“Acting together to achieve social and environmental justice for all”
In light of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17 October 2020), the Parliament Intergroup (IG) Fighting against poverty held a conference under this year’s theme: “Acting together to achieve social and environmental justice for all”.
After some welcome remarks by the chair of the IG, MEP Cindy Franssen, Olivier de Schutter, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights presented his report on social protection in times of COVID19.The report focuses on how to deliver social protection without having anyone fall through the cracks.
Testimonies from people experiencing poverty or working with people who do, mainly focused on social protection, housing and energy issues, expressed concerns that the Europe 2020 strategy is ending, which failed to reach the anti-poverty target and has not been evaluated yet. Its successor, The European Green Deal needs to address poverty levels that will rise further due to the pandemic.
This was also supported by closing remarks from MEPs Marisa Matias, Pierfrancesco Majorino and Marie Toussaint who underlined the need for action and confirmed that the IG is looking at the invisibility and inaccessibility of rights, access to healthy food and is working on a resolution relating to a stable climate.
