'European grassroots' fighting poverty

The European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) in Ireland said the EU needs to learn from its mistakes and adapt policies to serve society not just economics.

Speaking at the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) international conference in Dublin today, Anne Visser, director of the EAPN in Ireland, said grassroots movements around Europe are organising and demanding innovative and sustainable solutions to the poverty crisis.

The conference, themed Building a Social Europe; From Boom to Bust, was held in Croke Park. Delegates from 26 countries attended to discuss proposals for building a social Europe as part of the 2010 European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion.

Speakers included Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin; Marie Donnelly, director general of employment, social affairs and equal opportunities with the European Commission and Michaela Moser, vice president of EAPN Europe.

Ms Visser said despite an EU objective to reduce poverty made in 2000, in 2008, 17 per cent or nearly 85 million people in Europe were at risk of poverty, up from 16 per cent in 2000. Income inequality had also remained stubbornly immovable.

"All over Europe people are coming together to say that they don't want a return to the obsessive focus on growth or to the economics of boom and bust," she said.

"Grassroots movements are organising and demanding innovative and sustainable solutions to the crisis."

Suggested solutions included a "Robin Hood tax" on speculative banking, a high pay commission to tackle inequality and a minimum income standard to raise millions of people in Europe above the poverty line.