The
European Commission has proposed to set up a Fund to help the most deprived
persons in the EU. The Fund would support Member
State
schemes providing food to the most deprived people and clothing and other
essential goods to homeless people and materially-deprived children. The
proposal now goes to the European Parliament and the European Union's Council
of Ministers for approval.
The Commission foresaw a budget of €2.5 billion for the Fund during the period 2014-2020 as part of its June 2011 proposal for a Multiannual Financial Framework. Member States would be responsible for paying 15% of the costs of their national programmes, with the remaining 85% coming from the Fund.
President of the European Commission José Manuel Durão Barroso said: "At the European level, we need new solidarity mechanisms and proper resources to help deprived and poor people who in many cases are living in a real social emergency situation. This is the purpose of the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived proposed today"
European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion László Andor commented: "The proposed new Fund would provide tangible aid to help Europe's most vulnerable people to integrate into society. It will be a concrete demonstration of EU solidarity with the weakest - those who have been worst affected by the economic and social crisis. I hope Member States and the European Parliament will adopt this proposal, and the accompanying budget, swiftly so that the support reaches those in need without delay. "
Under the proposed Fund Member States would apply for funding to support operational programmes covering the period 2014 to 2020 for schemes providing, through partner organisations, food to the most deprived persons and clothing and other essential goods (such as shoes, soap and shampoo) to the homeless and to materially-deprived children.
The proposal would give considerable flexibility to national authorities to plan and deliver the assistance in line with their national schemes. Detailed criteria to allocate assistance would be the responsibility of Member States, or even partner organizations, as they are best placed to target assistance to local needs.
Partner organisations, often non-governmental, would be responsible for delivering the food or goods to the most deprived persons. To meet the Fund's social cohesion objectives, partner organisations would not only have to provide material assistance to the most deprived persons but also undertake basic activities aimed at their social integration. The Fund would also be able to support such accompanying measures.
National authorities would be able to use the Fund to either purchase food or goods and make them available to the partner organisations or provide the partner organisations themselves with funding to do so. The proposal also foresees the possibility to use food stored in intervention stocks, if there are any.
Background
The Europe 2020 Strategy commits the EU to reducing the number of people in or at risk of poverty by at least 20 million.
Out of the 116 million people in the EU who are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, about 40 million are suffering from severe material deprivation.
One of the main features of material deprivation is the inability to access appropriate quantities and quality of food. The share of the EU population unable to afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish (or vegetarian equivalent) every second day – something which is defined as a basic need by the World Health Organisation – was 8.7% in 2010, i.e. more than 43 million people. The first figures available for 2011 indicate a worsening situation.
A particularly severe form of material deprivation is homelessness, the extent of which is difficult to quantify. Nevertheless, estimates indicate that there were 4.1 million homeless people in Europe in 2009/2010. Homelessness has recently increased due to the social impact of the financial and economic crisis and rising unemployment. Even more worryingly, homeless people increasingly consist of families with children, young people and people with a migrant background.
There are 25.4 million children at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU. Overall, children are at greater risk of poverty or social exclusion than the rest of the population (27 % against 23 % for the total population). This exposes them to material deprivation going beyond malnutrition. For example, 5.7 million children cannot afford new clothes and 4.7 million do not have two pairs of properly fitting shoes (including a pair of all-weather shoes). Children suffering from material deprivation are more likely than their better-off peers to do badly in school, experience poor health and fail to realise their full potential as adults.
More info: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-1141_en.htm
Source: European Commission
