Around twenty senior representatives from the Christian, Jewish, Muslim religions as well as from the Sikh and Hindu communities met on 20 July 2010 in Brussels on the invitation of President José Manuel Barroso and co-chaired by Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament and Herman van Rompuy, President of the European Council. In the framework of the 2010 European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, they discussed effective ways of combating poverty and social exclusion as an imperative for European governance.
In the European Year against poverty and social exclusion 2010 and through the European Poverty Platform, European institutions engage in a dialogue with civil society, NGOs, public authorities and other providers of social services to find new approaches, actions and partners in a Europe-wide effort to eradicate poverty.
José Manuel Barroso, the Commission President said: "In Europe, several million citizens live at the edge of social exclusion. A poor testimony for one of the richest regions of the world! As Europe recovers from this crisis, I want to see a generation of growth which integrates the most vulnerable into main stream society."
The faith leaders from fourteen Members States (France, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and Denmark) expressed their support for the Europe2020 strategy and its social and education targets. They encouraged the European institutions to further increase the momentum, especially with a view to improving access to the labour market, better targeting of social services in member states and ensuring equal opportunities with view to access to education and training.
They underlined their continued commitment to foster social cohesion and increase a sense of solidarity and civic engagement among Europeans. They emphasised that overcoming the current crisis will only be possible when people and social justice are at the heart of European policies.
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