Civil society actors, local, national and European public authorities met in Lisbon on 15 and 16 October 2010 for a conference of the European Movement International (EMI), discussing the theme “Combating poverty and social exclusion during the economic crisis and beyond: A multi-level governance approach”. The international two days meeting was supported by the Portuguese Instituto da Segurança Social (ISS) and gathered high level experts, experienced practitioners and decision makers to exchange about European solidarity and cohesion.

In the light of the 2020 horizon and in the context of the European Year of Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, participants debated on the crisis and post-crisis challenges and assessed the need for a flexible form of governance, able to respond to change.

Multi-level governance, opening the possibility for a more inclusive and participatory form of governance, and creating space for ‘innovative’ solutions, was the response to the question of what Europe would need in order to deal with the complex issue of poverty eradication.

Pierre Calame, President of the Board of the “Fondation Charles Leopold Mayer pour le progrès de l’Homme”, noted “that within the European decision making process institutions do cooperate but without a sound methodology, lack of coherence and under the competition of increasing their own influence. In this context, European and national strategies, giving the leadership to the local, in a multi-level governance approach, is the only solution to overcome the extreme inefficiencies of the EU social policies”.

Pervenche Berès, MEP and chair of the EP Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, stressed “that it is time to have a Europe-wide discussion on minimum income, asking the European Commission to come forward with a legislative proposal”. She added that the “task force on economic governance, chaired by Herman Van Rompuy, should not only address the issue of economical stability and reducing public debts but go beyond and also take into account social policies and social welfare systems”.

Calls on the EU to offer itself the means and the competences for intervening more decisively in Social Policy and, specifically, in the combat against poverty and social exclusion, had already been made on the first day of the Conference by Maria João Rodrigues, and supported by MEP Miguel Portas (GUE/NGL) and Edite Estrela (S&D), as well as by António Rodrigues (representative of the PSD, the main opposition party in Portugal, member of the EPP).

Pat Cox, President of the European Movement International, remarked in his opening speech that “currently 23 Million Europeans, 7 Million more compared to pre-crisis statistics, are unemployed and the economic crisis wiped out two decades of fiscal consolidation in the EU within the last two years. On average 1 in 10 of the European Citizens do not have a job and more than 1 in 5 of the young Europeans are unemployed”. He added that “under such circumstances it is more than ever important to face the challenge of combating poverty and social exclusion”.

Jo Leinen, Vice-President of the European Movement International, referred in his closing remarks to the fact that “the Lisbon Treaty, especially the social clause, provides the legal basis for the implementation of social and employment policies, evolving from a soft and voluntary model of the method of open coordination to a more concrete and compulsory approach”. He then concluded that “Europe could break into pieces if we don’t provide for social cohesion and increase the fight against inequalities, and therefore the EU should play a key role in delivering solutions. The EMI can help to address these topics and putting Social Europe at the heart of this conference was a good and successful start”.

To watch excerpts of the conference in full-length, please visit our youtube channel
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Editors Note: The event was kindly hosted by the Fundação Montepio in Lisbon and supported by the Portuguese Instituto da Segurança Social (ISS).
For more information, please contact the secretariat: +32 (0)2 508 30 85, email: communication@europeanmovement.eu