1

Seminar on urban-rural linkages fostering social cohesion in Europe

Brussels, 2 July 2009

EUROPEAN COMMISSIONDG Employment, Social Affairs and

Equal Opportunities

Antonia CARPARELLI Head of Unit - Social inclusion and

social aspects of migration

2

Outline Fighting poverty and social exclusion: the case

for an integrated approach between territorial and social policies.

The European Strategy for Social Inclusion: how it works, what has achieved and why it is relevant in the context of urban-rural linkages.

The value added of the Open Method of Coordination in the area of Social Inclusion: the example of the Budapest conference on rural poverty.

3

Defining and measuring poverty

Poverty definition agreed at European level‘‘Persons, families and groups of persons whose resources (material, cultural, social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life in the Member State in which they live’.

Headline indicator: “people at-risk-of-poverty”Percentage of people whose income is below 60% of the median income of the population of the Member State in which they live. This is the reference indicator to assess national antipoverty policies.

4

At-risk-of poverty rate in the EU (%), total, children and elderly, 2007

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

EU27 CZ NL SK SE DK HU AT SI FR FI LU MT BE DE CY PL IE PT EE LT RO* UK EL ES IT LV

% o

f th

e r

ele

van

t p

op

ula

tion

Total population Children aged 0-17 People aged 65+

Elderly in CY 51%

5

Material deprivation and at-risk-of-poverty rate (% of the total population) with relative poverty threshold

(in €-PPS per year for a family of one person)

-

10

20

30

40

50

60

EU LU SE NL DK FI AT UK ES IE FR BE DE IT SI EE CZ PT MT EL CY SK HU LT PL LV RO*

0

3000

6000

9000

12000

15000

18000

Material deprivation rate, % (left axis) at-risk of poverty rate, % (left axis) 60%at-risk of poverty threshold, PPS (right axis)

6

The “Social” OMCThe “Social” OMC: how does it work?

Member States agree on common objectives for the European Union

Common indicators are defined and developed with a view to measure progress towards the objectives

The EU objectives are translated into national/regional policies (National Reports on Strategies for Social Protection and Social Inclusion)

Commission and Member States (working together in the Social Protection Committee) conduct a common analysis and assessment of the National Reports: Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion

The OMC promotes policy cooperation, mutual learning and exchange of good practices, good governance and stakeholders involvement, with the support of the Community Programme PROGRESS

7

The Social Inclusion Objectives

• access for all to the resources, rights and services needed for participation in society, addressing exclusion, and fighting all forms of discrimination

• the active social inclusion of all, both by promoting participation in the labour market and by fighting poverty and exclusion

• that social inclusion policies are well coordinated and involve all levels of government and relevant actors, including people experiencing poverty, that they are efficient and effective and mainstreamed into all relevant public policies

Making a decisive impact on the eradication of poverty and social exclusion by ensuring:

8

The EU Social Inclusion Strategy: recent policy developments and key challenges

Main policy developments in the last OMC cycle (2006-2008)

Report on Child poverty (Joint Report 2007) Active Inclusion of people furthest from the labor market (Commission

Recommendation October 2008)

Ongoing work in the current OMC cycle (2009-2011)

Interaction between growth and job agenda and the social objectives Monitoring the social impact of the crisis Homelessness and housing deprivation Social inclusion of migrants and ethnic minorities

Other issues emerged within the Social OMC

Financial exclusion Social impact of emigration Rural poverty …..

9

Budapest conference on rural poverty: some conclusions

Social inclusion and anti-discrimination policies need to become more central in the implementation of cohesion and territorial programmes, particularly in rural areas. This is in fact essential to address the conditions of marginalised groups, such as Roma.

Policy coordination at national level and at European level (regional policies, rural development policies and social policies) is essential to effectively address rural poverty. The scope and design of funding instruments in different policy areas (regional funds, European Social Fund and Rural Development) should be reconsidered, as there is evidence of inefficiencies and loopholes.

Policies addressing rural-urban linkages have a strong potential for social innovation. This is very well illustrated by various experiences of social farming, capturing and addressing social problems typical of "urban-areas", such as drug addiction, mental health social inclusion of ex offenders

There is consistent evidence that a rural-urban gap still exists and that the issue of poverty in rural areas suffers from a lack of visibility both in national and EU policies.

10

Source: Zsuzsa Ferge, Social policies can make a difference: European urban-rural disparities in child poverty, Presentation to the Budapest Conference on Rural Poverty based on EU-SILC data

Urban and rural child poverty rates 2005, countries ranked according to the overall child

poverty rate

05

10152025303540

urbanrural

Is there still an urban-rural gap?

11

The urban-rural gap: a very diverse Europe…

Source: Zsuzsa Ferge, Social policies can make a difference: European urban-rural disparities in child poverty, Presentation to the Budapest Conference on Rural Poverty based on EU-SILC data

Difference between urban and rural child poverty rate, EU 2005

-13

-9 -9 -9

-3-1

0 1 2 35

8 8 912

14 1517 18 18

26

-15

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Rural - urban rate

12

Conclusions Urban-rural linkages in Europe: a “multiple, non linear,

emerging complexity” (M. Shucksmith)

Understanding this diversity matters because it can provide the basis for improving the quality of public policies, at local and at European level.

Dealing with diversity: the open method of coordination as a driver for change and innovation.

The compelling need for an integrated approach: the social dimension has a crucial importance for territorial development and the local dimension is key for social inclusion policies.

13

EUROPEAN COMMISSIONDG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities

Further Information

DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities‘Social Inclusion’ website

http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/spsi/poverty_social_exclusion_en.htm