On the 25th & 26th of June, the Meeting of People Experiencing Poverty brought together policy makers and people who experience poverty in their every day life for the 9th time. The Meeting took place shortly after EU leaders agreed on the 17th of June on the target of lifting 20 million people out of poverty by 2020.
This year’s event, the 9th consecutive edition, was called “Starting point for a new deal" and was co-organised by the European Commission, the Spanish EU Presidency and the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN).
The event welcomed 150 people experiencing poverty from all Member States. Daniele Dierckx from the University of Antwerp presented the initial findings of research conducted by OASeS that followed up the impact of the PEP Meetings. The results show that 79 % of the participants reported a better understanding of the situation of people experiencing poverty after the meetings and 87% of the people who experience poverty thought that the meetings contributed to their personal development. Thanks to the events the participants felt stronger to fight for their own and other people’s better living conditions, they experienced stronger emotional support, they felt less isolated and more respected. After the meeting they experienced bigger engagement and stronger trust in policies and policy makers.
After the plenary sessions, the delegates met in workshops where they discussed their own efforts to devise 10 year action plans to tackle poverty. The workshop results were assessed on the second day of the meeting in a brief presentation. The conclusions of the previous meetings were integrated into a 10-Year Action Plan to fight against poverty through an active dialogue with EU policy makers. Commissioner László Andor at the press conference told journalists that although for some people the European Council target to lift 20 million people out of poverty by 2020 does not look ambitious enough, we have to be aware that we are still in the economic crisis; unemployment is on the rise. The Commissioner stressed that the EU has to focus on social protection measures, on protecting the vulnerable groups and on preventing a social crisis.
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