Eurocarers contributed to the 18th European Meeting of People Experiencing Poverty
The 18th European Meeting of People Experiencing Poverty was organised by the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) with the support of the EU Commission and the EAPN Fund, and with the participation of the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the European Union on 18-19 November.
Over a hundred people experiencing poverty from 30 European countries prepared around these topics and were in Brussels on 18-19 November to share their knowledge and experience with each other, and with EU decision-makers.
This meeting, as with all the past meetings, allowed people with direct experience of poverty to discuss their political priorities, first at the national level and then during the European meeting. The goal of the event, which took place at the beginning of a new term of the European Commission and Parliament was to shape the agenda of the new European institutions to include the common priorities of those experiencing poverty throughout Europe.
It was centered on five important discussion topics: access to housing, participation of people experiencing poverty in the lives of their communities and societies, access to adequate minimum income, access to good quality health care services, and access to decent jobs and equal employment opportunities for different categories.
Eurocarers had been invited to facilitate the discussion on access to good quality health care services, and to contribute to design recommendations to EU decisions makers. Â From the discussions, it was clear that equal access for all to quality health and long-term care services is far from being achieved.
We were fortunate to have with us Nicolas Schmit, a current member of the European Parliament and the Commissioner-designate for Employment and Social Affairs, Salia Ruuth, the State Secretary in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in Finland, and Pierfrancesco Majorino, a member of the European Parliament in the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group.
A detailed report of the event will be available in the coming weeks. See more on the 18th PEP meeting here https://www.eapn.eu/this-years-meeting/
