Fighting poverty in the EU by 2035

The EU Parliament has adopted an own-initiative report on the Commission's planned EU strategy to combat poverty and social exclusion. MEPs are calling for greater coordination at EU level and for poverty to be explicitly recognized as a violation of human dignity and a violation of fundamental human rights. The aim must be to eliminate poverty in the EU by 2035 at the latest, including through better access to affordable essential goods, public services and affordable housing. The background is that in 2024 around 93.3 million people in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including around 20 million children. Parliament points out that the current EU targets for 2030, although foreseeing a reduction, would still leave millions of people in poverty. The report also highlights that certain groups - such as children, single parents, women, older people, people with disabilities and migrants - are particularly at risk. What is therefore required, among other things, are measures for fair wages, better working conditions, more effective social security systems and a stronger fight against discrimination and stigmatization of those affected by poverty. In addition, those affected should be more closely involved in the design and evaluation of the strategy, for example through national action plans, coordinators in the member states and a regular European review of progress. Attention: The voting results shown on the right only reflect the voting behavior of the 96 German MEPs and not that of all 720 MEPs. The own-initiative report was adopted overall with 385 votes in favour, 141 against and 53 abstentions. Of the German MEPs, 58 voted for and 17 against. There were four abstentions.

Vote breakdown