Activities of Ilda FIGUEIREDO related to 2010/2039(INI)
Reports (1)
REPORT on the role of minimum income in combating poverty and promoting an inclusive society in Europe PDF (243 KB) DOC (210 KB)
Amendments (35)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 1 a (new)
Citation 1 a (new)
– having regard to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) adopted in 1979,
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 2
Citation 2
– having regard to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, reconfirmed during the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, in particular Articles 3, 16, 18, 23, 25, 26, 27 and 29,
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5
Citation 5
– having regard to International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions Nos 26 and 131 on minimum wage fixing and No 29 and 105 on the abolishment of forced labour,
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 a (new)
Citation 5 a (new)
- having regard to the ILO report "A global alliance against forced labour. Global report under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Report of the Director-General, 2005",
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 b (new)
Citation 5 b (new)
– having regard to Articles 34, 35 and 36 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which specifically define the right to social and housing assistance, a high level of human health protection and access to services of general economic interest1, 1 (OJ C 303, 14.12.2007, p. 1.)
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 c (new)
Citation 5 c (new)
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the opinion of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (A6-0364/2008),
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas poverty and social exclusion are violations of human dignity and fundamental human rights, and the central objective of income support schemes must be to lift people out of poverty and enable them to live in dignity,
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas the risk of falling into extreme poverty is greater for women than for men; whereas the persistent trend towards feminisation of poverty in European societies today demonstrates that the current framework of social protection systems and the wide range of social, economic and employment policies in the Union are not designed to meet women's needs or to address the differences in women's work; whereas poverty among women and their social exclusion in Europe requires specific, multiple and gender-specific policy responses,
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F b (new)
Recital F b (new)
Fb. whereas the risk of falling into extreme poverty is greater for women than for men, particularly in old age, because social security systems are often based on the principle of continuous remunerated employment; whereas an individualised right to a poverty preventing minimum income should not be conditional on employment related contributions,
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas account should be taken of the multidimensional nature of poverty and social exclusion, the existence of particularly vulnerable population groups (children, women and elderly people), which also include people with disabilities, immigrants, large or single-parent families, the chronically ill and the homeless, as well as the need to incorporate action to prevent and combat poverty and exclusion in other policies, with a guarantee of universal access to public services, high- quality jobs with rights and aninfrastructure and services of general interest, high- quality jobs with rights and a poverty preventing guaranteed minimum income allowenabling people to live withsocial, cultural and political participation and a life in dignity,
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
Recital M
M. whereas the role of social protection systems is to ensure the level of social cohesion needed for development guaranteeing social inclusion, which also implies a poverty preventing individually guaranteed minimum income, improving the level of education training of those people excluded from the labour market and guaranteeing equal opportunities in the exercise of fundamental rights,
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N a (new)
Recital N a (new)
Na. having regard to the gravity of the economic and social crisis and its impact in terms of growing poverty and exclusion and rising unemployment (from 6.7% at the beginning of 2008 to 9.5% at the end of 2009), with one-third of the jobless being affected by long-term unemployment, a situation that is worse in the more economically vulnerable Member States,
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N b (new)
Recital N b (new)
Nb. whereas certain Member States are under pressure from the Council and Commission and from international bodies such as the IMF to undertake the short-term reduction of their budget deficits, which have been worsened by the crisis, and to make cuts in spending, including social expenditure, thus undermining the welfare state and exacerbating poverty,
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N c (new)
Recital N c (new)
Nc. having regard to increasing social inequality in certain Member States, the result above all of economic inequality in terms of income and wealth distribution, labour market inequalities, social insecurity, and unequal access to the social functions of the state such as welfare, health, education, the legal system, etc;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N d (new)
Recital N d (new)
Nd. having regard to the application of the EU's policy for social inclusion, and in particular the objectives and European programme adopted under the Lisbon strategy at the beginning of the 2000 decade, with the implementation of the Open Method of Coordination and the common objectives to be achieved under the National Action Plans,
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N e (new)
Recital N e (new)
Ne. whereas most of the Member States now have large numbers of homeless, thanks to diverse factors, and this calls for specific measures for those people's social integration,
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Highlights the need for concrete measures to effectively and significantly reducradicate poverty and social exclusion, ensuring a fair redistribution of income and wealth and also, thereby giving meaning and content to the European Year for Combating Poverty and to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, including guaranteeing an adequatepoverty preventing and socially including minimum income schemes throughout the European Union;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Insists on the need to revise the austerity policies being imposed in some Member States to fight the crisis, and stresses the importance of effective action for solidarity, including reinforcement, mobility, anticipation of transfer and reduction of cofinancing in respect of budgetary funding for creating decent jobs, supporting productive sectors and fighting poverty and social exclusion, rather than creating new forms of dependence or increasing the debt still further;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Stresses the need for an evaluation of social inclusion policy, the application of the Open Method of Coordination, fulfilment of the joint objectives and the National Action Plans in the context of the development of poverty, with a view to more committed action at European and national level and fighting poverty by means of policies that are more inclusive and coherent and better articulated, aimed at eradicating absolute poverty and child poverty by 2015, as well as substantially reducing relative poverty;
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for the promotion of social integration and inclusion, in order to guarantee protection of fundamental human rights, and clear commitments to draw up EU and national policies to combat poverty and social exclusion, by ensuring universal access to public health services, education, vocational education and training, housing and energy provision, and social protection, in addition to employment with rights, fairand wages, decent pensions and an adequate income for everyoneminimum income schemes for everyone that guarantees freedom from poverty and ensures social, cultural and political inclusion;
Amendment 123 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that the European Commission, in its "‘Europe 2020"’ strategy document, announces that removing the risk of poverty for 20 million people is one of the EU'’s five headline targets; believereminds that this target should be at least doubled and made more credible with appropriatefalls behind the initial ambitions of the Lisbon Strategy (overcome poverty), believes that poverty and social exclusion must be eradicated by credible, concrete and binding measures;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Believes that priority should be given to fighting social inequality, especially in the context of economic inequality in terms of income and wealth distribution, labour market inequalities, social insecurity, and unequal access to the social functions of the state such as welfare, health, education, the legal system, etc;
Amendment 129 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Calls on the Council and the EU Member States to base the "Europe 2020" headline target to tackle poverty on the relative poverty indicator (60% of the median income threshold), as endorsed by the Laeken European Council in December 2001, because this indicator sets the reality of poverty within the context of each member state, as it reflects an understanding of poverty as a relative condition;
Amendment 139 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Believes that the various experiments with minimum incomes, accompanied by additional social integration measures, show that this is a further essential way of combating poverty and social exclusion; therefore calls on the European Commission to prepare an initiative supporting these experiments, taking into account best practices and ensuring an adequateindividually guaranteed poverty preventing minimum income schemes throughout the European Union as a means to preventeradicate poverty and guarantee social justice and equal opportunities for all, without calling into question the specific situations in each Member State;
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Believes that particular attention and additional measures are needed for the homeless on the part of both the Member States and the Commission, with a view to their full integration into society by 2015; this will require collecting comparable data and reliable statistics at Community level, as well as their annual publication, together with an account of the progress achieved and the objectives defined in the respective national and Community strategies for fighting poverty and social exclusion;
Amendment 152 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Believes that the Commission initiative on a guaranteed minimum income should take account of Recommendation 92/441/EEC, which recognises 'the fundamental right of the individual to sufficient resources in respect of human dignity', while insisting that the central objective of income support schemes should be that of taking people out of poverty and allowing them to live a decent life, decent invalidity and retirement pensions being included; with this in view, recommends that the Commission consider establishing a common method for calculating a minimum survival income and a cost-of- living minimum (a 'shopping-basket' of goods and services), with a view to ensuring the availability of comparative measurements of poverty levels and establishing means of social intervention;
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses the urgent need to define and use appropriate economic and social indicators in various areas (health, housing, energy provision, social and cultural inclusion, mobility, education, income and employment), which will allow the progress made in combating poverty and promoting social inclusion to be monitored and measured; states that these indicators should be presented annually on International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17 October), should evolve as necessary and should include gender, age ranges, households, disability situations, immigration, chronic illness and various income levels (60% of median income; 50% of median income; 40% of median income) in order to take account of relative poverty, extreme poverty and the most vulnerable groups;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Insists on the need for specific additional provisions for less-favoured groups (those with disabilities or chronic illnesses, single-parent families and families with large numbers of children) who incur additional costs, in particular related to personal assistance, use of specific facilities, medical care and social support;
Amendment 166 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the Commission and the EU Member States to examine how different models of unconditional and poverty precluding basic incomes for all could contribute to social, cultural and political inclusion, taking especially into account their non-stigmatising character and their ability to prevent cases of concealed poverty;
Amendment 170 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Recalls that the risk of falling into extreme poverty is greater for women than for men, given the shortcomings of the welfare systems and continuing discrimination, especially on the labour market; these factors necessitate a whole range of specific policies, which should be both gender-oriented and attentive to circumstances;
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 c (new)
Paragraph 6 c (new)
6c. Believes that poverty affecting people in employment implies inequitable working conditions, and calls for efforts to change this state of affairs so that pay levels in general and minimum wage levels in particular, whether laid down in law or agreed via collective bargaining, can ensure a decent standard of living:
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Urges those people in a state ofCalls for an integration of people experiencing poverty and their representative organisations to participateand networks in the preparation and, application and monitoring of policies, measures and indicators at European, national, regional and local levels;
Amendment 180 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Deeply regrets that some Member States appear not to have regard to Council Recommendation 92/441/EEC, which recognises the 'basic right of a person to sufficient resources and social assistance to live in a manner compatible with human dignity';
Amendment 186 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Stresses that minimum income schemes must cover fuel costs to allow poor households affected by energy poverty to pay their energy bills; minimum income schemes must be calculated on the basis of realistic assessments of how much it costs to heat a home related to the specific household needs – e.g. family with children, older people and disabled persons.
Amendment 187 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8b. Points out that most Member States in EU-27 have national minimum income schemes, but several do not; encourages the Member States to provide for poverty preventing guaranteed minimum income schemes for social inclusion, and urges them to exchange best practice; recognises that, where there is provision of social assistance, Member States have a duty to ensure that citizens understand and are able to obtain their entitlements.