15 March 2011

The Austrian Poverty conference, including Austrian Diaconia, have strongly criticised recent moves by EU heads of State and government to strengthen economic governance in the eurozone. They fear that the demands that could be placed on member states in order to restrict the level of public debt will force member states to cut social expenditure. In addition, it is feared that if proposals from documents from last year are taken up, the European Commission will be able to influence wage policies, with trade unions stating that this could involve calls to cut wages.

The Austrian Poverty Conference believes that the measures will make it more difficult to reach the agreed EU target to reduce poverty by 20 million people by 2020, and will even increase the level of poverty in the EU. Martin Schenk of the Austrian Diaconia said, “It is not enough to pay lip service to social Europe”, referring to commitments made by member states to social inclusion and fighting poverty. He insisted on the need for investment in social, educational and health policies, as well as in good jobs to ensure the well being of the people - and by consequence the well-being of the economy in Europe.

Eurodiaconia is concerned at the lack of focus on the social inclusion elements of the Europe 2020 strategy in the reports evaluating member states’ progress in reaching targets of the strategy.  The emphasis of the different reports is on how every initiative or reform can enhance growth. Eurodiaconia fears that an over-emphasis on measures to promote growth without a consideration of their social impact will lead to more social exclusion and poverty. For more information about this reporting process, the “European Semester”, please see here.