L 45/1472
Official Journal of the European Union
EN
24.2.2022
COMMISSION PILOT PROJECTS
CHAPTER PP 07 — INVESTING IN PEOPLE, SOCIAL COHESION AND VALUES (cont'd) PP 07 22
(cont'd)
PP 07 22 02
(cont'd) European and national authorities.
The ‘European Festival of Journalism and Media Information Literacy’ should become a powerful tool to raise awareness on the valuable but ever more difficult work of journalists and press freedom violations in the Union.
To reach this purpose, it will be a traveling festival, taking place in a different Member State every year, and examine the alarming situation of press freedom, rising disinformation particularly with regard to the pandemic and climate crisis and journalists’ working conditions.
With regard to implementation, the Commission will launch a yearly call for tenders addressed to media professionals, media organisations, relevant NGOs and academic partners, in order to ensure the organisation of the event.
For the purpose of increasing inclusiveness and encouraging participation to the event, the entity in charge of the organisation will dedicate a part of the budget to subsidising costs associated with the participation in this event of journalists and representatives of media associations with limited financial means such as small and local media representatives or freelancers.
PP 07 22 03
Pilot project — European Homelessness Count
Figures (Differentiated appropriations) Appropriations 2022 Commitments
990 500
Appropriations 2021
Payments
Commitments
Payments
Outturn 2020 Commitments
Payments
247 625
Remarks
It is estimated that the number of people experiencing homelessness has gone up by 70 % in Europe in the last ten years and this figure is likely to worsen as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
At Union level there are however no reliable data on homelessness based on common criteria or indicators.
This is recognised by the European Parliament, the Commission and experts as an important barrier for an effective policy response.
Comparable and regularly collected data on homelessness will allow the Commission to better support Member States to make progress towards ending homelessness by 2030, an objective all Member States, Union institutions and relevant civil society stakeholders have committed to in the Lisbon Declaration, and to achieve Principle 19 of the European Pillar of Social Rights on 'housing and assistance for the homeless'.
Comparable data collected at local level will support evidence-based and better targeted action through the ‘European Platform on Combatting Homelessness’ that has been set-up as a part of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan.
The pilot project therefore aims to stimulate regular collection of data on homelessness at local level.
Local authorities are best placed to address homelessness together with social services and civil society actors, and need reliable data to inform their policies.
The pilot project will build on existing robust and effective methodologies, such as point-in-time counts, point of prevalence, and surveys.
Complementarity should be explored with the work of EUROSTAT on the different dimensions of homelessness including rough sleeping, people staying in homeless shelters, people about to be released from an institution without having secured accommodation, and people forced to sleep on the sofa with family or friends (sofa surfers).