The European conference on child poverty (see Europolitics4032), held on 2 and 3 September in Marche-en-Famenne in Belgium, concluded on an optimistic note. On the one hand, the event was the first of its kind at European level, and on the other, its objective, namely the drafting of an EU recommendation, received backing from Commissioner László Andor and the other Presidency trio members. “Spain and Hungary agreed to pressure the other member states to support the adoption of such a recommendation,” which should make this possible “in 2011,” said aides to Belgium’s State Secretary for Social Integration and Combating Poverty, Philippe Courard.

CLEAR AND CONCRETE COMMITMENT

The Belgian Presidency called at the meeting for “a clear and concrete commitment by all member states to make good on this recommendation, so that child poverty will be the priority of the platform against poverty”. The initiative, foreseen by the new ‘Europe 2020’ strategy, is expected to come into existence by the end of the year. The objective of reducing the number of persons threatened with poverty in Europe was endorsed by the member states in June. “Belgium seeks a strong declaration and concrete commitments from the heads of state in support of the eradication of poverty in Europe,” the state secretary told the 300 or so conference participants.

The question of child poverty in Roma populations was discussed transversally during the three workshops and by Andor in a video address.