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Eurodiaconia

Eurodiaconia is a European network of Christian NGOs providing social and healthcare services and advocating social justice.

Lobbying Activity

Response to EU Anti-Poverty Strategy

17 Oct 2025

Eurodiaconia is a European network of churches and Christian NGOs with 62 national and regional organisations providing social and healthcare services, as well as advocating for social justice. Eurodiaconia members provide diverse services to persons in need, working to see everyone live in dignity and their human rights are respected and protected. Services offered range from health care, childcare, elderly care, hospice and palliative care, youth inclusion programmes, employment and inclusion services to vulnerable groups such as migrants and Roma, housing services for persons experiencing homelessness and services to persons with disabilities. Eurodiaconia welcomes the European Commissions commitment to addressing the root causes of poverty through the development of the first-ever EU Anti-Poverty Strategy. This initiative comes at a crucial time, as poverty and social exclusion continue to affect millions across Europe, exacerbated by economic uncertainties, growing inequalities, and the ongoing impacts of the cost of living and energy crisis. Poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon, based on a diversity of root causes which are well known. Such a multilayered approach must therefore also be included in the Anti-Poverty Strategy, ensuring that plural policy approaches complement each other, and empowering local, regional and national levels of government and civil society to work hand in hand. We believe that this strategy must not only address immediate needs but also foster long-term solutions to break intergenerational cycles of poverty and social exclusion. Therefore, our input is grounded in three core pillars: 1) empowering people for a sustainable transition, 2) building resilience through strengthening social and healthcare services as well as communities, 3) ensuring inclusion through opportunities and security for all. Please find our detailed recommendations in the paper attached.
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Eurodiaconia Demands Binding Social Funding and Pro-NGO Contract Rules

10 Sept 2025
Topic — The consultation seeks views on updating the implementation plan for European social rights.
Message — Eurodiaconia recommends prioritizing social investment over austerity and earmarking a quarter of social funds. They advocate for procurement reforms to support non-profit social services.123
Why — These reforms would secure funding and give non-profits a competitive edge in public contracts.4
Impact — Private for-profit companies might lose access to public tenders through expanded use of reserved contracts.5
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Eurodiaconia urges binding agreement to protect European civil society

5 Sept 2025
Topic — This consultation aims to create a framework for supporting civil society and protecting civic space.
Message — The group requests a systematic civic space impact assessment for all EU legislative proposals. They call for a binding agreement to ensure civil society is engaged throughout the policy cycle. They also seek increased funding that explicitly includes advocacy as a legitimate activity.123
Why — This would provide secure funding and a guaranteed role in the European policy-making process.45
Impact — National governments would lose the ability to restrict civic space without facing EU-level intervention.6
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Response to Quality Jobs Roadmap

29 Jul 2025

Our members work daily with and for people in vulnerable situations, offering quality social services rooted in dignity, inclusion, and solidarity. Ensuring the sustainability and quality of these services depends on a well-trained, valued, and adequately supported workforce. For this reason, Eurodiaconia welcomes the European Commissions initiative to develop a Quality Jobs Roadmap and the opportunity to contribute with recommendations, particularly regarding not-for profit care and social services sectors. Ensuring Quality Services Requires Quality Jobs The quality of social services is intrinsically linked to the quality of jobs within them. A skilled and qualified workforce is the backbone of effective, person-centred, and rights-based services. Whether in elderly care, early childhood education and care (ECEC), mental health support, or disability services, workers bring the expertise, empathy, and professionalism that enable people to live with dignity. However, despite the demand for long-term care increasing, persistent challenges continue to undermine this workforce. Staff shortages, high turnover, burnout, low pay, and limited career pathways are widespread, particularly in the long-term care sector. These issues, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, led many carers to leave the sector in search of less demanding jobs, further intensifying pressure on the remaining workforce. In addition, a lack of recognition for the social value of care work has resulted in underinvestment and poor working conditions in both public and non-profit care provision. This situation not only weakens service delivery but also limits access to stable, decent employment for thousands of workers, particularly women, who constitute the majority of the care workforce. These challenges are particularly pronounced for migrant care workers (both intra-EU and third-country nationals), who constitute a substantial and growing part of the LTC workforce across many EU Member States. Despite their essential contribution to social service continuity, they experience occupational segregation, being relegated into the most precarious positions in the sector. Migrant workers face conditions marked by lower pay, irregular working arrangements, and limited access to social protection, especially in live-in or private household care arrangements. Likewise, many workers are at risk of deskilling, as their qualifications and previous professional experience often go unrecognised in the host country. Combined with language permits, limited access to tailored vocational training, and restrictive employment or residency permits, these factors further marginalise migrant care workers and hinder their professional development. Further information including recommendations can be found in the attached document.
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Response to Anti-racism Strategy

8 Jul 2025

Eurodiaconia is a network of Christian organisations bringing together 62 national and regional organisations providing social and healthcare services, as well as advocating for social justice. As non-profit service providers, our members play a key role in building trust, fostering community, and supporting individuals in vulnerable situations, particularly those facing discrimination and systemic barriers to participation. Drawing from this experience, our members highlight how intersectional discrimination affects the people they support, especially migrant and refugee women, Roma women, and EU mobile citizens. They also note that certain forms of racism, such as anti-gypsyism, remain largely unaddressed in many national contexts. EU-level frameworks and funding instruments are therefore crucial in enabling civil society organisations to continue this work, especially when national efforts fall short. The 20202025 EU Anti-Racism Action Plan was a key milestone, recognising structural racism and establishing coordination mechanisms such as the EU Anti-Racism Coordinator and the Permanent Civil Society Forum. These contributed to greater cooperation with civil society organisations and placed anti-racism on the EU agenda. The next Strategy must reinforce anti-racism as a cross-cutting, long-term commitment, ensuring continuity and coherence across EU policy areas. 1. Improving monitoring mechanisms, measurable targets and accountability:The upcoming Strategy should introduce measurable EU-level targets, disaggregated data collection, and regular, transparent reporting. It should draw lessons from the EU Roma Strategic Framework and ensure civil society, especially grassroots and racialised community-led organisations, are meaningfully involved in evaluation. 2. Support systematic, harmonised, and rights-based equality data collection across Member States to better inform policies and address discrimination.Data should be collected based on voluntary self-identification, including appropriate safeguards, and ensuring that sensitive data is collected to advance equality and improve the situation of those affected by racial and ethnic discrimination. 3. Mainstream anti-racism across EU social and migration frameworks: There can be no effective social inclusion without tackling structural racism and adopting an intersectional approach. EU policy implementation remains siloed, with anti-racism efforts insufficiently integrated into broader strategies. An intersectional approach is also useful to understand how racism is experienced in complex ways, shaped by the interaction of racial or ethnic origin, migration status, gender, and socio-economic inequality, among others. Therefore, mainstream anti-racism in social policy design and implementation of instruments such as the European Pillar of Social Rights, the Anti-Poverty Strategy, the European Child Guarantee, or the EU Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion, also reflecting the lived experiences of racialised individuals. Explicitly acknowledge and address the role of racism and xenophobia in undermining the social inclusion of migrants. Migrants should be included in anti-racism efforts, understanding that discrimination based on migration status and racial or ethnic background are often intertwined. Improve cross-sectoral coherence and governance by strengthening coordination between DGs and embedding anti-racism across policy design and processes. 4. Grassroots and minority-led organisations often face barriers to participation, including limited access to policymaking spaces, lack of sustainable funding, and symbolic consultation practices.The Strategy should promote and ensure meaningful, adequately resourced, and sustained participation of racialised individuals and communities, ethnic minorities (including Roma), migrants, and organisations led by or working closely with affected communities at EU and national levels, and across all stages of policymaking.
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Meeting with Niels Geuking (Member of the European Parliament)

6 May 2025 · Combatting Housing Exclusion

Meeting with Agnese Papadia (Cabinet of Commissioner Dan Jørgensen)

9 Apr 2025 · Affordable Housing Plan

Meeting with Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

8 Apr 2025 · Homelessness

Meeting with Mirzha De Manuel (Cabinet of Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis)

14 Mar 2025 · Social and health services, economic governance

Meeting with Anna Cavazzini (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl and

6 Mar 2025 · Public procurement directives reform

Meeting with Daniel Woehl (Head of Unit Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion)

3 Feb 2025 · Discussion on the social situation in Finland and the role of the third sector in providing social services

Meeting with Roxana Mînzatu (Executive Vice-President) and

13 Dec 2024 · Roadmap towards an EU anti-poverty strategy

Meeting with Marit Maij (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and EUROPEAN TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION and

14 Oct 2024 · Roundtable with CSOs for input for ESF Plus

Meeting with Maria Ohisalo (Member of the European Parliament)

1 Oct 2024 · Social issues

Meeting with Birgit Sippel (Member of the European Parliament)

24 Jul 2024 · Social inclusion

Meeting with Ana Carla Pereira (Cabinet of Commissioner Nicolas Schmit)

24 Oct 2023 · priorites for the next Commission

Meeting with Ilan De Basso (Member of the European Parliament) and European Youth Forum

8 Mar 2023 · Möte om minimiinkomst

Meeting with Tilly Metz (Member of the European Parliament) and EUROPEAN TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION and

16 Feb 2023 · Stakeholder Exchange on COVID

Meeting with Birgit Sippel (Member of the European Parliament)

28 Nov 2022 · Integration Ukrainian refugees

Meeting with Antoine Kasel (Cabinet of Commissioner Nicolas Schmit)

25 Nov 2022 · courtesy meeting

Response to Enabling factors for digital education

16 Sept 2022

Eurodiaconia is a network of 56 organisations founded in the Christian faith, operating in 32 European Countries, providing care and social services and advocating for social justice. Many of them provide a wide range of child-and youth-related services such as daycare centres, after-school programmes, special education programmes, learning centres, after-school programmes, counselling and many other social services impacting children and young people. Based on our members’ long-standing experience, we call on the European Commission to incorporate the following considerations in the upcoming Proposal for a Recommendation on Digital education – enabling factors for success (details are in the attached document). 1. Digital education is an urgent need. 2. Bridge the digital divide. 3. Developing the right ecosystem for digital education.
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Meeting with Alice Kuhnke (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and The European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association and

20 Jun 2022 · Anti-discrimination and Intersectionality

Meeting with Alice Kuhnke (Member of the European Parliament)

17 May 2022 · Combatting Intersectional Discrimination Faced by Roma women

Meeting with Alviina Alametsä (Member of the European Parliament)

12 May 2022 · Exchange of Views

Response to Recommendation on minimum income

1 Apr 2022

Eurodiaconia members have a unique view of the emerging needs and trends on the ground. Thus, we urge the Commission to incorporate the following considerations in the Minimum Income Council Recommendation: -Integrated Approach: Coordination and integration with well-funded essential social services are crucial to address barriers that hinder users’ labour and social inclusion, such as health issues, insecure housing or over-indebtedness. Integrated minimum income and social services provision should be approached from the perspective of social inclusion, reinforcing the call in the Commission Recommendation on Active Inclusion for the implementation of strategies combining adequate income support, inclusive labour markets, and access to quality services. -Active inclusion: Member States should collaborate with service providers to identify the specific needs of users and develop person-centred pathways for active inclusion into society. Active outreach measures should be prioritised to prevent the same people to keep falling behind, such as the long-term unemployed, Roma & migrants, and avoid the ‘creaming’ of those who are most likely to be employed. Social services are best placed to ensure these functions, but they need sufficient funding to fulfil such role. -Life-Cycle approach: Minimum Income schemes should be geared at supporting individuals throughout the life cycle, & should be fairly applied to everyone. Then, additional benefits such as for children, housing or other needs could come on top of that, taking into account the needs of different groups. -Empowerment: Minimum Income schemes should support and empower individuals to participate fully in society on an equal basis, strengthening the legitimacy of the European project. Participation in society should be considered on par with labour market activation. -Adequacy: A common definition of adequacy is needed. Adequate minimum income should not fall below 60% of the equivalised median income. Moreover, additional factors such as reference budgets and statistical analyses should be considered. Since reference budgets are constructed on the basis of hypothetical models, they should be complemented by statistical data about the actual expenses of the poorest segment of the population, involving persons experiencing poverty. Particular attention should be paid to prices increases in energy & food, with mechanisms allowing for a quick adaptation. -No conditionality: Promote a rights-based approach to minimum income that avoids conditionality and considers individual circumstances. Punitive conditionalities are a direct contradiction to a rights-based approach and must be avoided. Non-compliance with the obligation of job searching can result in suspension of the benefit, while the lack of comprehensive tailor-made labour market activation measures makes it difficult for the beneficiaries to (re)integrate into the labour market and fulfil such conditions. -Accessibility. Discriminatory and biased approaches to groups such as Roma, refugees or people in poverty is a structural challenge acting as a deterrent to take-up & should be further addressed. Transparent and non-discriminatory eligible criteria are key to improving accessibility and coverage. Also, better outreach and information for vulnerable groups are needed. -Impact Assessment: impact assessment is needed to which CSOs & people experiencing poverty could contribute. A national framework for data collection, monitoring and evaluation is also recommended, with periodical reporting from Member States to assess the implementation of the Recommendation. We welcome this initiative & recognise that policy guidance can be useful. However, to assure effective contribution towards the implementation of Principle 14 of the EPSR, we recommend the Council Recommendation to include a call on the European Commission to present a proposal for Framework Directive setting quality standards for minimum income systems
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Response to Proposal for a Council Recommendation on long-term care

29 Mar 2022

Eurodiaconia is a network of 55 organizations founded in the Christian faith, operating in 32 European countries, providing care and social services, and advocating for social justice. Our members provide integrated care services dedicated to enabling everyone to actively participate and contribute to society. As a not-for-profit network consisting of over 30,000 organizations with decades of experience in providing quality care, we urge the Commission to consider the input herein attached in the upcoming Barcelona Targets revision. This input is complementary to our input on the overall European Care Strategy consultation.
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Meeting with Katrin Langensiepen (Member of the European Parliament)

1 Mar 2022 · Austausch sozialpolitische Themen

Meeting with Joost Korte (Director-General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion)

20 Jul 2021 · implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights

Response to Social Economy Action Plan

26 Apr 2021

Eurodiaconia, a European network, on behalf of its 52 members in 32 European countries, representing over 30 000 organisations, welcomes the proposal of an Action Plan for the Social Economy. Many of our members are actively engaged in the social economy in line with the definition of social businesses in the Social Business Initiative is businesses “for which the social or societal objective of the common good is the reason for the commercial activity”, where “profits are mainly reinvested to achieve this social objective”. Under this definition, based on existing EU law on the meaning of the word “enterprise”, all diaconal organisations operating in a market with a social aim would be seen as social enterprises. Eurodiaconia therefore welcomes the initiative, as many members have noted a lack of support for such activities and that they face many challenges, not least as a result of the COVID crisis. Eurodiaconia is a network of churches and Christian NGOs providing social and healthcare services and advocating social justice. Together our membership represents the needs and unique experiences of 52 national and regional organisations in 32 countries. Diakonia is Greek for service and in the biblical sense, this means service for and with people in need. Eurodiaconia has actively contributed to consultation to the proposed action plan through Social Economy Europe and Social Services Europe and so does not intend this contribution to rehearse what has already been submitted by both other organization. Rather, through this paper, we wish to stress some specific issues common to our membership as not for profit providers of social services within the social economy. The Social Business Initiative of 2011 saw the European Commission distinguish between two types of social enterprises: “businesses providing social services and/or goods and services to vulnerable persons” and “businesses with a method of production of goods or services with a social objective”. Given that most diaconal social services would fall in the first category, Eurodiaconia stresses the importance of initiatives to support this category of enterprises, not just initiatives aimed at those able to be self-supporting and artificial distinctions made between established service providers and newer social enterprises should be avoided. Furthermore, as is the case in many of our members, the second definition can often be part of the way to understand the first definition, with production activities for commercial sale being part of the services provided to vulnerable people, e.g., upcycling of previously owned goods, secondhand stores, publishing and printing houses, catering activities and others. Our full response can be found in the attachment.
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Response to European Child Guarantee

7 Oct 2020

Eurodiaconia welcomes the proposal to develop a Child Guarantee (CG) as part of the implementation of the EPSR and will take an active role along with its members to further promote its implementation at national and local level. As part of the EU Alliance for Investing in Children, we therefore strongly echo the Alliance’s call to the EC to take a rights-based integrated approach to tackling child poverty and to incorporate the three Pillars of the Investing in Children Recommendation in its proposal for the European CG. The 2013 Recommendation had as its main goal the disruption of the poverty cycle, and we ask all the Member States to recall this Recommendation and undertake higher (social) investment aimed at overcoming poverty traps. This will not only reduce poverty levels now but also shows investment in future generations. The EC needs to have better and stronger systems in place to monitor the situation of (child) poverty in the EU, which currently is often far too outdated. However, adoption and strategies must lead to implementation (which clearly has been lacking so far) and so it is with implementation in mind we make the following recommendations: 1)Support and encourage the development of quality, accessible and affordable social services to support families and children. This should go beyond employment related child care services and include family therapies and support, specific services for children who have experienced trauma, children with special needs and early years education. 2)Support not for profit social service providers in the transition from institutional to community/family based care settings. 3)Implement policies and other instruments of hard law that encourage the reduction of inequalities among children. 4) Support the adoption of a Directive raising minimum standards of living (e.g. Minimum Income) and the availability of adequate housing, reassuring that no child is left behind or on the streets, in accordance with Principle 19 of the EPSR. 4) Ensure that children with disabilities, or of a migrant/refugee background, Roma or other particularly disadvantaged group are specifically addressed. 6)Mainstream the social inclusion of migrant children throughout all EU policies. In addition, targeted measures should be promoted to prevent the exclusion of migrant children, including access to early childhood education and the integration of children into mainstream education regardless of their legal status. Adequate access to health care services and housing should be promoted for particularly vulnerable migrant children. 7)Prioritize quality family and community-based care in the EU Member States along with access to holistic integration programs, including access to sport and recreational activities and the provision of psychological support to mitigate the impact of covid-19 on migrant and refugee children. 8)Reinforce the adoption of legal instruments that guarantee the protection of incoming migrants and refugees, in accordance with Principle 12 of the EPSR. 9)Promote a child sensitive approach to Roma inclusion on the EU level. Monitor and tackle the multiple discrimination against Roma children, by addressing educational and spatial segregation, and insufficient access to early childhood education and care, primary and secondary education, healthcare, nutrition and decent housing. 10)Create synergies between the CG and the upcoming Strategic Framework for Equality, Inclusion and Participation of Roma until 2030 ensuring that the needs of Roma children are prioritised in the EU framework and that their rights are also reflected in the national Roma integration strategies. 11)Enhance the collection of data on Roma children and their families, ensuring that EU policies reflect their needs. 12)Ensure that equal access to childcare and other social services is not dependent on the employment status of the parents (e.g. in terms of underemployed parents/workless households or in-work poverty).
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Meeting with Ylva Johansson (Commissioner) and

5 May 2020 · Migrants’ challenges in the current COVID-19 crisis and their contribution to economic recovery

Meeting with Stella Kyriakides (Commissioner) and SGI Europe and

29 Apr 2020 · VC meeting on the Impact of COVID-19 on Social Services and the risks for persons in vulnerable situations

Meeting with Dubravka Šuica (Vice-President) and

29 Apr 2020 · Social Services in Europe, Statutory Duties of Public Social Services, Explanation, Impact & challenges of COVID-19, Elderly, Role of the EU, Rights of persons with disabilities, social dialogue & cross-sectoral social dialogue

Meeting with Ylva Johansson (Commissioner) and

14 Feb 2020 · Consultations on the New Pact on Migrations

Meeting with Helena Braun (Cabinet of First Vice-President Frans Timmermans)

27 Jun 2018 · Implementation sustainability development goals

Meeting with Ruth Paserman (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)

15 May 2018 · Breakfast event on SDGs and Social Pillar

Meeting with Ruth Paserman (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)

24 Apr 2018 · The role of social services in the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights

Meeting with Baudouin Baudru (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen) and European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless and The Salvation Army EU Affairs Office

26 Jan 2018 · Implementation of the European Pilar of Social Rights and the design of the new Multiannual Financial Framework

Meeting with Ruth Paserman (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen) and European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions

11 Jul 2017 · Public social investments in the macroeconomic governance framework

Meeting with Vasiliki Kokkori (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen) and Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants

4 Jul 2017 · Social exclusion of undocumented migrants

Meeting with Baudouin Baudru (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen), Ruth Paserman (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen), Vasiliki Kokkori (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen) and

9 Feb 2017 · CESI-Eurodiaconia-Social Platform initiative