Mahony, H., (2013), “Crisis knocking EU 2020 goals off track”, EUObserver, 29 October.
The economic crisis has knocked the EU’s longterm strategic targets off track with planned poverty-reduction and employment goals unlikely to be met by 2020.
“Without adequate policy measures to rapidly reverse this escalating poverty trend, the EU risks moving away from the Europe 2020 headline target on poverty,” said a Eurostat report, published Tuesday (29 October) on the Union’s end-of-decade economic goals.
It notes that the EU is about 24 million people off its target of reducing the numbers at risk of poverty or social exclusion by 20 million compared to 2008 levels.
With monetary poverty (16.5 percent of the EU population or 83.5 million people) the most widespread form of poverty the report says that it will take more than “simply raising the average income” to reverse the trend.
More profound changes such as better social protection will also be needed.
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Relevant Posts
- Whyte, P. and Tilford, S. eds., (2013), The future of Europe’s economy: Disaster or deliverance?, Center for European Reform, 18 September.
- Oxfam, (2013), “A Cautionary Tale: The true cost of austerity and inequality in Europe”, Oxfam Briefing Paper, 12 September.
- IFRC, (2013), Think differently: Humanitarian impacts of the economic crisis in Europe, Geneva: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.