On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, MEPs will discuss with the Commission how to combat poverty in Europe. According to Eurostat, 95.3 million people in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2022, which constitutes almost 22% of the EU population. MEPs are expected to call for increased action to support those living in poverty as well as for measures to eradicate poverty in Europe. Opening statement by Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

SCHMIT, Nicolas (LU, EC)

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

fight against poverty (T)

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty: opening statement by Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights

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SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, President, honourable members. Indeed, today we mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. And therefore it is important that the European Parliament organises a debate on where we stand in the EU, but also at a global level, and more particularly how we should increase our efforts to really be successful in eradicating poverty. The world is living through violent times with a lot of crises, wars, armed conflicts and terrorist attacks.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, They cause death, destruction and deep poverty. They have a detrimental impact on poverty reduction. Moreover, the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic reversed three decades of steady progress with the number of people living in extreme poverty in the world, which increased for the first time in a generation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, We were successful at mitigating the impact from COVID 19 in the EU, thanks to our strong national social safetiness and the common European response to the pandemic, including notably Sure. However, as many as 670 million people, meaning 8.4% of the world population, were still living in extreme poverty globally by the end of 2022.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Improving the living and working conditions of the most vulnerable across the world remains a major global challenge. And while our circumstances are very different to other areas of the world, there is also still work to do to eradicate poverty in the EU. I just want to remember that number one priority of the Sustainable Development Goals is no poverty. And poverty in all its forms everywhere.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Unfortunately, this promise is in peril in 20 to more than. More than five people remain. Remain at risk of poverty and exclusion in the EU. 21.6%. And child poverty is actually higher than for the general population, with nearly one child in four impacted by poverty or by the risk of poverty nearly 25%. The number of homeless people is on the rise this year. The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty calls for universal access to decent work and social protection. And to emphasise that decent work must empower people, provide fair wages and safe working conditions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, These objectives echo two priorities of this Commission that President von der Leyen recalled in her State of the Union speech. Decent jobs and ensuring that no one is left behind. These are also two strands of the European Pillar of Social Rights, which has remained the common compass of the EU institutions and Member States in the employment and social policy areas throughout these challenging years.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, This is also our contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Social Pillar Action plan has turned the principles of the pillar into concrete actions, and we set ambitious targets by 2030 in the action Plan in the wake of the COVID crisis. This includes a poverty reduction target at least 50 million less people at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU, including at least 5 million children.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Concerning the various measures that we have delivered over the past few years, we mentioned those that are most relevant here. The Minimum Wage Directive important for tackling in-work poverty. The Directive on pay Transparency to set up measures for effective enforcement of the equal pay principle between women and men; the proposed Platform Work Directive addressing the issue of social protection in a world of work affected by digitalisation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, The European Child Recommendation to address Child poverty and exclusion; The European platform workers recommendation on minimum income, ensuring active inclusion or guidance on distributional impact assessments to support Member States in quantifying the effect that policies have on household incomes.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, The efforts to deploy the measures under the Social Pillar Action Plan need to be assessed against the background of the broader economic and geopolitical situation in the EU and around the world. The overall economic prospects are challenging following the impact of the COVID pandemic, the energy crisis, the inflation hikes, Russia's war in Ukraine, and most recently the attacks by Hamas on Israel, which risks leading to wider escalation in the region.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, With severe humanitarian consequences from which all parties should refrain. In general terms, the EU indicators on risk of poverty and social exclusion have remained overall stable over the past few years, which is a considerable achievement against the situations that they have described. But as I have recently stated in this hemicycle at the occasion of the debate on the increasing precariousness.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Overall statistics are good, but they do not tell the whole story. We cannot and we do not want to neglect signs of deterioration, such as increases in material and social deprivation rates and child poverty remaining higher than poverty for the general population. A rising number of families across Europe have begun to fall into food poverty and are increasingly reliant on food banks and similar services to meet basic needs.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Increasing housing costs are substantially reducing the available income for many households. At the same time, inflation hits particularly vulnerable households and lower medium income families. It is true that income support measures have mitigated the impact of high energy prices and inflation, but they were not sufficiently targeted in those in need. Poverty and in particular child poverty, remains acute in Europe, and citizens are quite rightly concerned.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, In-work poverty is also a persisting challenge in the EU, especially for people in non-standard forms of employment like self-employment or zero hour contracts. Among them many young people, many women, and many non EU citizens. To effectively tackle the root causes of poverty. We need a structural approach both in the EU and worldwide.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, We need fairness in the global economy worldwide. We need to support fair trade and uphold national, regional and global governance to improve economic and social outcomes, eradicate corruption, to ensure a fairer distribution of wealth in the EU. We must continue to pursue an integrated approach to break the intergenerational cycle of inequality and eradicate poverty. Social policies need to go hand in hand with inclusive and fairer labour markets and economic and fiscal policies.

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, We mark this International Day for the Eradication of Poverty by fully sharing its goals, our steadfast commitment to eradicating precariousness, poverty and social exclusion. We will relentlessly continue working together with the Member States, the European Parliament and all the stakeholders active on the ground to fight all forms of poverty. Thank you very much.