Imagine all the residents of Germany, Belgium, and Croatia were living in poverty. In absolute numbers, 93 million people - 21% of the EU population - are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. This is equivalent to the total population of Germany, Belgium, and Croatia combined. To tackle this urgent issue, the European Union will introduce its first-ever comprehensive EU Anti-Poverty Strategy. Currently out for consultation, the strategy constitutes the primary social policy initiative of European Commission President Von der Leyen's second term. What do we know about it at this stage? And what should it entail, from a social services perspective, to make it work?
Understanding the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy’s initial proposals
With poverty and social exclusion presenting a major challenge across Europe, scrutinising the Commission’s initial communications about the new strategy is essential. Speaking at the European Social Network’s European Parliament Roundtable on the Anti-Poverty Strategy this month, Katarina Ivanković Knežević, Director for Social Rights and Inclusion at the European Commission, said the new strategy will be ambitious, with the goal of eradicating poverty by 2050, and that the EU Child Guarantee will be one of its core building blocks. Anti-poverty action checklists could be an element to foresee, to inspire reforms funded by National and Regional Partnership Plans that may be introduced with the upcoming Multi-Annual Financial Framework in 2028.
Promoting a multifaceted approach to poverty eradication
Addressing the multiple facets and root causes of poverty needs to be central to the new strategy. Involving the people concerned will also be crucial. “Poverty both causes and results from human rights violations,” said Christine Meinecke, Regional Representative for Europe at the OHCHR and advocated at the ESN event for the strategy to be grounded in human rights. Katarina Ivanković Knežević emphasised that co-creation and local implementation will be key to achieving the EU’s 2050 target for poverty eradication and highlighted better access to the labour market, housing, child and long-term care services, transport, and social care as key areas of action.
Rooting social services in strategy development and execution
Alfonso Lara Montero, ESN’s Chief Executive Officer, emphasised that, from the perspective of professionals who work with and speak to people in poverty in their daily lives, fostering an integrated provision of services — combining income support, access to employment, housing, health, and social care services — will make the strategy more effective. “We can contribute to the success of the strategy, but for this to happen, social services must be involved at every stage from conceptualisation to implementation and evaluation.”
Collecting the right data to measure success
To show that the strategy lives up to this expectation, it will need strong indicators. One key indicator should be that people are able to access social services, of which measuring the coverage of social services in EU member states could help. For this purpose, ESN has developed the European Social Services Index (ESSI), which currently measures coverage of critical social services such as child protection, income support, long-term care, and services for homeless people in 16 EU member states.
Ensuring access to well-funded, quality services
Access to social services alone will not be sufficient. They should also be able to meet people’s needs by having sufficient funding and being of good quality. Pointing at the need for financial resources and the role of the EU in this regard, ESN Board Arnaud Lopez, and representative of the National Association of Directors of Social Care and Health in County Councils in France, highlighted that in France, “the European Social Fund finances 20-25% of labour market inclusion programmes.” MEP Mendia emphasised that “without access to quality services, no anti-poverty policy can truly succeed”. She suggested that the strategy should introduce a European social services quality framework, establishing clear standards for quality services. Montero agreed and highlighted: “Our members’ mission is to ensure social inclusion, and a prerequisite for this is access to quality services. The EU has a central leadership role to play for this.”
ESN will present how such an EU framework for Quality in Social Services could look in a European Parliament Roundtable on 19 November. Registration is open until 5 November.
