OpenLobby.EU
Explore

European Anti Poverty Network

EAPN

The European Anti Poverty Network is a coalition of NGOs working to eliminate poverty and social exclusion.

Lobbying Activity

Anti-poverty network urges EU to prioritize social budget funding

21 Oct 2025
Topic — The Commission is consulting on the EU's post-2027 long-term budget framework.
Message — EAPN calls for a comprehensive EU Anti-Poverty Strategy with dedicated budget lines. They urge negotiators to prioritize social investments over security and defense. Additionally, they demand strict earmarking of funds for marginalized groups.12
Why — These changes would guarantee long-term funding and structural investment for poverty eradication.3
Impact — The defense and security sectors would lose their current budgetary dominance.4
Read full response

Meeting with Sirpa Pietikäinen (Member of the European Parliament)

3 Jul 2025 · Anti-poverty

Meeting with Li Andersson (Member of the European Parliament, Committee chair)

30 Jun 2025 · EU Anti-Poverty Strategy

Meeting with Idoia Mendia (Member of the European Parliament)

18 Mar 2025 · Meeting with EAPN

Meeting with Marie Toussaint (Member of the European Parliament) and ATD Quart Monde

30 Jan 2025 · fighting poverty

Meeting with Marie Toussaint (Member of the European Parliament) and ATD Quart Monde

21 Jan 2025 · fighting poverty

Meeting with Ana Catarina Mendes (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and Amnesty International Limited and

18 Nov 2024 · Exchange of views on the Rule of Law Report 2024

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 Anthony Smith (Member of the European Parliament)

24 Sept 2024 · Lutte contre la pauvreté en Europe

Meeting with Marit Maij (Member of the European Parliament) and ATD Quart Monde

11 Sept 2024 · Breakfast Fighting against poverty

Meeting with Tilly Metz (Member of the European Parliament)

23 Jul 2024 · Poverty

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

13 Nov 2023 · Möte

Meeting with Gabriele Bischoff (Member of the European Parliament)

10 Jul 2023 · Neueste Entwicklungen EMPL

Meeting with Daniel Freund (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and Committee to Protect Journalists and Forum Civique Européen

12 Apr 2023 · Fundamental rights (staff level)

Meeting with Agnes Jongerius (Member of the European Parliament)

31 Mar 2023 · Poverty reduction in Europe

Meeting with Mounir Satouri (Member of the European Parliament)

21 Nov 2022 · Lutte contre la pauvreté énergétique

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

Response to Social and labour aspects of the climate transition

18 Nov 2021

A socially just transition towards climate neutrality must combine social and climate targets to reduce inequality and poverty by putting the impact on the most vulnerable at the forefront of the green transition. Any regressive effects of climate policies must be prevented, and root causes of energy poverty addressed. We welcome the complementarity of this initiative with the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, and we urge the European Commission to prevent and tackle the social and distributional impacts of climate and energy policies on low-income, low-skilled, energy-poor, and vulnerable people. Inclusive decarbonisation, equal access to clean and affordable energy and decent housing, public policy intervention to address the impact of the phase-out of fossil fuels on the workforce in terms of mobility, reskilling and upskilling, unemployment and local economies are some of the key issues to take into consideration. A comprehensive analysis of the elements to include to ensure a socially just green transition is available in the enclosed document.
Read full response

Response to Initiative on adequate minimum wages

18 Dec 2020

Adequate minimum wages are of great importance in improving the living and working conditions of people in the EU and in contributing to minimum labour standards below which no employment relationship should be considered socially acceptable. Minimum wages are important tools to guarantee and realise social and labour rights. They also help to reduce the gender pay and pension gap. Decent minimum wages are crucial to tackle in-work poverty and precarious employment conditions, fight unfair competition and prevent a race-to-the-bottom wage-setting, in particular in low-wage economic sectors and for vulnerable groups of workers. They also are essential to increase or stabilise the “bottom line wages” in an economy. Raising the lower-wage segment by moving towards poverty-proofed minimum wages also broadens the tax basis for governments and helps the financing of adequate social protection systems. Against the backdrop of the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, adequate (minimum) wages, quality jobs and fair employment conditions for all are needed more than ever to support an inclusive and just recovery and upward convergence within countries and across the EU. EAPN wishes to see these points reflected in a Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages: • Adequate minimum wages should be considered a basic social right for everybody. • Adequate minimum wages should exist and be enforced in all sectors of the economy. No exclusion criteria and sub-minima rates (e.g. for long-term unemployed or workers with disabilities) should be applied. • Adequate minimum wages should be set in a non-discriminatory way and be applied regardless of contract type, residency status, age, (dis)ability or ethnicity / nationality to ensure equal pay for equal work. No variations or deductions on any grounds should be applied. Existing lower minimum rates for young workers should be phased out and ultimately abolished (based on a binding time plan). • Adequate minimum wages should guarantee a decent standard of living and ensure people’s full participation in society in line with an active inclusion approach. They should be living wages, while also ensuring the health and well-being of workers as well as employment and job quality. • Minimum wages should be poverty-proof. The adequacy of minimum wages should be set at a minimum of 60% of the national median wage and 50% of the national average wage. This benchmark needs to be regularly and checked for its adequacy and updated: The directive needs to include the requirement for each EU MS to have transparent national mechanisms and frameworks to guide adjustments of (statutory or collectively bargained and agreed) minimum wages, based on clear and stable criteria. Minimum wages also need to be fair in relation to overall wages in the national labour market. • Whether minimum wage levels in Member States can indeed be considered adequate should be regularly monitored and assessed in existing EU policy monitoring processes, including in the European Semester. • The existence of and compliance with transparent and participatory procedures (involving the social partners) to set minimum wages is essential. The same holds true for the procedures to regularly update the nominal value of minimum wages. If such updates are not made, low-wage earners will suffer first and foremost. • There needs to be a positive hierarchy between adequate minimum income (and other social benefits) and adequate minimum wages to preserve incentives to work for those who can, while guaranteeing a decent standard of living free of poverty for all. • Collective bargaining in Member States and across different sectors, including in social services, should be strengthened. Social dialogue structures and collective bargaining processes in social services and other low-wage economic sectors are often either weak or lacking or they stay ineffective in many EU Member States, especially in Central and Eastern European countries.
Read full response

Meeting with Ivo Belet (Cabinet of Vice-President Dubravka Šuica)

4 Sept 2020 · Conference on the Future of Europe

Meeting with Valdis Dombrovskis (Executive Vice-President) and

14 Feb 2020 · European Commissions’s actions against poverty, European Semester, integrating Sustainable Development Goals, European Pillar of Social Rights, European Commission’s initiative for fair minimum wage

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

14 Feb 2020 · Implementation of the action plan of the Social pilar, poverty

Meeting with Ruth Paserman (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)

29 Jan 2019 · The Reality Of Poverty And Social Exclusion In The EU

Meeting with Maria Luisa Llano Cardenal (Cabinet of Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis)

6 Sept 2018 · EAPN assessment of Country-Specific Recommendations 2018

Meeting with Ruth Paserman (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)

6 Sept 2018 · EAPN Assessment of 2018 CSRs and Country Annex: More audacity to fight poverty and promote social rights

Meeting with Luc Tholoniat (Cabinet of President Jean-Claude Juncker) and European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless

5 Sept 2018 · Situation et priorités sociales en Europe

Meeting with Marianne Thyssen (Commissioner), Marianne Thyssen (Commissioner)

24 Apr 2018 · Launch of the European Minimum Income Network (EMIN) awareness raising Bus Tour

Meeting with Valdis Dombrovskis (Vice-President) and

20 Mar 2018 · Exchange of views on the involvement of civil society and EAPN in the European Semester at EU and national levels; and on implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights

Meeting with Ruth Paserman (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)

28 Nov 2017 · EAPN’s Assessment of the NRPs: Social Rights or Social Plight

Meeting with Inge Bernaerts (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen), Vasiliki Kokkori (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)

4 Oct 2017 · Social policy

Meeting with Ruth Paserman (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)

14 Jun 2017 · Beyond 2020 - What EU strategy to fight poverty?

Meeting with Raquel Lucas (Cabinet of Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis)

13 Sept 2016 · Exchange of views on EAPN assesment of EU Semester/CSRs, specifically on poverty and social inclusion

Meeting with Vasiliki Kokkori (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)

14 Jun 2016 · European Meeting of People Experiencing Poverty

Meeting with Stefaan Hermans (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)

15 Mar 2016 · Discussion with a view to the 1st Annual Convention on Inclusive Growth

Meeting with Christian Linder (Cabinet of Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič) and European Federation of Public Service Unions

11 Sept 2015 · Energy Poverty

Meeting with Valdis Dombrovskis (Vice-President) and

17 Mar 2015 · EU macroeconomic governance, streamlining of the European Semester, role of social indicators. Midterm review of Europe 2020 strategy, progress towards headline targets, including poverty reduction target.

Meeting with Stefaan Hermans (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen), Vasiliki Kokkori (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)

22 Jan 2015 · Meeting to discuss EU policy responses in the field of poverty and social exclusion.

Meeting with Luc Tholoniat (Cabinet of President Jean-Claude Juncker)

21 Jan 2015 · Priorités sociales

Meeting with Michel Servoz (Director-General Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) and Eurochild AISBL

19 Jan 2015 · To present the impact of the Alliances’ work and lessons learnt