What changed

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

The European Parliament,

– having regard to Articles 2 and 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union,

– having regard to Articles 145 to 161 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

– having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,

– having regard to the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) and its Actionaction Plan,plan, with its 2030 targetstargets, and the EU social scoreboard,scoreboard and its headline and secondary indicators,

– having regard to the Porto Declaration of 8 May 2021, the renewed commitments at the 2023 Porto Social Forum, and the La Hulpe Declaration of 16 April 2024,

– having regard to the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in New York in September 2015,

– having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), adopted in New York on 20 November 1989,

– having regard to the Sustainable Development Report 2025, published on 24 June 2025,

– having regard to the UN CovenantConvention on Economic, Socialthe andElimination Culturalof Rights,All adoptedForms inof NewDiscrimination Yorkagainst onWomen, 16adopted Decemberin 1966,1979,

– having regard to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention), adopted on 11 May 2011,

– having regard to the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted in New York on 16 December 1966,

– having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in New York on 20 November 1989, and to the General Comments of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child,

– having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted in New York on 12 December 2006,

– having regard to the UN General Assembly resolution of 18 December 2019 on the rights of the child,

– having regard to the conventions of the International Labour Organization, including Convention No 102 on Social Security (Minimum Standards), Convention No 111 concerning discrimination in respect of employment and occupation, and Convention No 189 on decent work for domestic workers,

– having regard to the European Social Charter, adopted in Turin in 1961,

– having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted in New York on 13 December 2006,

– having regard to Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin,

– having regard to the UN Resolution of 18 December 2019 on the rights of the child,

– having regard to Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation,

– having regard to Directive (EU) 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers,carers and repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU,

– having regard to Commission Recommendation 2013/112/EU of 20 February 2013 entitled ‘Investing in children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage’,

– having regard to Directive (EU) 2022/2041 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on adequate minimum wages in the European Union,

– having regard to the Council Recommendation of 22 May 2019 on high-quality early childhood education and care systems,

– having regard to Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms,

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2023/955 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 establishing a Social Climate Fund and amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1060,

– having regard to Directive (EU) 2024/1385 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 on combating violence against women and domestic violence,

– having regard to the Commission communication of 7 March 2025 entitled ‘A Roadmap for Women’s Rights’ (COM(2025)0097),

– having regard to its resolution of 30 January 2020 on the gender pay gap,

– having regard to its resolution of 21 January 2021 on access to decent and affordable housing for all,

– having regard to its resolution of 10 February 2021 on reducing inequalities with a special focus on in-work poverty,

– having regard to its resolution of 11 March 2021 on children’s rights in view of the EU Strategy on the rights of the child,

– having regard to its resolution of 29 April 2021 on the European Child Guarantee,

– having regard to its resolution of 5 July 2022 on women’s poverty in Europe,

– having regard to its resolution of 5 October 2022 on the situation of Roma people living in settlements in the EU,

– having regard to its resolution of 15 March 2023 on adequate minimum income ensuring active inclusion,

– having regard to its resolution of 9 May 2023 on the implementation of the school scheme for fruit, vegetables, milk and dairy products under the Common Market Organisation Regulation,

– having regard to its resolution of 21 November 2023 on reducing inequalities and promoting social inclusion in times of crisis for children and their families,

– having regard to the Commissionits communicationresolution of 2421 MarchNovember 20212023 entitled ‘EU‘Children strategyfirst on– strengthening the rightsChild ofGuarantee, thetwo child’,years on from its adoption’,

– having regard to its resolution of 23 November 2023 on job creation – the just transition and impact investments,

– having regard to the Council Recommendation of 22 May 2019 on High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Systems,

– having regard to Commission Recommendation 2013/112/EU of 20 February 2013 entitled ‘Investing in children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage’,

– having regard to the Commission communication of 24 March 2021 entitled ‘EU strategy on the rights of the child’ (COM(2021)0142),

– having regard to Commission Recommendation (EU) 2024/1238 of 23 April 2024 on developing and strengthening integrated child protection systems in the best interests of the child,

– having regard to Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/1004 of 14 June 2021 establishing a European Child Guarantee,

– having regard to the Commission Communicationcommunication of 7 June 2023 on a comprehensive approach to mental health,health (COM(2023)0298),

– having regard to the Commission Communicationcommunication of 5 March 2020 entitled ‘A Union of Equality: Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025’,2020-2025’ (COM(2020)0152),

– having regard to the Commission Communicationcommunication of 718 OctoberSeptember 2020 entitled ‘A Union of Equality:equality: EU Roma strategic framework foranti-racism equality,action inclusionplan and2020-2025’ participation’,(COM(2020)0565),

– having regard to the Commission Communicationcommunication of 312 MarchNovember 20212020 entitled ‘A Union‘Union of Equality: Strategy for the Rights ofLGBTIQ PersonsEquality withStrategy Disabilities2020-2025’ 2021-2030’,(COM(2020)0698),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 7 October 2020 entitled ‘A Union of Equality: EU Roma strategic framework for equality, inclusion and participation’ (COM(2020)0620),

– having regard to the Council Recommendation of 12 March 2021 on Roma equality, inclusion and participation,

– having regard to the Commission Communication of 3 March 2021 entitled ‘Union of Equality: Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030’ (COM(2021)0101),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 27 January 2021 entitled ‘Green paper on ageing – Fostering solidarity and responsibility between generations’ (COM(2021)0050),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 9 December 2021 entitled ‘Building an economy that works for people; an action plan for the social economy’ (COM(2021)0778),

– having regard to the Council Recommendation of 8 November 2019 on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed,

– having regard to the Commission report of 28 June 2023 on access to essential services in the EU,

– having regard to the Council Recommendation of 30 January 2023 on adequate minimum income ensuring active inclusion,

– having regard to the draft opinion of the European Committee of the Regions of 17 June 2025Platform on anCombatting EUHomelessness, anti-povertylaunched strategy,in 2021,

– having regard to the Commission communications of 30 June 2021 entitled ‘A long-term Vision for the EU’s Rural Areas – Towards stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040’ (COM(2021)0345) and of 27 March 2024 entitled ‘The long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas: key achievements and ways forward’ (COM(2024)0450),

– having regard to the opinion of the European Committee of the Regions of 14 October 2025 on an EU anti-poverty strategy,

– having regard to the relevant reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights,

– having regard to the European Anti-Poverty Network (2025)(EAPN) reportposition paper entitled ‘Towards the Eradicationeradication of Poverty’,poverty – EAPN vision and recommendations for the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy’, published in 2025,

– having regard to the ATDAll Together in Dignity Fourth World reportposition (2025)papers I and II entitled ‘Paving the Way towards an EU Anti-Poverty Strategy!’,Strategy’, published in January and May 2025 respectively,

– having regard to the Social Platform reports (2025)position entitledpapers ‘EUof Anti-PovertyMarch Strategy’2025 andentitled ‘A post-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework for Social Europe’,Europe’ and of May 2025 entitled ‘EU Anti-Poverty Strategy’,

– having regard to the EurochildMake reportMothers (2022)Matter entitledposition ‘(In)visiblepaper childrenentitled –‘Mothers’ EurochildPoverty 2022in reportthe onEU’, childrenpublished in need across Europe’,2025,

– having regard to the Commission study of 15 November 2024 entitled ‘Transport poverty: definitions, indicators, determinants, and mitigation strategies’,

– having regard to the Eurochild report entitled ‘Children’s Realities in Europe: Progress & Gaps – Eurochild 2024 flagship report on children in need across Europe’, published in 2024,

– having regard to Rule 55 of its Rules of Procedure,

– having regard to the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (A10-000/2025),

✦ Replaces the single recital with 35 new recitals adding statistics on poverty, child poverty, gender, Roma, digital exclusion, housing, health, and other vulnerable groups.

A. whereas poverty constitutes a violation of human rights and the rights of peoples, and the need to eradicate poverty requires a more equitable distribution of wealth and policies that ensure the indivisible and universal nature of political, economic, social and cultural rights;

A. whereas in 2024, 93.3 million people in the EU (21.0 % of the population) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, which is only slightly lower than the 2019 level; and whereas in 2024, 21.9 % of the EU population living in family households with dependent children were at risk of poverty or social exclusion;

B. whereas severe material deprivation is defined as the lack of necessary and desirable items required to lead an adequate life; whereas, in 2024, 6.4 % of the EU population experienced severe material and social deprivation, including lack of adequate heating, overcrowded housing and inadequate nutrition; whereas children and women are disproportionately affected by this phenomenon compared to other population groups;

C. whereas in the 2021 EPSR action plan, the EU adopted the target of reducing the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million by 2030, compared to 2019 figures, including at least 5 million children; whereas even reaching this target would mean that around 78 million people in the EU, including 15 million children, would still be at risk of poverty and social exclusion by that time; whereas the Member States have committed themselves to national targets in order to achieve this headline goal and whereas the trend is pointing in the opposite direction for nearly half of the Member States;

D. whereas poverty constitutes a violation of human dignity that undermines the full realisation of human rights and reflects the unequal distribution of wealth; whereas the need to eradicate poverty requires a more equitable distribution of wealth, equal access to employment and services, and policies that ensure the indivisible and universal nature of political, economic, social and cultural rights; whereas poverty is a multifaceted phenomenon that extends beyond material deprivation and encompasses barriers to education, healthcare, social and democratic participation, and economic opportunity;

E. whereas without a change of approach to eradicating poverty at EU level, it will not be possible to reverse the trend and ensure that every individual has equal opportunities to participate in society; whereas the eradication of poverty requires a coordinated and holistic approach and integrated policies that work in concert to achieve social cohesion and prevent inequalities from worsening; whereas such a comprehensive strategy requires the involvement of Member States, local and regional authorities, social partners and civil society;

F. whereas single-parent families, particularly those headed by women, face an increased risk of poverty, of 32 % compared to just 11.2 % among two-parent families, causing family members to more frequently become trapped in a vicious circle of poverty passed down from generation to generation; whereas systemic factors such as a lack of access to services, housing instability, income insecurity and insufficient prevention and family support services undermine families’ ability to care for their children in community settings; whereas targeted preventive family support and assistance, including to victims of domestic abuse, are essential to empower and protect these families and break the cycles of poverty;

G. whereas indicators of the number of children at risk of poverty have increased from 23.6 % in 2019 to 24.2 % in 2024; whereas based on the current trajectory, the EU will fail to meet its target of reducing the number of children in poverty by at least 5 million by 2030; whereas significant disparities are observed among children of ethnic minority origin or from migrant backgrounds, children with disabilities and Roma children; whereas EU and national resources currently deployed are insufficient for addressing the challenge of child poverty in the EU;

H. whereas child poverty often stems from family poverty, and the absence of a comprehensive response means that poverty is perpetuated throughout the life cycle (in childhood, at work and in retirement); whereas in order to break intergenerational disadvantage, the focus must be on the entire family experiencing poverty – parents and children; whereas investing in children and youth, especially in early childhood education and care, including numeracy and literacy development, as well as family support, acts as a preventive measure against poverty and generates significant long-term social benefits, and should therefore not be seen only as social expenditure but as an investment in the future;

I. whereas on 14 June 2021, the Council adopted its Recommendation on a European Child Guarantee, which represents a major opportunity to reduce inequalities and promote the social inclusion of children, and demonstrates its commitment to an integrated policy aimed at breaking the vicious circle of poverty and to ensure that children in need have access to key services, for example free early childhood education and care services, free education (including school-based activities and at least one healthy meal per school day), free healthcare, healthy nutrition and adequate housing; whereas despite the fact that 5 % of European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) funding is earmarked specifically for the reduction of child poverty, the at-risk-of-poverty-or-social-exclusion (AROPE) rate among children has increased in some Member States, indicating the need for more ambitious and effective use of funding;

J. whereas access to quality early childhood education and care services is crucial for the healthy development of young children and to ensure equal educational opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, children with disabilities and those with specific educational needs, laying the foundation for breaking the cycle of poverty, promoting social inclusion and yielding high social returns in future; whereas according to the Commission, the EU needs to invest additional spending of more than EUR 11 billion per year to meet the Barcelona targets and ensure that, by 2030, at least 45 % of children below the age of three and at least 96 % of children between the age of three and the age of compulsory primary education participate in early childhood education and care;

K. whereas, in 2022, the average Programme for International Student Assessment score for the measures of basic skills (reading, mathematics and science) of 15-year-olds had decreased by 10 points compared to the last assessment in 2018; whereas underachievement is prevalent among disadvantaged learners, demonstrating a widening of educational inequalities; whereas quality education, with a particular focus on strengthening functional literacy, numeracy and digital competence as foundational skills, is an essential lever in the fight against poverty, as it can lead to better employment opportunities, improved living conditions and a positive impact on both mental and physical health; whereas investing in quality education, particularly for people from minority and vulnerable groups, is one of the most effective ways to sustainably and structurally reduce poverty;

L. whereas in the 2021 EPSR action plan, the EU adopted the target that at least 60 % of adults should participate in training every year by 2030; whereas Member States have committed themselves to national targets in order to achieve this headline goal and whereas the majority of Member States have lost ground in the pursuit of these national targets; whereas in 2022, the rate of adult participation in learning was at 39.5 %, still well below the EU target for 2030; whereas further substantial efforts are needed to ensure the provision of, and access to, quality training policies that promote lifelong learning;

M. whereas women are affected by higher levels of poverty as a result of discrimination and inequalities compared to men, such as greater difficulties in accessing employment, wage disparities, lower work intensity, shorter professional careers, disparities in the value of pensions and social benefits, difficulties in accessing specific healthcare, and unequal distribution of care and domestic tasks; whereas poverty among women, in all its diversity, must be understood as a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon that includes not only social, political and cultural aspects but also income, housing, health and access to education and social services, and cannot be eradicated by employment alone but requires a comprehensive, inclusive approach based on both prevention and alleviation of poverty; whereas in 2024, in all but two EU countries, the severe material and social deprivation rate was higher for women (6.6 %) than for men (6.2 %), while the at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate was higher for women (21.9 %) than for men (20 %) in all EU countries; whereas in the same year, 23.7 % of women and 22.7 % of men in the EU considered themselves to be poor, whereas 21.6 % of women aged 65 and over were at risk of poverty, compared to around 16.5 % of men in the same age group;

N. whereas there is a strong correlation between poverty and gender-based violence and poverty exacerbates the impact of gender-based violence, especially on marginalised women, such as LGBTIQ+ individuals; whereas women living in poverty face a higher risk of experiencing violence, including intimate partner violence and domestic violence, due to factors such as financial dependency, housing insecurity and reduced access to support services; whereas across the Member States 30.7 % of women experience physical violence or threats and/or sexual violence by any perpetrator over their lifetime; whereas poverty puts women at greater risk of trafficking and sexual exploitation;

O. whereas poverty is also both a cause and consequence of intersectional discrimination, disproportionately affecting individuals and communities, namely women, families, people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, Roma and Travellers, people experiencing homelessness, children in institutional care, LGBTQIA+ individuals, older and younger people, undocumented persons, migrants, persons with disabilities, people facing discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, people facing chronic diseases and addiction, informal carers and single parents; whereas these groups are more vulnerable to social exclusion, in addition to the intersection with other forms of human rights violation; whereas significant barriers exist in the current labour market and social protection systems for vulnerable and marginalised groups; whereas addressing poverty therefore requires policies that recognise and combat these overlapping forms of marginalisation, ensuring the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights for all people;

P. whereas in the EU in 2024, the risk of poverty or social exclusion for persons with disabilities was 61 % higher compared to people with no such limitations; whereas in the EU in 2023, approximately 20.2 % of persons aged 16 and over with a disability lived in a household at risk of poverty; whereas in the same age group, approximately 10.5 % of persons with a disability lived in a household at risk of severe material and social deprivation; whereas there is a 24 percentage point employment gap between persons with and without disabilities in the EU, and an even greater gap for women and young persons with disabilities;

Q. whereas Roma and Traveller communities continue to experience some of the highest levels of poverty and social exclusion in the EU, with up to 80 % at risk of poverty and 48 % facing severe material deprivation, and whereas Roma children are particularly vulnerable to these conditions; whereas data indicates that Roma women face greater disadvantages than both Roma men and other women in core areas of social life, such as education, employment and health;

R. whereas in 2021, 25 % of Roma reported experiencing discrimination in the preceding 12 months in everyday situations, including job seeking, in the workplace, housing, healthcare and education, as well as segregation, and socio-economic exclusion, resulting in disproportionately high levels of poverty; whereas 80 % of Roma live below their national at-risk-of-poverty threshold;

S. whereas digital exclusion persists in the EU, depriving individuals and groups of fully accessing and using information and communication technologies, thereby hindering their participation in economic, social and political life; whereas a digital gap of more than five percentage points remains between urban and rural areas across the EU; whereas the digital divide potentially exacerbates digital exclusion for those experiencing poverty and is particularly pronounced among vulnerable groups, including people with low incomes or low levels of education, older people, persons with disabilities and people living in rural or isolated areas; whereas almost half of the adult population does not have basic digital skills despite more than 90 % of jobs requiring them; whereas 5.4 % of school-aged children across Europe experience digital deprivation, with substantial disparities in access to digital resources observed between different countries; whereas in 2023, 97.7 % of all households in the EU had access to at least one fixed broadband technology, compared to only 92.2 % in rural areas; whereas in 2023, 32 % of Europeans aged 16 to 29 were found to have below-basic digital skills, with this figure rising to 43 % among those with low educational attainment, highlighting a significant digital skills gap within youth demographics;

T. whereas access to fast and reliable internet is essential for participation in a knowledge-driven and informed society, as well as for access to employment, education, public services and healthcare; whereas the digitalisation of public services offers significant opportunities, but it requires targeted efforts to ensure the inclusion of vulnerable groups;

U. whereas a person’s employment situation has a strong impact on their risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU; whereas, in 2024, 8.2 % of all people in employment in the EU experienced in-work poverty as a result of low wages, job insecurity and precarious working conditions; whereas analysis of 2022 data reveals that part-time workers faced disproportionately higher levels of in-work poverty (13.5 %) compared to full-time workers (7.1 %); whereas in-work poverty remains a structural challenge that places significant social and economic pressure on affected households and poses barriers to social inclusion and economic stability; whereas addressing in-work poverty is essential for promoting fair employment, reducing inequalities and ensuring sustainable and inclusive economic development across the EU; whereas collective bargaining, trade unions and social dialogue play a key role in improving working and employment conditions and, consequently, enhancing living conditions;

V. whereas the 2024 EU Pension Adequacy Report highlights that in 2022, approximately 18.5 million individuals aged 65 and above in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion; whereas at-risk-of-poverty rates in this age group in 2022 were 14.2 % for men and 19.8 % for women; whereas the at-risk-of-poverty rate among those aged 65 and over has steadily increased due to both rising poverty rates and an ageing population;

W. whereas high-quality and affordable public services are essential for achieving high levels of social protection, social cohesion and social inclusion; whereas the delivery of high-quality public services is challenged by a number of issues, including problems related to service continuity, increased demand and insufficient resources, in part exacerbated by an ageing population; whereas everyone in the EU has the right to access essential services of a high quality accompanied by support measures for those in need; whereas people at risk of poverty or social exclusion face structural barriers in this regard, lack of infrastructure, skills or monetary resources, in particular Roma and homeless people;

X. whereas access to water is an essential need and a fundamental human right; whereas approximately 9.8 million people in the EU lack safely managed drinking water services; whereas a further 9.4 million rely on basic water services off-premises, and around 450 000 individuals have no access to even basic drinking water services; whereas the lack of access to drinking water and water infrastructure disproportionately affects marginalised groups;

Y. whereas an estimated 1 286 691 people in Europe experienced homelessness on any given night in 2024; whereas Roma people and other marginalised groups are disproportionately affected by forced evictions from municipal accommodation, including Roma who are regular rent payers; whereas in many cases, authorities fail to provide alternative housing or adequate compensation for expropriation;

Z. whereas there are still at least 1.4 million people residing in institutions in the EU, although this figure could be underestimated due to a lack of data availability, consistency and coverage; whereas poverty remains one of the contributing factors to family separation in the EU; whereas the placement of children in institutions has serious consequences for children and families by perpetuating stigma and social isolation and feeding an intergenerational cycle of disadvantage; whereas residents of institutions can often feel isolated from the broader community and, while they would like to have better control over their lives, do not have sufficient control over their lives and the decisions that affect them; whereas despite the fact that the EU has long been committed to the process of deinstitutionalisation, efforts are still needed at both EU and national level to enable vulnerable groups to live in a family or community environment;

AA. whereas people living in poverty are disproportionately affected by limited access to healthy food and quality healthcare; whereas poverty is consequently associated with an increased risk of physical and mental health problems; whereas the link between poverty and health is significantly influenced by barriers to healthcare, such as access to primary care, and reduced hospital admissions; whereas poverty, social isolation and chronic stress are closely linked, undermining mental well-being and increasing the risk of addiction and experiencing higher mortality rates, and increasing the risk of premature death; whereas poverty and addiction are mutually reinforcing, creating a vicious circle that exacerbates social exclusion; whereas eradicating poverty in turn requires a health-led, evidence-based approach to addiction that prioritises prevention and recovery;

AB. whereas families face multiple and interrelated challenges that no single service or organisation can resolve on its own; whereas continuity of services as well as proper coordination between services are essential to prepare for and facilitate the transitions that children will face; whereas families at risk may have limited access to mental health services due to financial barriers, stigma or lack of availability; whereas discrimination has a direct link to poverty, as discriminatory experiences prevent people experiencing poverty from realising an adequate standard of living;

AC. whereas social security systems must be strengthened to adapt to demographic challenges, new forms of work and the green and digital transitions; whereas the effectiveness of social protection in reducing poverty declined in the 2021-2024 period from 37.1 % to 34.4 %; whereas significant barriers exist in the current labour market and social protection systems for vulnerable and marginalised groups;

AD. whereas minimum income schemes remain an important tool for securing income and reducing inequality and poverty across the EU; whereas these minimum income schemes vary considerably between Member States in terms of the adequacy and coverage of benefits and their link to labour market activation measures; whereas minimum income levels are well below national poverty thresholds in most Member States; whereas the non-take-up rate for minimum income schemes is estimated at between 30 % and 50 % of the eligible population, which undermines the objectives of this support instrument;

AE. whereas it is necessary to ensure participation of people with lived experience of poverty in designing and evaluating policies that affect them, with a view to increasing the democratic participation, empowerment and social emancipation of people living in poverty, as well as obtaining more effective and equitable results from those policies;

AF. whereas the outermost regions’ (ORs) remoteness, insularity, small size, difficult topography and climate, and economic dependence on specific industries and products severely restrain their development; whereas inequalities are one of the greatest social challenges facing the ORs and whereas they are disproportionately affected by high levels of poverty and unemployment, high school dropout rates and high rates of people not in education, employment or training; whereas gross domestic product in the ORs is significantly below EU and Member State averages (60 % of the average across the EU-27);

AG. whereas the factors contributing to the cycle of poverty in rural areas are specific and the challenges of vulnerable people living in rural areas differ from those of vulnerable people living in urban areas; whereas a lack of employment opportunities, public services (including education and public transport) and digital connectivity, high energy and transport prices and demographic developments such as depopulation contribute to an increase in poverty in rural areas; whereas women living in rural areas are particularly vulnerable to poverty due to limited access to employment, services and social support; whereas the EU anti-poverty strategy must take these territorial specificities into account and ensure tailored policy responses and funding mechanisms that effectively promote social inclusion and territorial cohesion;

AH. whereas there should be multilevel coordination and integration regarding instruments linked to the anti-poverty strategy; whereas a robust governance mechanism for monitoring the objectives of the strategy is essential; whereas the strategy will only deliver results if it is accompanied by adequate financial resources and if its objectives are supported by the various relevant EU sectoral funds; whereas the provisions on poverty and social inclusion in the current multiannual financial framework (MFF) should be renewed, adequately funded and ring-fenced in the upcoming MFF;

AI. whereas transparent and in-depth data collection and reporting mechanisms at EU and Member State level are necessary to monitor progress in relation to the EPSR headline targets for 2030, including the objective of reducing the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million compared to 2019 figures;

A strategy aimed at eradicating poverty

✦ Replaces the 23-paragraph resolution with 71 paragraphs, adding calls on gender-based violence, minimum income directive, housing, child poverty, digital inclusion, and governance.

1. Calls on the European Commission to present an Anti-Poverty Strategy (‘the Strategy’) that includes the following general objectives and guidelines:

1. Is concerned that, in 2024, 93.3 million people in the EU were still at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including 20 million children, equating to one in four children in the EU, and that 27 million people in the EU were affected by severe material and social deprivation;

a) Recognition of poverty as a violation of human rights and the rights of peoples;

2. Highlights that poverty is a complex phenomenon affecting all areas of life, rooted in systemic and structural injustice, and intersecting with historical inequalities based on gender and gender expression, race and ethnicity, religion, migration status, age, sexual orientation and disability;

b) Setting of the goal of urgently eradicating poverty by 2035 at the latest;

3. Stresses that the most sustainable anti-poverty policy is one that prevents poverty from arising in the first place; calls for a comprehensive approach to prevention that tackles the root causes and the multidimensional aspects of poverty and social exclusion, as well as the points at which they intersect, with regard to access to quality jobs, social protection and minimum income, public services, education, early childhood intervention, healthcare, food, housing, energy and taxation; emphasises that combating poverty can only be achieved by promoting policies that ensure the indivisibility and universality of political, economic, social and cultural rights;

c) Proper coordination between the EU and Member States, as well as with regions, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, to achieve this goal;

4. Recalls that poverty disproportionally affects marginalised and vulnerable groups of society, such as women, families, people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, Roma and Travellers, people experiencing homelessness, children in institutional care, LGBTQIA+ individuals, older and younger people, undocumented persons, migrants, persons with disabilities, people facing discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, people facing chronic diseases and addiction, informal carers and single parents; emphasises the need for targeted measures to address this, paying particular attention to those most vulnerable to extreme poverty;

d) A comprehensive and integrated approach to anti-poverty policies and measures and the goal of eradicating poverty as a cross-cutting criterion in sectoral policies;

5. Recalls that the EU has committed, under the EPSR action plan, to reduce the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million by 2030, including at least 5 million children; stresses that without a paradigm shift in the approach to combating poverty, and without adequate funding, the EU and its Member States will not achieve these poverty reduction objectives;

e) Participation by people living in poverty in defining, implementing and evaluating policies that affect them, in an appropriate, effective and transparent manner;

6. Calls on the Commission to present a comprehensive, ambitious and adequately funded anti-poverty strategy that includes the following general objectives and guidelines:

A more equitable distribution of wealth

a) recognition of poverty as a violation of human dignity undermining the full realisation of human rights and as a basis for the promotion of a rights-based approach in line with international legal frameworks, particularly Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

2. Calls on the Commission and Member States to implement the goal of full employment as a guideline for economic and social policies;

b) the setting of the goal of urgently eradicating poverty by 2035 at the latest, building on the standards of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the EPSR, while also developing interim progress indicators, clear milestones and a monitoring framework enabling adequate coordination of policies and funding needs;

3. Calls on the Commission and Member States to promote policies to protect and promote labour rights and improve the quality of employment, including stable employment relationships, fair wages, decent and safe working conditions and access to social protection;

c) proper coordination between the Commission and the Member States, and where applicable with regional authorities, respecting the principle of subsidiarity, to achieve this goal;

4. Recommends that the Commission and Member States consider creating an instrument to combat poverty through the universal realisation of the right to work and the goal of full employment, aimed primarily at combating unemployment and underemployment;

d) a comprehensive, people-centred and integrated life-cycle approach to long-term anti-poverty policies, combining universal and targeted measures starting in childhood and throughout all stages of life, with the goal of eradicating poverty and promoting social inclusion as a cross-cutting criterion in sectoral policies;

5. Urges the Commission to present an initiative on adequate minimum income to ensure active social inclusion and participation in employment and contribute to eradicating poverty, while respecting the competences of Member States, the national specificities of social protection systems and the principle of subsidiarity;

e) participation by people with lived experience of poverty in defining, implementing and evaluating policies that affect them, in an inclusive, effective and transparent manner that goes hand in hand with a methodology and capacity building;

Ensuring the indivisible and universal nature of political, economic, social and cultural rights

f) a fundamental and horizontal principle of non-discrimination throughout the anti-poverty strategy to tackle structural inequalities and societal stigmas rooted in discrimination that exacerbate poverty and social exclusion;

6. Urges the Commission and Member States to combat poverty by promoting policies that ensure the indivisibility and universality of political, economic, social and cultural rights;

g) the allocation of adequate and sustained budgetary resources for anti-poverty measures through the MFF and national budgetary mechanisms to support the full implementation of the anti-poverty strategy and ensure its long-term impact;

7. Calls on the Commission and Member States to significantly increase public investment in policies that guarantee universal, free and high-quality public services, considering their contribution to breaking the cycles of poverty, particularly in areas such as education, healthcare, social protection, and universal access to decent housing, water and sanitation, energy, transport, and cultural and leisure activities;

7. Calls on the Commission to acknowledge the structural links between poverty and gender-based violence and to address gender-based violence as a key strategy for eradicating poverty, in particular poverty among women and children, recognising that eliminating all types of violence is essential for women’s ability to participate fully in their communities and the economy, to access education, employment and social services, and thereby achieve financial independence; urges the Commission and the Member States to boost public investment in policies that address gender-based violence; welcomes the EU’s ratification of the Istanbul Convention and urges Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia to complete their ratification processes without further delay; calls on the Commission to ensure the effective implementation of the Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence, guaranteeing that women experiencing poverty and other types of violence have adequate and unconditional access to shelters, survivor support services, legal aid and social welfare, regardless of their residence or migration status;

8. Calls on the Commission to support Member States in promoting a housing policy that ensures universal access to this right and includes specific consideration of the situation of homeless people; calls on the Commission to develop a plan to meet the housing needs of all citizens in EU countries – including the creation of additional and specific EU funding for the expansion and refurbishment of public housing stock;

Fair working conditions and a more equitable distribution of income and wealth

9. Calls on the Commission and Member States to adopt effective measures aimed at implementing the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’, combating inequalities and discrimination in the workplace, particularly those affecting women;

8. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to implement the goal of full and decent employment, as well as adequate social protection, services for all and a fair distribution of income and wealth as a guideline for economic and social policies; calls on the Commission and the Member States, in this context, to strengthen their active labour market policies, in particular for those furthest from employment; emphasises that effective active labour market policies should go beyond access to employment and also include enabling services for people to remain in employment;

10. Calls on Member States to develop policies to strengthen maternity, paternity and parental rights, promoting work-life balance, facilitating women’s return to work after pregnancy and maternity leave, and ensuring adequate conditions for breastfeeding in the workplace;

9. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote policies to protect and promote labour rights, quality jobs, stable employment relationships and protection against unjustified dismissal, fair wages, including equal pay for equal work and equal pay between women and men, lifelong learning, upskilling and reskilling, health and safety in the workplace, non-discrimination and access to adequate social protection; welcomes, in this regard, the announcement of a Quality Jobs Roadmap to ensure a just transition for all workers and self-employed people, notably by increasing collective bargaining coverage; stresses that this roadmap represents an opportunity to establish an individual right to training and lifelong learning; stresses the persistence of in-work poverty for one in twelve workers across the EU; insists, in this context, that there should be no in-work poverty in the EU, and urges the Commission and the Member States to seriously tackle this problem, by addressing structural barriers beyond job quality, including access to and support for childcare services, improving the recognition of qualifications, and addressing the lack of tailored career guidance and training support; stresses that the transposition of Directive (EU) 2022/2041 on adequate minimum wages will be key for preventing and fighting poverty risks among workers, while reinforcing incentives to work;

11. Urges Member States to ensure universal access to affordable, high-quality public maternal, neonatal and paediatric healthcare;

10. Stresses the need to strengthen democratic participation at work as a tool to combat in-work poverty, through the right to organise and to collective action and enhanced collective bargaining, through trade union rights, namely the freedom to establish and join trade unions, by improving work-life balance and providing fair working conditions, including working time, and by adapting working conditions to human needs;

12. Calls on Member States to strengthen public, universal and solidarity-based social security systems in order to ensure full and effective social protection for workers and pensioners and to prevent poverty;

11. Emphasises the need to strengthen public employment services, training pathways and job-search support systems for people experiencing poverty and for vulnerable groups, particularly long-term unemployed and low-skilled individuals; stresses the importance of individualised guidance, recognition of informal skills and linking training to quality job opportunities; calls on the Member States to ensure the development and expansion of national frameworks for the validation of non-formal and informal learning, enabling the recognition of practical experience in sectors such as construction, agriculture, healthcare and social care, hospitality, manufacturing, artisanal, logistics, and information and communications technology, building on the Council Recommendation of 20 December 2012 on the validation of non-formal and informal learning;

13. Calls on the Commission and Member States to consider the so-called hidden phenomena of poverty, to combat the stigmatisation of people living in poverty and the non-take-up of available social benefits, and to take into account the fact that elderly people, people with disabilities, single-parent families, ethnic minorities and migrants are groups that are more vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion;

12. Stresses the importance of supporting women’s entrepreneurship and self-employment opportunities, particularly in rural, island and other geographically remote areas, as a means of achieving better economic inclusion and gender equality and combating poverty, creating local employment and fostering inclusive economic development; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure targeted support for women entrepreneurs through improved access to funding, business training, digital tools and markets; calls on the Commission to develop policies that facilitate women’s access to quality jobs and entrepreneurial paths, through incentives for companies to hire and promote women, particularly single mothers, and to provide flexible working arrangements;

14. Recommends that Member States increase support for families and people in vulnerable situations through mental health and psychosocial support services;

13. Highlights that segregation in access to mainstream education for children with disabilities results in social exclusion, and remains a challenge across the EU; calls for the anti-poverty strategy to ensure accessibility of education for children with disabilities, both in terms of physical infrastructure and educational resources, in order to guarantee equal opportunities for all pupils; stresses the potential of affordable assistive technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance inclusive teaching for pupils with disabilities, offering personalised support, adaptive tools and better communication; encourages Member States to invest in these technologies and ensure teachers are trained to integrate them effectively; further calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure robust safeguards against the misdiagnosis of intellectual disabilities or special education needs among Roma children, which results in educational segregation; stresses the importance of non-discriminatory assessment practices, as well as inclusive education policies that uphold the rights and dignity of all children;

Combating poverty by increasing democratic political participation

14. Recommends that the Commission and the Member States take into account the approach of the 2023 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights to combat poverty through effective access to work and the goal of full employment and quality jobs, namely by creating or strengthening specific instruments aimed primarily at combating unemployment and underemployment, providing personalised support and increasing the employability of people furthest from the labour market, particularly those from disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, such as Roma people and persons with disabilities; considers that these instruments should take into account the role of both the private and public sectors and the social responsibilities of the Member States;

15. Calls on the Commission and Member States to ensure adequate, effective and transparent mechanisms for political participation by people experiencing poverty in the decision-making, implementation and evaluation of policies affecting them at all levels of decision-making;

15. Considers that the social economy is an essential component of the EU’s social market economy and a driver for the implementation of the EPSR and its targets, often providing employment to vulnerable and excluded groups; calls for the anti-poverty strategy to strengthen the social economy in line with the EU’s social economy action plan and the Liège roadmap for social economy in the European Union; reiterates its call for the Commission to explore innovative funding mechanisms, such as social impact bonds, to finance projects to support the development of the social economy in the EU;

16. Recommends that an annual conference be held to assess the implementation of the Strategy, with a broad and diverse composition, including people living in poverty;

16. Expresses concern that, as highlighted in the 2025 Joint Employment Report, no Member State has yet established an adequate minimum income scheme reaching at least the national at-risk-of-poverty threshold; urges the Commission to present an EU directive on adequate minimum income and active social inclusion, while respecting the competences of the Member States, the national specificities of social protection systems and the principle of subsidiarity; stresses that such a proposal would contribute to the eradication of poverty and to fostering the integration of people absent from the labour market by setting common standards on adequacy, accessibility and coverage of minimum income schemes; calls on the Member States to ensure that minimum income schemes and other social schemes are adjusted to preserve their adequacy and accessibility, so as to protect vulnerable households;

17. Considers that the Commission should strengthen the resources allocated to supporting the various social organisations involved in combating and preventing poverty;

17. Calls on the Member States to develop fair taxation policies; underlines that the fight against poverty has implications going beyond employment and social policies; highlights that effective social transfers, including child benefits, minimum income schemes, pensions, and energy and housing subsidies, are a powerful instrument for reducing poverty and social exclusion and promoting social cohesion; calls on the Member States to strengthen and adequately fund such redistributive mechanisms;

Proper institutional coordination and adequate budgetary resources

18. Calls on the Commission and the Member States, in the light of the cost-of-living crisis, to ensure access to affordable essential goods and services such as food, energy, water, housing, transport and communications;

18. Considers that the success of the Strategy will also depend on proper coordination among the various levels of decision-making and intervention;

Access to quality public services, social protection and support measures

19. Urges the Commission and the Member States to combat poverty by promoting public policies that ensure the indivisibility and universality of political, economic, social and cultural rights; insists on the importance of a multidisciplinary approach and on combating poverty and social exclusion, in particular by promoting access to housing, public spaces and services, healthcare, well-being and quality of life; calls on the Member States to develop methodologies for assessing structural or systemic barriers to breaking out of poverty and social exclusion and to participating fully in society, whether these barriers are found in their legal systems, public policies or their implementation at territorial level;

20. Calls for the inclusion of qualitative indicators in the EU anti-poverty strategy to better reflect multidimensional aspects of poverty;

21. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to significantly increase public investment in policies that guarantee social rights, by providing universal access to high-quality public services, and goods and services of general economic and social interest such as decent housing, food, water, sanitation, energy, transport, communications, and cultural and leisure activities; stresses that access to healthy and affordable nutrition is an essential need, particularly for individuals and families experiencing extreme poverty, children, elderly people living alone and marginalised communities; underlines the contribution of such investment to breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty and enabling social and employment inclusion, particularly in areas such as education, including early childhood education and care, healthcare, including mental healthcare, and social protection;

22. Calls on the Commission to support the Member States in promoting a housing policy that ensures universal access to decent and affordable housing, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, namely Article 25 thereof, and includes specific action to address homelessness; calls on the Commission to ensure that the European affordable housing plan meets the housing needs of all EU countries, while respecting the principle of subsidiarity, with a particular focus on people experiencing poverty, vulnerable children, young people and marginalised communities; underlines the essential role of affordable and accessible housing in supporting deinstitutionalisation and preventing institutionalisation due to poverty, inadequate housing or lack of support; calls for this plan to dedicate robust EU funding to the expansion and renovation of public and social housing stock; calls for the revision of State aid rules to allow greater investment by the Member States in public and social housing, measures to support social and cooperative housing schemes of the not-for-profit sector and the social economy, and measures to protect tenants, ensuring housing stability, preventing no-fault evictions and to combat speculative practices;

23. Urges the Commission to support the Member States, while respecting the principle of subsidiarity, in implementing and extending programmes and measures, such as Housing First, to address and prevent homelessness, with special attention given to child homelessness, recognising homelessness as one of the most severe and visible forms of poverty and social exclusion; urges the Commission to put forward a robust action plan, with specific targets, with a view to ending homelessness across the EU by 2030, which must include specific measures to prevent homelessness in general, child and family homelessness, homelessness due to job losses and insecure employment conditions in particular, and to tackle female homelessness – often caused by family and domestic violence – as well as measures to improve the accessibility of housing for persons with disabilities and older people;

24. Calls on the Member States to establish and support centres dedicated to homeless individuals, offering basic and specialised medical care tailored to the needs of homeless persons, including physical and mental health services, complemented by educational programmes aimed at preventing drug abuse, including counselling, and skills development initiatives to support reintegration into society; calls on the Commission to provide guidance and facilitate the exchange of best practice among the Member States to ensure the effective and humane operation of these centres;

25. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to adopt effective measures and policies aimed at implementing the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’, combating inequalities and discrimination in the workplace, particularly those based on gender, racial or ethnic origin, disability, age, socio-economic background, sexual orientation, gender identity or migration status; stresses the importance of a swift implementation of Directive (EU) 2023/970 on equal pay for equal work, and of information campaigns and training on conscious and unconscious biases, in order to prevent such inequalities and discrimination;

26. Calls for new, accelerated efforts to close the gender employment gap and the gender pension gap, and to increase investment in public services and social infrastructure; urges the Commission to encourage the Member States to develop targeted actions to ensure adequate pension levels;

27. Calls on the Member States to develop policies to strengthen maternity, paternity and parental and other carers’ rights, promoting work-life balance, including flexible working-time arrangements, facilitating women’s access to guaranteed income during maternity leave, and supporting women’s reintegration into work after pregnancy and maternity leave, and ensuring adequate conditions for breastfeeding in the workplace; encourages the Member States to introduce and promote accessible and adequately compensated paternity leave policies, enabling fathers to establish strong bonds with their children, equally share caregiving responsibilities, and take necessary time off to support early childhood development and family well-being;

28. Highlights the disproportionate impact of unpaid care work on women and on their economic security; calls on the Member States to reinforce their public national and regional care systems to ensure that all individuals, both older and younger, regardless of their background, have access to professional care services that guarantee good working conditions for care professionals; highlights that home care services are essential to providing quality, person-centred care for people in need, including older people, as well as high-quality childcare; encourages the Member States to explore the possibility of adopting practices and measures that provide support to informal carers, particularly those caring for individuals from low-income households, who, following professional assessment, are deemed unable to live independently, as a means of supporting dignified, community-based care;

29. Calls on the Members States to develop policies and access to returnship support for workers, especially women who have been out of the workforce for a number of years due to family responsibilities;

30. Urges the Member States to ensure universal access to affordable, high-quality public healthcare for all, including prenatal, maternal, neonatal and paediatric healthcare – including primary prevention, vaccination programmes and primary care – access to diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation, and access to a diverse range of medical and therapeutic specialist treatments, guaranteeing all women the right to sexual and reproductive healthcare, in addition to targeted measures to ensure early identification and intervention for those at risk of health and developmental issues, and also to improve targeted early childhood intervention services aimed at promoting the development, well-being and social inclusion of children;

31. Notes that a lack of adequate access to menstrual hygiene products and facilities affects an estimated 10 % of the menstruating population, and disproportionately affects marginalised and vulnerable groups, limiting participation in social, educational and professional life; calls on the Commission and the Member States to propose comprehensive measures to tackle this, ensuring free or affordable access to menstrual products, including through adequate facilities in the workplace and in schools;

32. Calls on the Member States to strengthen public, universal and solidarity-based social security systems in order to ensure full and effective social protection for all, including workers, the self-employed and pensioners, and to prevent and address the root causes of poverty and in-work poverty, in line with the 2019 Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed; insists on the importance of addressing the challenges faced by people in precarious or non-standard employment, particularly young people facing age discrimination and lacking sufficient contribution records to access social security benefits, and including artists and workers in the cultural and creative sectors; calls on the Member States to address poverty among the elderly through specific measures, with particular attention to women, who are disproportionately affected; calls on the Member States to adequately take into account, in their pension schemes, periods of absence from work due to parental leave;

33. Stresses that the informal economy should be addressed in the anti-poverty strategy, given that it remains widespread throughout the EU, resulting in jobs without access to rights, adequate pay, social protection, or health and safety standards at work; encourages the Member States to create inclusion pathways between the informal and formal economies, for example by introducing simplified registration procedures for seasonal, manual and domestic workers;

34. Calls on the Member States to address youth poverty and socio-economic inequality, recognising that young people are disproportionately affected by unemployment, precarious employment, housing exclusion and social vulnerability; stresses that young people are overrepresented in sectors characterised by part-time, seasonal, precarious and undeclared work, and that rates of young people not in education, employment or training remain persistently high in several Member States and more than twice as high as the overall EU unemployment rate; highlights the need to strengthen the Youth Guarantee as a key instrument for promoting the inclusion of young people in the labour market, as well as the need to use the strategy to develop more synergies between this instrument and the European Child Guarantee, and to strengthen both instruments by adopting targeted measures, advancing affordable housing solutions for young people within the upcoming affordable housing plan, and enhancing tailored mental health support and social inclusion services specifically designed for young people; calls for strengthened support for young people transitioning out of alternative care, to ensure a stable and dignified path into adulthood, namely by providing enhanced access to training and employment opportunities, or support with university or vocational education and training, in order to reduce the risk of poverty, social exclusion and homelessness during this critical period;

35. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to consider the hidden phenomena of poverty, to combat the stigmatisation of people living in poverty, and the non-take-up of available social benefits;

36. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to revise relevant legislation in order to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on socio-economic status, recognising its intersection with other forms of discrimination; underlines that a clear legal basis is necessary to ensure enforceable rights and protection for people experiencing poverty and social exclusion; further calls on the Council to adopt its position on the horizontal anti-discrimination directive in order to launch interinstitutional negotiations;

37. Calls on the Member States to review policies and measures that penalise people experiencing extreme poverty, and the sanctions against those providing support; emphasises that such measures often undermine dignity, worsen exclusion and are counterproductive to long-term social inclusion objectives;

38. Urges the Member States to explore and implement proactive mechanisms to ensure that all individuals eligible for social benefits, especially those in groups targeted for social assistance, are informed effectively of and granted access to them, thereby reducing non-take-up, including by reducing the administrative burden of benefit claims, ensuring more transparency, and ensuring that staff are trained to reach out to and assist people experiencing poverty, in order to build trust in the relevant institutions;

39. Regrets that the target of the EU Roma Strategic Framework 2021-2030 on reducing the poverty gap between Roma communities and the general population by at least half is still far from being reached; highlights that the EU anti-poverty strategy should share the common goal of promoting fundamental rights, reducing inequality and addressing structural discrimination with the EU Roma Strategic Framework and the European Child Guarantee; underlines the importance of ensuring that these initiatives are implemented in synergy, particularly in tackling child poverty and breaking the cycle of intergenerational disadvantage among Roma families and traveller communities;

40. Stresses the growing digital divide, which can deepen poverty by limiting access to information, and the need for measures to address the digital exclusion of low-income and marginalised groups, including older people; calls, in this regard, on the Commission and the Member States to foster the digital inclusion of vulnerable groups through measures and support programmes ensuring their access to digital technologies, infrastructure and connectivity, as well as training on basic digital skills; recommends the inclusion of clear indicators to monitor digital inclusion, especially among children, while continuing to safeguard their online activity and that of teenagers;

41. Considers that the target of the full digitalisation of key public services set out in the EU’s Digital Decade policy programme can accentuate inequalities, particularly between urban and rural areas, age groups and socio-economic groups, by moving away from individualised support; stresses, in this regard, the need to strike a balance between the process of digitalisation of public services and administration, and the needs of vulnerable groups; calls on the Commission and the Member States to address this issue in the context of the anti-poverty strategy and national action plans, ensuring the necessary resources, in-person support and proper training for staff in key public administration services, to ensure equal access to public services and prevent the widening of the digital divide;

42. Recalls that the increasing use of algorithms and AI systems in essential public services can pose significant risks of reinforcing existing forms of discrimination, particularly against people experiencing poverty; urges the Commission, in this regard, to promote AI systems that are ethical by design and to ensure the horizontal principle of non-discrimination in all EU regulations relating to AI;

43. Stresses the fact that poverty and mental health are closely intertwined and that each can negatively affect the other; recommends that the Member States strengthen support for people, including families and children in vulnerable situations, through mental health and psychosocial support services, and ensure the deployment of sufficient resources and adequately trained professionals to provide these services effectively;

44. Stresses the importance of ensuring the right for everyone to access, create and participate in culture, and of eliminating economic, social and territorial discrimination in access to culture;

45. Highlights that people at risk of poverty and social exclusion are disproportionately impacted by climate change; reiterates that the green and digital transitions must be socially fair and inclusive; calls for the EU anti-poverty strategy to incorporate adequate and targeted measures that reinforce and complement efforts towards a just transition, ensuring a comprehensive approach to tackling social and economic inequalities; urges the Commission to commit sufficient funding in the 2028-2034 MFF for investments in supporting people during these transitions, with particular attention to low-income households;

46. Stresses that people living in rural areas, remote communities and areas with a low density of public services are more vulnerable to falling into poverty and experiencing social exclusion due to a lack of employment opportunities, public services (including education and public transport), digital connectivity, and high energy and transport prices; calls for the specific needs of people living in these areas to be considered in the anti-poverty strategy;

A strategy with child poverty at its core

47. Deplores the fact that the number of children at risk of poverty and social exclusion has increased; calls on the Commission to ensure that the anti-poverty strategy actively combats child poverty through a life-cycle approach, considering that the first years of children’s lives are crucial to their physical, mental, cognitive, social and emotional development, and to their lifelong fulfilment, in order to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty;

48. Calls on the Commission to support the Member States in strengthening and fully implementing the European Child Guarantee without delay, to ensure access to effective and free healthcare, education, early childhood education and care, effective access to adequate and decent housing, and healthy nutrition for all children in need; underlines, in this context, the importance of effective and universal access to affordable school meals; highlights the central role of the European Child Guarantee in fighting child poverty and social exclusion, and recommends proper coordination and connection between this instrument and the anti-poverty strategy; stresses the importance of its full and timely implementation by the Member States; calls on the Commission and Member States to make available, and make full use of, all resources, including the ESF+ and the Recovery and Resilience Facility, to effectively implement the European Child Guarantee, while also ensuring increased funds to foster educational inclusion;

49. Underlines the importance of after-school care and combating early school-leaving; considers that the anti-poverty strategy is an opportunity to promote the improvement in the quality of early childhood education and care services through adequate financial and human resources, training for staff, improved early warning systems, and measures for the evaluation and continuous improvement of pedagogical quality, such as literacy and numeracy, in order to ensure the overall development of children; stresses the importance of closing persistent gaps in functional literacy and numeracy, through targeted interventions in formal and informal education settings, to reduce significant barriers to overcoming poverty;

50. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the European Child Guarantee has a dedicated budget of at least EUR 20 billion in the 2028-2034 MFF, implemented through the ESF+, in order to respond to the growing challenges of child poverty and social exclusion, and for the Member States to allocate at least 5 % of ESF+ funds to specific projects and structural investments combating child poverty, with at least 10 % earmarked for the Member States with child poverty and social exclusion levels exceeding the EU average; emphasises that this investment in the next generation, in addition to ensuring the well-being of children, is a sound investment that would prevent future societal costs; stresses that the use of these funds should be transparent and require the involvement of social organisations in their planning, implementation and evaluation;

51. Reiterates its call on the Commission to carefully monitor the implementation of the European Child Guarantee in all of the Member States, as part of the European Semester and country-specific recommendations; considers that the country-specific recommendations should reflect Member States’ budgetary compliance with the minimum requirement of allocation for tackling child poverty set out in the ESF+ Regulation;

52. Urges the Member States to ensure the provision of quality childcare accessible to all, with the aim of supporting early childhood education and care as crucial drivers in breaking the cycle of poverty and increasing parents’ participation in the labour market, recognising that caregiving responsibilities disproportionately fall on women;

53. Calls on the Member States to ensure a child-focused orientation in their social protection systems and to strengthen them by providing specific benefits for children in need, to support their development and well-being, such as child allowances, school meals and cost-reduction programmes for cultural, sport, leisure and extracurricular activities;

54. Stresses that children affected by poverty and social exclusion face difficulties in various areas of their development; emphasises, in this regard, the importance of a multisectoral approach, in which all relevant stakeholders work in partnership to develop an integrated strategy to identify difficulties and combat inequalities in childhood, providing child protection and family support services; highlights that some children and their families affected by poverty may need specific support, e.g. from speech therapists, ophthalmologists, psychologists, occupational therapists and nutritionists; calls for the anti-poverty strategy to actively promote partnerships between educational, healthcare and social services in order to facilitate access to care and the transfer of information between services, with a view to improving integrated support and coordination mechanisms for children in need;

55. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure every child’s right to family life, meaning that poverty, precarious housing situations or lack of access to adequate public services are never used as the sole grounds for placing children in institutional care; recommends that the Member States develop national prevention strategies and proactive social policies to prevent the separation of children from their family environment; calls on the Member States to ensure that recourse to institutionalising children and young people is treated as a last resort, and to invest in safe foster care systems for children and young people to ease the transition from institutional care to family and community-based care; recommends that the Member States design and implement monitoring mechanisms to identify poverty-related family separation;

56. Condemns all forms of violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect with regard to children; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure investments in child protection systems, including tackling violence against and among children, e.g. cyber violence and bullying, especially when based on socio-economic grounds and affecting vulnerable children, in order to encourage the exchange of best practice in this area with a view to eradicating violence and harassment;

Combating poverty by increasing democratic participation

57. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure adequate, effective and transparent mechanisms to facilitate the meaningful and continuous participation of people with lived experience of poverty in all stages of policymaking, including the design, implementation and evaluation of policies affecting people living in poverty, to go hand in hand with a methodology and capacity building that would enable such participation, resulting in co-creation and not merely consultation, in line with the principle ‘nothing about us without us’;

58. Recommends that an annual conference be held to assess the implementation of the anti-poverty strategy, with a broad and diverse composition, including people with lived experience of poverty, particularly women; highlights that the conference should contribute to the EU’s formal monitoring of the anti-poverty strategy by providing space for reviewing progress against clear benchmarks and indicators; calls, in this regard, for the direct participation of people with lived experience of poverty to be actively supported and recognised as essential to evaluating the anti-poverty strategy’s actual impact;

59. Recognises the importance of the various social organisations, including not-for-profits, involved in combating and preventing poverty, and the role that these organisations play in the fight against poverty, and underlines the need to meaningfully involve them and to strengthen the resources allocated to support their work;

Proper institutional coordination, governance

60. Underlines that the success of the anti-poverty strategy will also depend on an intersectional approach and adequate funding, as well as proper horizontal and multi-level coordination between all levels of governance and decision-making involved in its delivery; reiterates the necessity of comprehensively integrating the anti-poverty strategy into all relevant policies, to ensure consistency, impact and long-term sustainability;

61. Considers that the scope of responsibilities at EU, Member State and regional level for achieving the goal of eradicating poverty should be defined appropriately, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity;

✦ Replaces the call for a horizontal principle with a requirement for ex ante impact assessments on poverty and inequality in all relevant EU sectoral policies.

20.62. Calls on the Commission to introduce a horizontal principle into the Strategy focusedanti-poverty onstrategy, consideringrequiring theall impactsrelevant ofEU sectoral policies to carry out an ex ante impact assessment on poverty,poverty and inequality, including through the obligationdistributional impact assessments, with particular attention to carrythe outeffects anon exthose antemost impactat assessment;risk of experiencing social exclusion and extreme poverty;

✦ Replaces the recommendation for a national coordinator with calls for a Commission task force, national action plans, and monitoring of the anti-poverty strategy.

21. Recommends that the Strategy have a designated person responsible at European Commission level and that each Member State appoint a national coordinator and draw up a national action plan, involving local and regional authorities and organisations involved in combating and preventing poverty in its implementation;

63. Emphasises the need for the EU to continue focusing on the fight against homelessness, extreme poverty and social exclusion, through adequate financial support, promoting mutual learning of Member States’ strategies and experiences, and establishing a systematic approach to monitoring progress and the efficiency of the measures taken;

22. Calls for the strengthening of the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) and better use of the ESF+, the ERDF, the FEAD and the AMIF in order to reinforce policies that contribute to eradicating poverty;

64. Recommends that the anti-poverty strategy have a designated person responsible at European Commission level; calls on each Member State to appoint a national coordinator and implement the anti-poverty strategy through a national action plan, with the involvement of those with lived experience of poverty, the local and regional authorities, social partners and civil society organisations involved in combating and preventing poverty in its implementation;

23. Reiterates the need to urgently increase the funding of the European Child Guarantee with a dedicated budget of at least EUR 20 billion; insists that this dedicated budget should be part of the next MFF, covered by the ESF+.

65. Calls for a designated Commission task force on poverty eradication, with the aim of monitoring the implementation and coordination of the anti-poverty strategy, as well as the integration of its objectives into other EU policies;

66. Recalls that the at-risk-of-poverty-or-social-exclusion (AROPE) indicator fails to encompass the root causes of poverty, notably by omitting persons living outside of private households, qualitative aspects of poverty and lived experiences of marginalisation; underlines that poverty extends beyond insufficient income or material deprivation; calls on the Social Protection Committee to work with relevant stakeholders on renewing the measuring of AROPE statistics in order to expand it towards a stronger, disaggregated and more multidimensional vision of poverty and social exclusion;

67. Stresses that the anti-poverty strategy will only deliver results if accompanied by adequate funding at EU and national level; insists on the need to safeguard and strengthen cohesion policy in order to continue supporting economic, social and territorial cohesion and combating asymmetries between and within the Member States of the EU under the next MFF; calls, in this regard, for an adequate and ring-fenced allocation of funds to reinforce policies that contribute to eradicating poverty, including targeted support for marginalised and vulnerable groups; highlights the essential role of the ESF+ in promoting social inclusion and combating poverty, notably by providing aid to the most deprived and the European Child Guarantee, as well as the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund in this context; stresses the importance of optimising the use of EU funds, including the Recovery and Resilience Facility, to finance concrete anti-poverty measures such as affordable and energy-efficient housing, access to quality early childhood education and care, accessible public transport and targeted energy support for low-income households;

68. Recalls the thematic enabling conditions applicable to the ERDF, the ESF+ and the Cohesion Fund set out in Annex IV to Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 of the European Parliament laying down common provisions for these funds, in particular enabling condition 4.4., entitled ‘National strategic policy framework for social inclusion and poverty reduction’; stresses the importance of linking the anti-poverty strategy and its funding to the previously defined specific objectives; calls on the Commission and the Council to ensure that the common provisions of the ERDF and the ESF+ better reflect these specific objectives, and to incorporate the anti-poverty strategy into the next MFF, as well as gender mainstreaming;

69. Recalls that energy and transport, among other elements, are key essential services to which everyone should have access, and therefore insists that extra attention be paid to the social climate plans that Member States are required to design and implement under the Social Climate Fund, investing in energy efficiency, housing renovation, and the accessibility and affordability of renewable energy sources and transport systems; calls on the Member States to actively involve people in vulnerable situations, so that the support can effectively reach those who need it the most; calls on the Member States to exchange best practices in the fight against energy poverty, such as energy vouchers and energy price regulation;

70. Stresses that EU funds are difficult to access at local level and for organisations with fewer technical resources due to their complexity; underscores the need to simplify the implementation of EU funding mechanisms and the arrangements for providing final beneficiaries with these funds, and to train staff at the relevant public authorities and at the organisations; underlines that according to the ESF+ Regulation, the co-financing rate for support to the most deprived persons must be continued, to stay at or similar to 90 %, which should facilitate access to this financing for programmes and activities designed to help eradicate poverty;

71. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Member States should pay particular attention to ensuring universal access to affordable, high-quality public maternal, neonatal and paediatric healthcare, and to developing policies to strengthen maternity, paternity and parental rights, promoting work-life balance, facilitating women’s return to work after pregnancy and maternity leave, and ensuring adequate conditions for breastfeeding in the workplace.

✦ Wording Changes 'people' to 'persons' in the explanatory statement.

It should also be borne in mind that elderly people, peoplepersons with disabilities, single-parent families, ethnic minorities and migrants are groups that are more vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion, and that migrant children are overrepresented in the group at risk of poverty, and this specific situation should therefore be taken into account in measures to respond to and prevent poverty.

Child poverty stems from family poverty, and the absence of a comprehensive response means that poverty is perpetuated throughout the life cycle (first in childhood, then at work and finally in retirement), increasing the likelihood of intergenerational poverty.