The building-yard

A European Year is closing and it’s time to draw a balance. But this time pundits agree on the positive outcomes. This Year did not pass unnoticed, as did many previous European or International Years. This is remarkable, if the purpose of exerting pressure was to ensure that the issue gained primary attention within EU policies. Indeed, this is the nullifying point. Although past EU achievements range from the strategies for social inclusion to the package of territorial cohesion policies, to the European Social Fund, economic development and active job inclusion policies have been deemed paramount. Conversely, it has now been acknowledged that poverty is a major issue in Europe, which cannot be solved by access to employment per se.Two episodes greatly contributed to Europe’s partial turning point. The first is the sad numerical evidence: 16% of all Europeans, amounting to over 80 million people, live below the poverty line (over 100 million according to other indicators). These are sky-rocketing figures, all the more relevant considering the ongoing economic crisis, which in only three years wiped out a decade of economic growth, placed under serious pressure all job markets except for Germany, and led to widespread cuts in social welfare spending across all EU Countries. The second is the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty: notwithstanding all those who throughout the Year continued claiming that the fight against poverty was not Europe’s responsibility, it has been acknowledged that the fight against social exclusion lies within the province of the European Union and its Member States. The Review of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy for the next decade – that goes under the name of Europe 2020 Strategy – identified a clear set of goals. The Strategy lays down three interrelated priorities, one of which is inclusive growth; it establishes 5 EU targets, three of which are linked to poverty reduction (reducing by 20 million the number of people at risk of poverty or exclusion by the end of the decade, bringing to under 10% all school dropouts while at least 40% of the younger generation aged 30-34 should have a degree or a diploma and 75 % of the population aged 20-64 should be employed). The Europe 2020 agenda consists of a series of flagship initiatives such as the European Platform Against Poverty, for which the commission presented an apposite communication past 16 December. In it the EU envisages the best use of all social innovation tools, to make the best possible use of the various EU funds, in particular of the FSE (European Social Fund) to boost the efficiency of social protection services and to involve a large number of partners in the fight on social exclusion. Will these remain only good intentions? It must be said that never before did the question of poverty take on such strategic relevance at the very core of EU Institutions’ long-period political programming. Now the question is to ensure that these intentions are put into practice in an ongoing and progressive manner. Considerable encouragement comes from the thrust given by EU’s Belgian presidency, that is nearing the end of its office. In fact, the Belgian rotating presidency registered significant progress also key areas such as the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) on Social Inclusion, an instrument providing a new framework for voluntary cooperation in the 27 Member States, which also lays the grounds for the expected – albeit controversial – EU Minimum wage Directive; child poverty and the tragedy of the homeless. Both the forthcoming Hungarian EU presidency and the Polish presidency that will follow, have already declared that the path already undertaken will be pursued, with the purpose of making further progress. Last but not least, this Year has enabled the creation and the affirmation of important networks and alliances between social actors, amongst one another and with local bodies, which could become permanent and stimulating interlocutors of European institutions and of Member States. This constitute a good basis to ensure a close monitoring of policy implementation, which has been missing when some important European measures were taken. However, two less positive aspects should be pointed out. Firstly, it could have been possible to be more ambitious, both in terms of poverty reduction targets and also as relates to the new indicators to measure the horizontal impact of the different policies on the reduction of poverty and the progress made at the level of the single Countries. Secondly, the priorities for combating poverty on an international scale followed different paces. Europe continues being the first world donor, however this aspect has been given no relevance at all in the recent Africa-European Union summit in Tripoli, nor does it appear to be one of the strategic assets of the new European External Action Service. In fact, it’s a large building-yard.