Eurostat, the Statistics Office of the European Commission, published its Report “Poverty and social exclusion in the 25-member EU” in early October. The data, referring to the year 2003, present a situation in which 72 million (equivalent to 16%) European citizens are “at risk of poverty”, i.e. earn less than 60% of the average income of their country of residence. The European states with the highest rates of poverty are Greece, Ireland and Slovakia with 21%, followed by Italy, Portugal and Spain with 19%. The populations less at risk are the Czechs (8%), the Luxemburgers and the Slovenes (both with 10%). Eurostat further emphasises that these percentages would be far higher (even as much as five times higher) were it not for public interventions in terms of social security and healthcare assistance. In the absence of these benefits, the average percentage of poverty of the whole EU population would rise to 40%, with high points in Poland (49%) and Cyprus (26%).
