Debate: Rising precariousness in Europe including the need for aid to the most deprived
Date: MONDAY, 2 OCTOBER 2023
Speaker: Nicolas Schmit
Language: EN

The overall economic prospects are challenging following the impact of the Covid pandemic, the energy crisis, and finally, the inflation hikes. In general terms, indicators on risks of poverty and social exclusion have remained overall stable over the past few years. But, as so often, statistics do not tell the whole story.  Inflation hits, particularly, vulnerable households and lower medium income families. Indeed, it is also true that income support measures put in place have mitigated the impact of high energy prices and inflation, and therefore we can acknowledge some positive impact of the exceptional and temporary measures adopted both at EU and Member States level. But poverty remains acute in Europe and citizens are quite rightly concerned.  To have a serious impact, more structural measures are needed to address poverty and precarious living and working conditions. In-work poverty is also a persisting challenge in the EU, especially for people in non-standard forms of employment, among them, many young people and many women, and for non-EU citizens.  Under the Porto Declaration, EU leaders committed to reducing inequalities and ensuring fair wages, fighting social exclusion and tackling poverty, taking on, in particular, the objective of fighting child poverty. While we observe encouraging data on employment, we register little progress towards the goal of poverty reduction and social inclusion.  The social and economic effects of the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and subsequent cost of living crisis have amplified existing social inequalities. A rising number of families across Europe have begun to fall into food poverty and are increasingly reliant on food banks and similar services to meet basic needs.  Here, I underline the importance of the FEAD programme, which can help or at least contribute to lower the needs of these families of these people. I appeal to Member States to use the money, the remaining money, which is in FEAD, still available, to use it to alleviate these needs. The effects of the cost of living, including the cost of housing, are felt unevenly across society. Lower income groups and vulnerable citizens have been most affected, of course.  It is the moment to step up our efforts towards achieving our target of reducing by 2030 the number of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU by at least 15 million, of which at least 5 million should be children. We must live up to our commitments. Strong and efficient welfare systems, adequate provision and take up of social services are necessary to fight poverty and ensure social cohesion. We must address the root causes of poverty, break the cycle of disadvantage, and address the new challenges.  In this context, it is critical that governments assess the distributional effects of their policies, investments and reforms on the most vulnerable. Tackling, tackling poverty and social exclusion is at the centre of the European Pillar of Social Rights and its action plan, and a number of key steps have been taken at the EU level.  The European Child Guarantee, which guarantees access to key services for children in need – Member States have to allocate a certain percentage of their ESF+ money to its implementation, which amounts to approximately EUR 9 billion.  The Directive on adequate minimum wages ensuring workers can afford a decent standard of living – here I noticed that in many Member States minimum wages have been increased before even the transposition of the Directive.  The Council recommendation on adequate minimum income ensuring active inclusion – in some Member States, minimum income has been adjusted, unfortunately not in all, and even the contrary has happened.  The European Platform on Combating Homelessness – we will have another opportunity to discuss the housing crisis that hits millions of Europeans. Adequate financial resources and policies are needed at national and European level.  We support and complement Member States’ action to the European Semester and EU funding, such as via the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived with 4.6 billion earmarked to address material deprivation, the European Social Fund Plus with an investment in support to social inclusion of 45.5 billion and 5.5 billion for material support to the most deprived for the period 21-27, and under the Recovery and Resilience Facility 28% have been allocated to social investments.  To effectively tackle the root causes of poverty, social policies must go hand in hand with economic and fiscal policies, as well as more inclusive and fair labour markets aiming at upward social and economic convergence. I also want to mention REPowerEU that can contribute to combat energy poverty as well as the EU Social Climate Fund that should compensate those families most impacted by price increases.  So, many actions have been put into place at EU level as well as on Member States level, but the situation remains extremely worrisome. Therefore, we cannot take our foot off the accelerator. Obviously, we have to combat more effectively unjustified price increases that fuel inflation, yet, and at the same time, vulnerable households need further support, even if this support has to be more targeted.  Precariousness, poverty and social exclusion should have no place in our European Union. Therefore, combating them should be our common priority.