During a conference on homelessness at the European Parliament, on 15 April, Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Commissioner László Andor defended the aim of reducing poverty as set out in the Union’s 2020 strategy, while the Spanish and Belgian Presidencies of the EU set out their future actions in this area. “We must be ambitious because the situation is getting worse,” said Andor. “Homelessness is also in the initiative establishing a European platform against poverty. The Commission also intends to encourage member states to collect data and publish a communication by the end of the year,” he added, without going into more details. He did not spend much time on the postponement of a quantitative poverty indicator until June, whereas Carlos Garcia de Cortazar, a councillor at the Spanish Permanent Representation, made no secret of his disappointment. “Member states are afraid because establishing quantitative indicators will increase poverty statistics in some countries,” he said angrily. The Spanish EU Presidency has identified the fight against poverty as one of its priorities. In July, it will hand over the Presidency of the EU to Belgium, which also took the opportunity to announce a consensus conference on the issue at the end of December.

The event aims to find common positions on the fight against poverty and will serve as a basis on which to make political progress in this area. Belgium will defend the idea of a guaranteed minimum income in Europe.

At the end of the meeting, the different political groups, represented by Liz Lynne (ALDE, UK), Karima Delli (Greens-EFA, France), Britta Thomsen (S&D, Denmark), Ilda Figueiredo (GUE-NGL, Portugal) and Jacek Protasiewicz (EPP, Poland) adopted a joint declaration against homelessness. In particular, they call on the Council to approve a European commitment aiming to eradicate homelessness by 2015. This commitment is one of the aims of the EY2010 declaration, which will be adopted during the Belgian Presidency and supports the aims set by the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA).

The declaration is available at www.europolitics.info > Search = 270442

FEANTSA’s five priorities

FEANTSA is calling for an integrated strategy to combat homelessness. It is backing an action plan based around five priorities:

1. No one sleeping rough

2. No one living in emergency accommodation longer than is an ‘emergency’

3. No one living in transitional accommodation longer than is required for successful move-on

4. No one leaving an institution without housing options

5. No young people becoming homeless as a result of the transition to independent living