13/10/2026
One in five people in the EU is at risk of poverty or social exclusion. That’s about 92.7 million people, and the EU intends to help them with its first-ever EU Anti-Poverty Strategy, released in May, which aims to contribute to the eradication of poverty by 2050.
The EU already committed at the Porto Social Summit on 7-8 May 2021 with the Porto Declaration to lift at least 15 million people out of poverty, including 5 million children, by 2030. And yet it manifestly missed that target, having not set aside enough funding nor being listening to the representative organisations such as the European Antipoverty Network.
We raised this concern before the strategy even existed.
Over a year ago we warned that the Commission proposal for a long‑term budget omitted the European Social Fund Plus, the EU’s main source of funding for social inclusion, jobs and skills programmes.
Without funding, we argued, flagship social plans risk remaining ineffective The signals from Parliament were not reassuring either. In February, MEPs adopted Parliament’s own report setting out recommendations for the strategy, but civil society warned it had been diluted. Migrants and undocumented people were left off the list of vulnerable groups, and a proposed dedicated budget for the EU’s homelessness platform didn’t make the cut.
The text removed a budget for the EU’s homelessness platform and omitted migrants and undocumented people from the list of vulnerable groups.
As Adriana Buleza, who has lived experience of poverty and comes from EAPN Romania, says: “People who experience poverty should not be the subjects of policies they should have a meaningful voice in shaping them.” It is a question of access, and the data is clear. Analysis we covered in February showed that NGOs made up 16% of meetings with Commissioners’ cabinets, down from 22% during the first von der Leyen term. Individual companies and trade associations made up 40% and 29% of those meetings.
Anti‑Poverty Day: lived experience at the European Parliament
That is why we are joining EU Anti‑Poverty Day on Tuesday 13 October. The European Anti‑Poverty Network (EAPN) and the European Parliament Intergroup on Fighting Poverty and Social Exclusion are co‑organising the edition at the European Parliament. MEPs from The Left S&D, the Greens/EFA and Renew Europe are attending. Commission Executive Vice‑President Roxana Mînzatu will give the keynote address at 9:00. The real draw is who is in the room. People experiencing poverty from a dozen countries will lead three workshops on participation in policymaking, socio‑economic discrimination and the European Child Guarantee. Their recommendations will be sent to the European Commission. As MEP Marie Toussaint, Co‑Chair of the Intergroup says, the test of the strategy will be whether the political will exists to turn this knowledge into action and match ambition with the funding it requires.
Read the programme and follow the day here.