Lancering van het Europees Jaar van de bestrijding van armoede en sociale uitsluiting (en)

"Family picture": European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion.EFE

During an event held today to mark the launch of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, the Spanish Presidency of the European Union expressed its desire to focus especially on those groups at the greatest risk of exclusion: the elderly, disabled and gypsies.

The Spanish head of government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero i, also currently at the head of the EU, set out the priorities on this issue during a speech at the opening of a conference to unveil this campaign in Madrid, along with the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso i; both stressed that support for others is at the very core of the European social model.

The aim of the campaign launched today is to ensure that the battle against poverty, which affects almost 80 million Europeans, takes centre stage throughout the entire EU this year.

The 2010 'year' grew from the shared desire of the EU to “say no to the shame of poverty” and to “reject the notion of marginality as fate”, said Barroso, who called for widespread action to reduce the currently “unacceptable” incidence of these problems.

Mr Zapatero said that the Spanish Presidency wants to drive forward progress on "specific agreements” in order to guarantee the rights of disabled people in Europe, pointing out that an informal meeting of ministers is to be held on this subject in Zaragoza. He said there would also be a European summit meeting on gypsies.

Furthermore, he said that support would be given to the European Commission in developing the European social agenda, in order to set specific goals for social inclusion actions and for the EU to promote active inclusion programmes combining support for those earning the minimum wage and links with the labour market.

Work would also be done on improving active employment policies and strengthening programmes to exchange national experiences, the President of the Spanish Government explained.

In addition to this greater focus on the elderly, the disabled and gypsies, the six-month Spanish Presidency of the EU will also advocate intensifying gender equality policies in the 27 countries of the EU, since women are at particular risk of poverty and social exclusion.

Both Mr Zapatero and Mr Barroso stressed the problem of the sharp increase in unemployment stemming from the economic crisis.

The President of the Spanish Government called this a crisis “with serious consequences that will affect us for a long time”, while Mr Barroso underlined the need to avoid "recovery without employment”.

Mr Zapatero highlighted the fact that rising unemployment rates require additional efforts in the area of social protection, saying that this had been one of the directions followed by his government in order to tackle the crisis, describing the measures introduced in Spain before also mentioning the various instruments put in place at European level.

He reiterated that the objective of recovering sustainable economic growth, which must be embodied within the EU 2020 Strategy, is to conserve cohesion and the European social model, which are “the marks of our identity”, stressing that he had yesterday called for a "European social pact" in his speech to the European Parliament.

The Spanish Minister for Health and Social Policy, Trinidad Jimenez, also took part in the opening of the conference to launch the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, along with the chairman of the Reflection Group on the Future of the EU, Felipe González, and the European Commissioner for Social Affairs, Vladimir Spidla i, among others.

Around 400 people took part in the conference, including various European ministers, secretaries of state, social agents and people living in vulnerable conditions.