Inaugural speech by Séamus Boland on the Launch of the EAPN 2024 Poverty Watch Report

Conference on the 'Launch of the EAPN 2024 Poverty Watch Report', a partnership event by the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) and the European Economic and Social Committee's Civil Society Organisations' Group on 8 April in Brussels.

Esteemed speakers, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

It is with great pleasure that I would like to welcome you to the European Economic and Social Committee, for this joint event with the European Anti-Poverty Network;

This collaboration is becoming a regular occurrence, as we hosted the EAPN last year for the launch of the 2023 annual report.

Dear Kahina, you are very welcome here – as you know, combatting poverty has been the overarching priority of the Civil Society Organisations' Group over the last four years;

And poverty eradication is a topic which is very close to my heart, for both personal and professional reasons.

I read through the EAPN report and for the country that I know the best, Ireland, I can only concur with the descriptions;

It saddens me greatly, to read that Ireland has the highest rates of female homelessness in the EU…

Regrettably, the figures we read in this years' EAPN report are well known: 94.6 million people, the equivalent of 21.4% of the European population, were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2023. As many times as I read those figures, I am still astonished. How is it possible that in a Union of such wealth, 1/5 of the European population lives in such distress?

And for children living in the EU, the figures are even worse: 24.8% face poverty or social exclusion in their daily lives;

Part of the answer is of course that we are facing multi-dimensional and inter-connected crises within Europe. Environmental, energy, demography, housing, economic, wars…we have all heard it before. But the reality is that current social policies are simply not able to meet the challenges ahead!

One cannot but ask: if this is the situation in the EU, with our generous social protection systems, then how much poverty is there elsewhere?

It is precisely for these reasons, that we must have more coordination and linkages between actions at the local, national and European levels;

Like you, I am very much looking forward to the first EU anti-poverty strategy and later this morning you will hear from my colleague and Group Vice-President, Krzysztof Balon, who is the EESC rapporteur on the forthcoming strategy.

What is evident from this years' EAPN report, is that it is imperative to have much more coherence and complementarity between EU social policies, perhaps even an EU poverty check on all EU policies. We also need to better understand the linkages and inter-sectionalities between different groups of people who face poverty;

For example, between women, persons with disabilities and minority groups;

Consequently, I fully agree with the recommendation in this years' EAPN report, which calls for "…full coherence (of the Action Plan of the European Pillar of Social Rights) with the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy, the European Affordable Housing Plan, the Affordable Energy Plan and other EU policies beyond social affairs".

But we should be going even further;

Yes, poverty eradication requires political willingness;

It is a political choice – and it is urgent;

Each time that I walk past the homeless people living on Place Luxembourg, right next to the European Parliament, the contrast in symbolism between the values of our European Union and the realities of poverty within the EU – well, it is simply shocking.

Ultimately, the eradication of poverty requires unrelenting action by all Member States;

Much of the poverty experienced in the EU is intergenerational and it can be particularly harsh on the lives of children and older people. In the areas of education, housing and high-cost energy, special measures - that target the weaknesses of the system - must be introduced;

Otherwise, the EU as a political entity will struggle to retain the confidence of its citizens.

This brings me to my last point, which is touched upon in your recommendation which calls for "Support to civil society organisations by securing funding and protecting them from public attacks";

This dimension, that of an enabling and structured environment for meaningful civil dialogue and participation, is at the very core of our work as the Civil Society Organisations Group;

Just last week at our plenary, we reminded Commissioner McGrath that civil society is the glue, or the oil in the engine of our societies;

Civil society organisations act daily as local safety nets. At the same time, they are pivotal partners in defending democracy and fundamental rights within the EU;

In this context, we as a Group, have been very vocal in calling for and now supporting an EU Civil Society Strategy and the creation of a Civil Society Platform;

Building a strong European Civil Society Strategy and reinforcing support and funding for CSOs were also among the key recommendations of this years' Civil Society Week at the EESC;

As were also the necessity to strengthen financial support for CSOs in the CERV programme and the European Social Fund Plus, in the upcoming MFF.

I could go on for a much longer time, but I will close with these remarks and I wish you all very fruitful discussions.

Thank you for your attention.