Role of the EU in the fight against poverty and social exclusion

• Author: Applica, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (European Commission), Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)
• Pages: 8-9

Report on the online consultation

8

2 Role of the EU in the fight against poverty and social

exclusion

A set of three questions were included in the questionnaire on the role of the EU and

countries in combating child poverty and social exclusion.

As regards the role of countries, or national governments, 87% of respondents considered

that it is very important that their country better combats child poverty and social exclusion

specifically, while 12% consider it important, so that only 1% think the issue not to be

important (Figure 4).

Nine out of ten respondents consider that the EU should certainly help Member States to

fight against child poverty and social exclusion and another 9% that it should probably do

so. Researchers and those from NGOs, as well as from EU institutions, are strongly in

favour of the EU providing assistance (well over 90% in each case), while a slightly smaller

proportion of respondents from national and regional authorities expressed the same view.

The level of chil d deprivation in the country concerned seems also to have influenced t he

response, since 4% of respondents from countries where this is low thought either that EU

should not provide help or didn’t know whether it should or not as compared with no-one

in countries where the deprivation rate was high.

When asked whether or not the EU should do more to ta ckle chi ld poverty and social

exclusion, respondents show a slightly lower degree of consensus, some 4% of respondents

considering either that it should not or not exp ressing a view. Respondents from national

authorities are less in favour of the EU doing more, though the figure for those not

expressing support for the view is still only 7%. At the same time, 71% of respondents are

strongly of the view that the EU should do more than it currently does to tackle child

poverty and social exclusion, the figure being particularly high am ong those from NGOs.

Figure 4 Importance of combating child poverty and social exclu sion and role of

the EU in this (% of respondents)

Q.2a How important is it, do you think, that your country better fights

specifically against child poverty and social exclusion?

Q.2b Do you think that the EU should help Member States to fight against child

poverty and social exclusion among children?

Q.2c If yes, do you think the EU should do more than it currently does to tackle

child poverty and social exclusion?

In sum, according to the vast majority of respondents, their country should do better in

fighting against child poverty and social exclusion and consider that the EU should help in