E.M.E.R.G.E. - European Mobility Enabling to Reduce th Ground of Exclusion - European Project hosted by Istituto Sturzo in partnership with ESA and FCASEC

Social inclusion beyond the European Year 2010

Society and poeple with disabilities: future challenges for the EU

giovedì, May 26th, 2011

The fight against poverty and exclusion is still a key challenge for EU. The Member States are committed to reinforcing the institutional mechanism adopting an integrated system, considering themes on social inclusion in national-level policies.

Promoting inclusion means to work in order to assure equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation and to guarantee unquestionable dignity and participation opportunities to all. All the citizens should not be left apart in the personal life and work but actively involved in their community and in the European context.

It also means to act with the aim of making the society truly inclusive and capable of adapting to correspond to the citizens’ concrete rights.

Even if there is an intrinsic solidarity which fully acknowledges the need of adaptations for people with mild disabilities in European societies, people with severe or multiple disabilities need more help in terms of human rights and inclusion. Many disabled people continue to suffer discrimination with regard to the lack of equal recognition before the law and justice. Member States have to remedy these deficiencies including electoral rights.

Compared to the average, people with disabilities have more chance of being poor; around 80 million people with disabilities are poor, including one million deaf people.

In line with what emerged during the European Year for Combating Poverty and social, we need to consider that it is impossible to reduce poverty without integrating people with disabilities in the labor market and to adjust policies supporting incomes in case of disability.

The current systems of education and training do not prevent the dropout among people with disabilities. Its high rate leads to greater social disadvantage and employment especially in this time of economic crisis.

Succeeding in the workplace is still very difficult for people with disabilities, but there are good examples that could show the possibility of a change involving all the EU countries in implementing non-discriminatory and inclusive policies.

An example of this success is the experience of Hungarian Ádám Kósa EPP deputy who oversaw the report on "European strategy on disability 2010-2020. 

An example of this success is the experience of Ádám Kósa, MEP of  PPE, author of the report on EU’s disability strategy 2010-2020.

An interesting interview with Ádám Kósa on problems that disabled people face is published on the European Parliament website here.

European Union between defense of the Treaties and electoral consensus

From 2010 Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion to 2014 Year of European elections

giovedì, March 31st, 2011

The full text of the E.M.E.R.G.E. publication can be read here:

European Union between defense of the Treaties and electoral consensus

Fighting poverty through inclusion

lunedì, August 30th, 2010

The European year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion had many state presidents wondering how to go about the issue of poverty, since they could not decide how the legal possession of a home counts in the assessment whether a person is considered poor or not. Because of this, the presidents have not been able to find a method to reduce poverty. Moreover, education and poverty were the only issues that the state presidents of the 27 EU member countries could not agree upon.

Romanian president Traian Băsescu urged the Romanian people to stop lamenting, because they are not the only ones experiencing the aftereffects of the crisis, and start working hard instead.
But despite the view of the Romanian president, Romanian city halls are fighting against poverty in their own way: by reducing social exclusion.

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FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY IN EUROPE

A well-known phenomenon in a slightly modified form

mercoledì, July 21st, 2010

2010 is the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. Poverty and social exclusion are two interconnected, interdependent and extremely complex social phenomena that cannot be comprehensively defined within a whole book, not to mention within a single article. Poverty is the more traditional term, commonly perceived in strictly economic sense, which seems to constantly evolve and include more aspects. Social exclusion is a relatively new concept that has a multidimensional nature, including, again, a focus on the economic status of the individual. Even after recognizing the complexity of the two issues, we still need to admit the priority of the economic aspects in both phenomena. In this line of thinking, we also need to recall another social-economic phenomenon that has been widely discussed at EU level and that is still observed, especially in times of crisis. This phenomenon is directly linked to social exclusion in its definition as “each type of societal disadvantage” and is definitely related to poverty. Formulation of the cause-and-effect links, though, would be far more difficult. This phenomenon is traditionally known as “gender discrimination” and it can also be widely discussed in view of the various aspects of its manifestations. However, having in mind that 2010 is announced the year to fight poverty and social exclusion, let us concentrate on one single, but significant enough, aspect of gender inequality, which has evolved and been defined as a separate phenomenon itself – “feminization of poverty”.

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Disabled people: fighting poverty through inclusion

venerdì, July 9th, 2010

People with disabilities are full citizens who have equal rights, are entitled to dignity, equal treatment, independent living and full participation in society as non – disabled people. Despite equal rights for non – disabled people, they have more difficulty in finding a job with a decent income. Reaching a good level of education is another problem they have to face; even when they reach high education studies they are much less employed in high level jobs. People with disabilities represent one sixth of the overall EU working population but their employment rate is comparatively low.
2003 was the European Year of People with Disabilities and one of the main objectives was achieving equal rights for people with disabilities and since this year the Commission’s disability strategy has been to make equal opportunities a reality. The Commission’s strategy is to integrate the disability issues in all UE policies: this is made since 2003 through the EU Disability action plan (DAP), a “mainstreaming” strategy. The DAP is developed in 2 years phases. Each phase is focused on one special issue – the 2008-2009 DAP focus is accessibility. The Commission is preparing the new strategy for 2010-2020¹.
The aim of DAP strategy for 2003-2010 was to enable disabled people to play an active role in society, improving employment and education prospect to increase their access to goods and services. Member States design their own strategy for the inclusion of disabled people in the labour market, in educational initiatives and in all other initiatives that can help disabled people living independently, get transportation, access to information, access to buildings and infrastructures. European Union is committed to respect the Human Rights of all people, but the fundamental rights of millions of disabled people (disabled people in the EU are 65 million) are regularly violated in many Member States².

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Education for inclusion

2010 European Awards for Lifelong Learning and a new European Legislation for combating poverty and social exclusion.

lunedì, June 7th, 2010

 

The Spanish Presidency of the European Union has placed, in 2010, an emphasis on more education and training, better quality and comprehensive inclusion.

One of the priorities of the European Year for combating poverty and social exclusion relates to the importance of facilitating access to education and training to all, regardless of age or social group.

To prove how important is the education in supporting social cohesion, active citizenship, intercultural  dialogue and equality between men and women, six EU-funded education projects aimed at promoting social inclusion were named on May, 19 as winners of the 2010 European Awards for Lifelong Learning. The winning projects are from Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom and involve partners in several European countries to demonstrate that important goals can be achieved by working together across borders.

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