Flagship initiative “Platform against poverty and social exclusion” – Going local event - Copenhagen 28 Oct 2011

On the 28 October 2011, a second study visit, planned as follow-up to the opinion SOC/405 on the "European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion", brought Maureen O'Neill (rapporteur and member of Group III), Brenda King (Group I) and Daiva Kvedaraite (Group II) to Copenhagen.

At the hearing they organised at the premises of the European Commission's Representation in Denmark, the EESC members consulted representatives from the Danish Ministries of Labour and Social Affairs and Integration, the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions, several NGOs and councils of experts and researchers on poverty to discuss the progress being made on the National Reform Programme in relation to poverty reduction.

Thanks to these specialists' presence, the discussion was an in-depth one, focusing on the need to tackle child poverty, to improve education for all, to provide an holistic service instead of separating employment activation programmes from health and social services, to better define the respective competencies at national and local level and to better use the funding available.