Unable to make ends meet

"To want a citizens’ Europe is to work towards a more inclusive, more democratic Europe, and you are part of the solution” said Staffan Nilsson, president of the European and Economic Social Committee (EESC) in his address to participants in the 12th session of the European Fourth World People’s University, titled: "Citizens united for a Europe active against persistent poverty" held March 5th at the EESC headquarters in Brussels. The EU announced the "Year of Citizenship" in 2013, which was also the theme of the meeting promoted by the ATD Quart Monde movement, an international NGO founded in 1957 for the promotion of human rights with the purpose of ensuring that the poor can exert such rights, thus progressing towards the elimination of extreme poverty. The event brought together MEPs, EASC and European Commission representatives, people living in extreme poverty, and other people from different walks of life active in the fight against poverty citizens living in extreme poverty and activists in the fight on poverty and exclusion. There were 120 delegates from Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland.Listening to all citizens. "We call for a ‘European citizenship year’ with objective of the elimination of poverty in Europe, said Marie-Cécile Renoux, ATD delegate at the EU. In the ongoing crisis, "while the European ambition for 2020 is to decrease extreme poverty", it is necessary to acknowledge "it and realize that austerity programs involve social services and that they further impoverish citizens", underlined Leila Kurki, president of the Social Affairs Division of the EESC. There are 116 million poor people in the EU (23% of the overall population); of these, 42 million live in conditions of serious material deprivation. For Isabelle Durant, vicepresident of the European Parliament, "Europe must puts a limit to its arrogance and listens to its citizens, especially those that strive to make a living, and that the EU administrative staff is formed since it forgot real life"; "this is possible through encounter, seeking to understand each other". it is fundamental for its representatives (of the EU, editor’s note) to listen to the voices of people living in poverty. "Every citizen should be recognised as an agent of knowledge if we want human rights to be effective", added Monique Couillard (Belgium). Crisis in knowledge. The conclusions were drawn by the general delegate of the International Movement Eugen Brand, for whom "given the crisis affecting Europe and the rest of the world we agree on the need for more Europe". But we must also ask ourselves, "more of which Europe?" Referring to what emerged in the contributions of the national delegates, Brand pointed at a "lack of respect", "B-citizens", and "humiliation", underlining the "trivialization of poverty that conceals the most intolerable scandal: in the 21st century millions of children, youth and adults in Europe have been abandoned, humiliated and scorned… they don’t feel they’re being treated as human beings". Nonetheless, "true citizenship cannot exist unless it is grounded on inalienable human rights". "The crisis we are experiencing isn’t just economic", he warned, "It’s also a crisis in knowledge". Hence institutions in Brussels must "take into account" the "knowledge" of the poor and endorse three proposals. Three recommendations. Firstly, Brand asked the Commission "to analyse the situation and the expectations of individuals, families and population brackets that are most hit" by the crisis, and "establish the real consequences of European policies on the life of citizens living in conditions of poverty, involving also the latter and overlapping intelligences". Brand suggests that the Economic and Social Committee develop an opinion on "European citizenship" with the stakeholders, based "on the rejection of poverty and on the implementation of human rights". Brand recalled that that the EU that just adopted a new budgetary deal is the same that in the year 2000 adopted its own Charter of Fundamental Rights, and quoted the first article on the inviolability of human dignity, urging the European Parliament to call upon Member States "to sign the reviewed Social European Charter, to be ratified by the EU". In reaffirming confidence in a Europe "capable of promoting an intelligent, sustainable and supportive Europe (the objective of the 2020 Strategy, ed.’s note)" the ATD general delegate guarded against the risk of a "double-track human rights Europe", calling for policies which rather that focusing on "reduction" aim at the "elimination of poverty". "That’s where the world poor await Europe". Furthermore, he concluded, "by following this path the EU will recover the inspiring principles of its founding fathers: the construction of peace and the harmony of mankind".