EAPN’s annual conference will be on 13 June. We will debate how to get a transformative social and sustainable post 2020 EU strategy which can deliver real results for poverty and social rights – underpinned by the Social Pillar and the SDGs. We will provide a participative reflection space to progress concrete proposals. It will aim to:

• Raise awareness of current challenges facing people experiencing poverty in the context of a lacking strategy.
• Exchange with stakeholders & decision-makers on concrete proposals for the EU post 2020 Strategy.
• Debate on how to create synergies to benefit people and planet, as part of a transformative EU and in the context of the new Commission and Parliament.

See the programme here!:

2020 marks the end of the Europe 2020 strategy that aimed to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Despite unacceptable failure to deliver on the key target to reduce those in poverty by at least 20 million people by 2020, no review or public consultation of the strategy is planned.

The main proposals coming from the Commission are through the Future of Europe Reflection ; In January 2019 a new Reflection Paper “Towards a sustainable Europe by 2030’’ was adopted. This paper aims to stimulate discussion on the EU’s vision and strategy for the long-term implementation of the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as part of a broader debate on the future of Europe and the priority setting for the new European Commission. It sets out three scenarios on how Agenda 2030 and the SDGs could be incorporated into the EU’s priorities.

One of the priorities is a socially fair transition to a sustainable economy that should leave no one behind, yet the paper predominantly focuses on how to deliver green growth, with the social objectives left to the European Pillar of Social Rights.

In 2017, EAPN’s policy conference Learning from the past to beyond Europe 2020 already agreed key messages on the need for an ambitious post 2020 built on Europe 2020 targets that could deliver an “ambitious social, sustainable and democratic vision for Europe based on Agenda 2030 and the SDGs”. This strategy should implement the European Pillar of Social Rights and develop an explicit rights-based integrated anti-poverty strategy based on active participation and backed by EU funding. This has been further developed under EAPN’s Future of Europe Position Paper, calling for support for a sixth scenario.

This participative conference comes therefore at a timely moment – just after the election of the new European Parliament and the start of the new Commission, – to agree concrete demands that can ensure that the post 2020 strategy really delivers on social rights and poverty, putting SDG 1 at the heart of a truly social and sustainable post 2020 strategy.

Key speakers

• First Vice-President, Commissioner Frans Timmermans, European Commission (tbc)
• Carlos Susías, EAPN President/EAPN ES
• Vera Hinterdorfer, EAPN Vice-President/Activist with direct experience of poverty/EAPN AT
• Heather Roy, Secretary General, Eurodiaconia
• Freek Spinnewijn, Director, FEANTSA
• Jana Hainsworth, Secretary General, Eurochild (tbc)
• Leida Rijnhout, Steering Group member, SDG Watch and Agenda 2030 Multi-Stakeholder Platform
• Mary Collins, Senior Policy & Advocacy Coordinator, European Women’s Lobby
• Graciela Malgesini, Chair of EAPN EU Inclusion Strategies Group/EAPN ES
• Marco Cilento, Senior Advisor, ETUC
• First Vice-President of the European Parliament, Mairead McGuiness (via video)

Practical information

13 June 2019, 9:00 – 13:00, Area 42, rue des Palais 46A, 1030 Brussels
Around 80 EAPN members, including people with direct experience of poverty, and around 50 external stakeholders will participate.

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