From 2010 Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion to 2014 Year of European elections
giovedì, March 31st, 2011The 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
The risk of social exclusion of Roma minority
venerdì, September 10th, 2010
The PDL (Democratic Liberal Party) deputy Adrian Gurzău announced he will initiate a law to prohibit the use of the name Rom instead of Gypsy arguing that the appellation Rom harms the Romanians abroad.
«Regarding the name of Rom, I will propose in the Romanian Parliament a law to forbid the use of the appellation Rom instead of Gypsy, in order to remove confusion between the two names (Rom and Romanian), confusion which has often brought harm to Romanians abroad », says a press release of the deputy.
Gurzău argues that the name Rom is a « conventional one, recently established and has no historical argumentation».
«The other European nations call the Roma population Gypsies (using words having the same root with Gypsy: Gitan (fr.) Gipsy (en.), Gitano (sp.), Tiganski (bg.), Tîgan (rus.), Zigeuner (ger.) etc. In linguistic formulas of their traditional culture the term Rom « does not exist », says the PDL deputy, arguing that even « the choice of the name Rom only in the case of the Gypsies in Romania is deliberately chosen to leave room for confusion» .
«I must clearly specify that I make this legislative proposal as a mean of protection for the Romanians who could be affected by ill-treatment and discrimination in the countries hostile to Gypsies, unfairly. As a Romanian deputy I consider it is my duty to defend the Romanians against possible discrimination, especially when history says we are right », is also mentioned in Gurzău’s press release.
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.
A debate on the consequences of Greece crisis between Bulgarian researcher Nikolay Anachkov and Italian research coordinator Pietro Celotti
venerdì, July 2nd, 2010
Eurozone represents the second largest economy in the world. On the first decade of existence Euro became the second largest reserve currency after the U.S. dollar and surpassed the U.S. dollar’s circulation. The Euro appeared to be very strong, so it is understandable that when the debt crisis started to affect the Eurozone, Member States' citizens reacted differently. If some of them truly believe that European Union is a powerful organisation and the crisis will pass, others can already see the end of the Union.
Nikolay Anachkov: In 2009 it became clear that something in the Greek financial system is not so all right. Actually, Greece’s economy has not been in balance for years, but everyone in the European Union preferred not to raise this question, maybe hoping that it should solve all by itself. It would be very nice if that happened, but as we know, in real life things like this never happen. If you want to cope with some problem you should try hard to solve them. But what European Union did was just the opposite.
Pietro Celotti: I catch your personal disappointment but it seems necessary to focus on the actual institutional responsibilities. It is right that Eurozone was seriously affected, but Greece’s debt crisis was produced mainly because for some years they have covered up their bad economic performances by officially presenting better economic figures than it was the case. Although the Commission has the responsibility for monitoring statistical data, they do not directly compile statistics or control their production, but it depends largely on the data compiled and reported by the member states, as well as the administrative ability, good will and loyal co-operation of the respective national authorities. In this sense, European Union could not intervene with objective measures, even if the reliability of Greek government deficit and debt statistics has been the subject of continuous and unique attention for several years.
Included in the country partnership and summing 58.5 million dollars, borrowed by the Romanian Government from the World Bank to meet the commitments of the (JIM) Joint Inclusion Memorandum signed by the Romanian Government with the European Union in June 2005, the social inclusion program stipulates the improvement of living conditions and social inclusion for some of the most disadvantaged population groups, including Roma minority.
Project Description
The project aims to improve living conditions and social inclusion of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people from Romania and has four components.
1. Priority intervention program summing 11 million Euros, will be implemented by the RSDF (Romanian Social Development Fund) in collaboration with the National Agency for the Roma, which will award grants to fund small projects in poor Roma localities in order to improve living conditions and social inclusion of Roma population from about 100 (one hundred) poor localities by: (i) the financing of sub-projects of priority interventions granted awarded under competitive conditions, (ii) the promotion, information and education campaigns and by monitoring the evaluation activities, as well as by training the local authorities, the community groups and NGOs, (iii) by providing assistance for the development of the capacity at the level of the communities, through preparation, facilitation, evaluation and supervision of priority intervention sub-projects and by providing training and instruction in this regard, including training granted by RSDF, and (iv) by providing technical assistance to poor Roma communities to prepare their projects funded from EU funds.
RO The employment and social committee at the EP votes on the draft proposal in June
venerdì, May 7th, 2010
In March 2010, members of the European Parliament, after discussions with employers’ and workers’ organizations agreed on studying the possible impact of the introduction of uniform minimum income level across the EU. The Employment and Social Committee at the European Parliament is going to vote on the draft proposal in June. In case this proposal is approved, it means that a new EU Directive will be developed which will guarantee that Marco from Italy, Bogdan from Romania and Ivan from Bulgaria will get the same minimum salary, in relative terms. Will this really be the end of poverty across Europe?
The EU is often perceived by EU citizens as a distant structure that does not have an impact on their daily lives. Many people, especially in new member-states, are not aware of the activities of the European Commission and Parliament and do not understand how the actions of EU institutions can improve their lifestyles. The introduction of a Directive establishing a minimum income would help fill in the gap. It will demonstrate a strong political commitment of the EU to social cohesion. Such a measure would also give a tangible meaning and content to the European Year for combating poverty and social exclusion, apart from awareness-raising campaigns. It will be a more “visible” step towards the achievement of the “Europe 2020” Strategy document, aiming at removing the risk of poverty for 20 million people in EU and also for better protection of fundamental human rights.
The new Italian approach on combating poverty and social exclusion…
venerdì, May 7th, 2010
Lorenzo Malagola, a representative of the Italian Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Policies presented the National Campaign for the aid against the solitude and poverty during a meeting with the researchers of E.M.E.R.G.E. project on Tuesday, 4th of May 2010 at Luigi Sturzo Institute in Rome.
The National Campaign is complementary to the European year for combating poverty and social exclusion. The government has developed a new approach to combat poverty and social exclusion, based on the new perspective that poverty is the result of a weak framework of family and community relationships. The aim of the campaign is to place the individual in the core of the society by boosting people’s responsibility so that they come out of poverty. In order to do that as effectively as possible, the Ministry involves volunteer associations and other non-profit organizations that work directly with people on the ground.
The Role of Minimum Income and Discrimination in the Labour Market
venerdì, May 7th, 2010
The common understanding of the European Union’s wealthiness is that EU is a rich and stable union. On the contrary, according to Eurobarometer statistics there are almost 84 million people live at risk of poverty. There are various definitions of poverty and social exclusion. The most common one is that poverty is the condition of people not having the means to afford basic human needs. There are different levels of poverty in every single country and the poverty level is also different in relation with the economic level of the country. We can define social exclusion as a process that deals with social rupture, detached groups and individuals by preventing them from full and active participation in normal daily life. There are 3 different levels of poverty and all of them have different relation with social exclusion. The first group is poor people who do not have enough money to survive but they are not socially excluded. The second group is people who are poor and also socially excluded but they still have the force to react to their situation. The third one consists of people who are poor, socially excluded and unable to react to their situation (extreme poverty).