Leila Kurki: Köyhyyden poistaminen ja perusoikeuksien kunnioittaminen ruoka-apuohjelman toteuttamisen lähtökohtina

Leila Kurki puhui Euroopan Unionin ruoka-apu ohjelmaa käsittelevässä kuulemistilaisuudessa 21.11.2011: Köyhyyden poistaminen ja perusoikeuksien kunnioittaminen ruoka-apuohjelman toteuttamisen lähtökohtina

Leila Kurki
President of the Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship
European Economic and Social Committee EESC

EESC 21 November 2011

Public Hearing on the distribution of food products to the most deprived persons in the Union

Considerations of the SOC section

Thank you for the invitation to this hearing. The topic of food aid indeed concerns not only NAT section and agriculture issues but also the work done in SOC section, especially linked to poverty and fundamental rights.

The Food Aid Programme is important because it addresses extreme poverty. Last year more than 18 million people benefited from this scheme.

How does poverty look? Here are the hard facts:
According to the indicator for relative poverty, 85 million women and men (around 17% of the EU population) are at risk of poverty. 42 million people (8% of the population) were severely materially deprived.

34 million people live in households with low work intensity. When looking more in detail, one realises that:  
- about 20 million of them are children (this means one child out of five);
- 8% of the European population is at risk of poverty, despite having a job;
- 22% of women over 65 live in poverty, as do a third of single-parent families.

The financial crisis has turned to economic and social crisis, and governments are hoping the austerity measures will lead to light.

But the measures to reduce public deficits should not increase the risk of poverty. This is bad politics for the future of Europe. There must be sufficient investment for the citizens benefit also.

The Committee supports the Europe 2020 Strategy measures for inclusive growth and the target to reduce poverty by at least 20 million by 2020.

However, across the EU we need to be more ambitious in our approach to eradicating poverty, and acknowledging its complexity. 

Inclusion strategies should be implemented as an integrated approach to ensure adequate income support and benefits, an inclusive labour market and access to quality work and public services like health, education and housing.

EU funding, particularly the Structural Funds, targeted at reducing poverty, needs to be increased and the emphasis given to simplifying procedures, increasing transparency and monitoring effective delivery.

The Social Open Method of Coordination (OMC) must be strengthened, which includes the development of National Strategies for Social Protection and Social Inclusion.

There must be a stronger emphasis on reducing inequalities and enforcing fundamental human rights, including through fairer income distribution and implementing the horizontal social clauses set out in the Lisbon Treaty.

It is regrettable that food aid programme is questioned by some Member States. They seem to ignore the fact that in rich Europe there are still 80 million people living behind the poverty line and 30 million people suffering from malnutrition.

The hard and insecurity times for European citizens will probably continue at least several years ahead.

I therefore welcome the agreement reached last week (on 14th November) which extended the Community food aid scheme for two years.

There is thought one severe uncertainty in this agreement. The decision to take this scheme from the agriculture budget and put to be used as social policy purposes, which is on national responsibility, and now under big cuttings, may go against the principles of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The voluntary organisations that now play a major and important roIe in food aid programme would probably suffer and their activities would be decreased.  This would cause discrimination against people who are already excluded from society and facing greatest difficulties.

It is urgent for the Commission to strengthen the culture of fundamental rights at EU level by ensuring that legislative proposals and all acts adopted, comply with the charter of fundamental rights.

We must keep in mind that to promote fundamental rights, and specifically address vulnerable groups, is legally binding obligation for all EU institutions, agencies and bodies.

Also Member States should build a protection- and promotion-oriented fundamental rights culture at all government levels and across all policy and legislative domains.

It is important to continue to stress that the Lisbon Treaty emphasizes principles of solidarity and the EU’s role in supporting and complementing Members States’ actions to fight poverty.

As poverty represents a violation of human rights, governments, the social partners and civil society must take shared responsibility for its eradication. If we fail in this task the number of food aid recipients will continue to grow.

I would therefore plead for these aspects to be taken into consideration in the discussions of the future of the food aid programme.