the emphasis on reducing unemployment instead of actively combating poverty and social exclusion. This third indicator cannot be used to replace or sideline the first and second indicator!


« Back

.

«  September 2010  »
M T W T F S S
  01 02 03 04 05
06 07 08 09 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30
  • All events
     
    		•