Poverty in Europe” “

Europe seems rich. In fact it’s poor, because situations of profound inequalities and shortcomings in state social policies co-exist within the same country or between different countries. Of all the member states of the European Union, Italy is the country with the highest percentage of poor people (14.2%). “In spite of the diversity between the countries, the existence of chronic poverty is a common denominator that has tended to increase in recent years”. This is what emerges from the 1st Report on poverty in Europe produced by Caritas Europe (the body that unites the national Caritas agencies of 43 countries) and officially published on 8 February. It’s the first initiative of its kind at the European level and was compiled using updated statistics of the World Bank and exclusive data furnished by the individual national Caritas agencies. The Caritas Europe report will be sent to all the European institutions (European Parliament, Commission, Council of Europe and Ecosoc), to the individual governments and to all the national Caritas, which will distribute it to their respective diocesan and parish Caritas associations. But above all it will serve as a documentation basis and point of departure for a campaign of political lobbying in all the countries of the EU and in the candidate countries. The first stage of this campaign will involve the sending of a delegate to the meeting of the European Council in Barcelona (15 March 2002) which will focus on the issues of unemployment and vocational training. On the basis of what comes out of the Council, Caritas Europe will then draw up a political document to be sent to the European institutions and Governments, furnishing opinions and recommendations on issues connected with measures to combat poverty. Moreover, the first action project at the European level planned by the diocesan Caritas of Cologne and financed by the European Commission will begin in March 2002. It will be implemented in liaison with the Caritas agencies of Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Austria and Belgium and be aimed at the re-integration of the older unemployed in the workforce. Caritas Europe intends to publish an update of its Report each year. Below we give a brief résumé of its main findings. The face of poverty in Europe. “The report aims to show the face of poverty in Europe – said Bruno Kapfer, secretary general of Caritas Europe, during a press conference held in Brussels in recent days – and to launch a debate on how to implement effective social policies to help the weakest sections of the population. Not only in the member states of the EU, but also in the candidate countries and in those that haven’t applied for membership”. The investments of governments in health care and education, and levels of social welfare, were taken into consideration as indicators. “Even in the EU countries – Francesca Vencato, head of the social policies unit at Caritas Europe, told SIR – the lack of social protection for the weaker categories is surprising. In the non-candidate countries of Eastern Europe, moreover, there is a total absence of social assistance”. That’s why the Report recommends “greater financial solidarity among the Union’s member countries, candidate and non-candidate countries” and the implementation of social policies in favour of employment, improved health care and education, with greater welfare benefits and tax relief for families in difficulty, single parents, the elderly and immigrants. Italy, the poorest among the rich countries. Among the rich countries Italy has the highest percentage of population living in poverty (14.2%), followed by Great Britain (13.4%). Belgium and Finland, by contrast, have the lowest percentage (both 5.2%). Among the non-candidate countries it is the Russian Federation that takes top place in terms of its poverty percentage (20.1%). The European countries with the lowest incomes include Armenia, Georgia, Moldavia and the Ukraine. Unjust distribution of resources. An unjust distribution of resources is ascertained especially in Great Britain, where 20% of the rich possess 43% of the resources, whereas 20% of the poor population have to make do with sharing only 6.6% of the national wealth. Great Britain is more unequal in its distribution of resources even than Belarus, Croatia and Ukraine. The “feminization” of poverty is another aspect stressed by the Report. In the EU countries women earn on average only 51.8% of the incomes of men. The lowest differential is in Great Britain (where women earn 71.5% of male incomes), the highest in Malta (27.7%). Long-term unemployment (more than twelve months) is most present in Spain (8.1% of the workforce), and virtually non-existent in Norway (0.2% of the workforce). Unemployment also brings with it other negative consequences, such as addiction to drugs and alcohol, especially on the increase in Norway, Slovakia and Poland. The “working poor “. In many countries the new forms of poverty are now represented by the working poor, especially those who work as physicians and teachers in the public sector, who earn very low incomes. In France, for example, there are 1,820,000 working poor, 270,000 of whom on permanent contracts. Government expenditure on education is 5.6% of GDP in the rich countries, 5.1% in the candidate countries and 5.4% in the non-candidate countries. Sweden and Denmark are the countries that invest most heavily in education (respectively 8.3% and 8.1%); the country with the lowest investment is Greece (3.1%). Technological development reveals considerable differences between the EU and non-candidate countries: in the first group there is an average of 297 computers for each thousand inhabitants, in the others only 22.8. Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Ireland have even higher percentages: 400 computers per thousand inhabitants, as against only 8 in Moldavia. Infant mortality and life expectancy are other indicators taken into consideration by the Report. In Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Great Britain infant mortality is 6 for every thousand births. In Turkey and Albania the figure is respectively 40 and 29 every thousand births. Life expectancy is highest in Sweden (79.3 years) and lowest in the Russian Federation (66.1) and in Moldavia (66.6). The poverty of single parents. In 14 European countries (including Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain) the Report ascertains the phenomenon of single parent poverty, in particular that of women. In Austria 47% of single parents without a job live in conditions of “chronic poverty”. This is also the result of the lack of state benefits and tax relief. The elderly. In 17 countries (including Italy) the poorest section of society consists of the elderly, due to too low pensions. In Bulgaria the basic state pension is 40 euros per month, while the cost of living is double that amount. In the Ukraine, 30% of the elderly are living below the poverty threshold and have no right to free health care. Here the average pension is only 12 euros per month. Immigrants, refugees and gypsies. The Report classifies immigrants among the poorest categories, often the victims of “unacceptable forms of racism and xenophobia”. And it denounces the fact that political asylum-seekers are forced to cope with “a hostile and highly bureaucratic system” which makes it difficult to obtain the status of refugee. In Europe the flow of refugees is especially from the zones of the former Yugoslavia: inter alia, there are now some 625,800 Bosnians scattered in 40 countries. Particular attention is devoted in the Report to the gypsy (Romany) population. There are in fact 8 million nomads in Europe, the majority of whom live in Romania (between 1.8 and 2.5 million) and in Bulgaria (700-800,000). Caritas Europe has also set up a working group to examine this problem. Patrizia Caiffa