EU: put poverty and social exclusion back at the heart of Lisbon

In its new report “Making Lisbon deliver for people experiencing poverty “, EAPN (The European Anti Poverty Network ) highlights the lack of broader, holistic approaches to empower excluded people. “Poverty seems to have slipped off the EU agenda ” declared Fintan Farrell, Director of EAPN. All EAPN networks are concerned by the dominance of measures which seem to throw back responsability on the most vulnerable members of the society, especially for people for whom work is not a viable option. “Lisbon has so far failed to live up to expectations, whether in terms of social cohesion, the creation of better jobs, or the reduction of poverty “, said the fresh report released at the beginning of last January. As emphasized by other sources, national reforms have not taken enough in account the Lisbon Strategy, which has be seen for a long time as the job of the European Commission. Therefore, EAPN is adressing its complaints to Member States. www.eapn.org