MEPs have urged the European Commission to treat poverty as a violation of human dignity and to work to eradicate it across the EU by 2035 at the latest.
The European Parliament backed an own-initiative report by 385 votes to 141, with 53 abstentions, calling for the Commission’s forthcoming EU anti-poverty strategy to include sufficient funding and closer coordination between EU institutions and member states, the parliamentary press service reported on Thursday.
The report focuses heavily on child poverty, with MEPs calling for stronger support to help EU countries implement the European Child Guarantee — an EU initiative intended to ensure children in need can access free healthcare, education, care and healthy nutrition.
MEPs want a dedicated budget of at least €20 billion for the scheme.
They also called on member states to allocate at least 5% of European Social Fund+ money to projects combating child poverty, and at least 10% in countries where child poverty and social exclusion are above the EU average.
The European Social Fund+ is the EU’s main funding pot for employment and social inclusion programmes.
Housing, services and homelessness
MEPs said full employment and social protection should be standard objectives for economic and social policies, and called for measures to protect labour rights and ensure fair wages, including equal pay for equal work.
The report also calls for better access to childcare services and tailored career guidance to help reduce in-work poverty.
The Parliament also urged increased public investment to provide universal access to housing, food, water, sanitation, energy and transport.
It called for an EU action plan to end homelessness by 2030, with measures targeted at children and families, workers who lose their jobs and women, it added.
The report further calls for steps to strengthen the political participation of people experiencing poverty, so they are involved in decision-making and in assessing policies that affect them.
In 2024, 93.3 million people in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including 20 million children — about a quarter of the EU’s children — according to European Commission data. The Commission is preparing the EU’s first anti-poverty strategy, expected in 2026.
