Ninth Round Table on Poverty and Social Exclusion
The Ninth Round Table on Poverty and Social Exclusion is an event organised by the Belgian presidency in cooperation with the European Commission. For two days, participants will discuss poverty and how it can be combated. The central theme is the recommendation for active inclusion, with the emphasis on the importance of a minimum income throughout the whole of the Union. The Round Table is followed by an informal meeting of European ministers with a mandate to tackle poverty.
In October, the European Commission is organising the ninth Round Table on Poverty and Social Exclusion in cooperation with the EU presidency. During this meeting, European and national policy-makers, NGOs and other stakeholders meet to discuss the problem of poverty in Europe. The participation of ‘hands-on’ poverty experts is crucially important for the Belgian presidency.
The central subject for the Round Table is the recommendation by the European Commission for Active Inclusion, which aims to re-integrate people who have been excluded from the labour market into society. The emphasis will primarily be placed on the practical implementation and application of the recommendation: by comparing good and informative practices from the various member states, conclusions can be drawn about which approaches work and which don’t, and why this is the case. Special attention will be paid to the minimum income, one of the three mainstays of the strategy, because Belgium strongly believes that having a minimum income is necessary to help people out of poverty. The other two mainstays, inclusive labour markets and access to high-quality services, will also be looked at during the various workshops. The three mainstays of the strategy must not be seen separately from each other: this integrated approach for the strategy will be emphasised.
The recommendation for active inclusion will also be examined in the wider context of the new Europe2020 strategy, where the combating of poverty is an important point of attention for the European Union.