On January 29th, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, gave a press conference to present the preliminary findings of his two-month mission to the European Union. The mission’s final report will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in June 2021.
In the conference, Mr. De Shutter started by stressing that the EU failed to fulfil the target set in the Europe 2020 strategy of lifting at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty and no new target has been established until now. He also remarked that growth has been steady in the last years (pre-pandemic), and employment has grown, demonstrating that these factors are not enough to tackle poverty. Equally, he emphasized that while the Green Deal calls for a just transition, it is not an anti-poverty strategy itself, as there are no targets or clear goals on this aspect.
The Special Rapporteur also stated that Member States could use the crises as an opportunity to boost the fight against poverty. However, he warns that the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs) currently being prepared have often been improvised without meaningful dialogue with civil society. Equally, in the RRPs, there is no clear duty regarding social cohesion, no quota allocated, and no methodology to assess advancements. Thus, he called for the European Stability Mechanism to incorporate systematic social impact assessments.
Moreover, Mr. De Schutter underscored that the EU is at a very decisive moment to show its genuine commitment to poverty reduction. With both the Child Guarantee and the Action Plan on the European Pillar of Social Rights to be presented in the following weeks, he expects the EU to set a new poverty reduction target of 50% and explicit measures to assure access to new benefits. Also, he calls for the adoption of a Framework Directive on adequate Minimum Income to ensure harmonization and upward social convergence across the EU.
Finally, in the round of questions, our Secretary-General, Heather Roy, asked Mr. De Shutter about social services’ role in addressing poverty. He replied by stating how shocked he was to see that funding to social services has been decreasing in the EU since 2009. As a result, social services are understaffed and under-resourced, social workers are exhausted, and the EU fight against poverty is hindered. Lastly, he remarked that the logic of conditionality of social aids has transformed some social workers into gatekeepers that ensure people do not abuse the system, eroding mutual trust.
To watch the whole press conference, please go to the following link.