Implementation dialogue on measures to combat poverty

The Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness Roxana Mînzatu and Director-General Mario Nava of DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion engaged in a constructive exchange on challenges and opportunities identified in the implementation of the two Council Recommendations with 19 stakeholders, including representatives of Member States, regional and local authorities, social partners, and civil society organisations. 

All participants welcomed the announcement of upcoming EU Anti-Poverty Strategy and the strengthening of the European Child Guarantee.

Implementation of the Council Recommendation on adequate minimum income ensuring active inclusion

Challenges

The participants highlighted the lack of adequacy of minimum income benefits, within available fiscal space, and non-take up challenges. Administrative barriers and conditionality make access to benefits more difficult, particularly for vulnerable groups. Citizens’ lack of familiarity or trust towards public authorities was also signaled as a reason why certain groups do not access or even request already available social assistance programmes.

Several pointed out the need to activate people who can work but are currently outside of the labour market, by addressing barriers to enter the labour market, creating sustainable individualised pathways to employment and improving access to quality jobs. At the same time, several participants drew attention to persistent in-work poverty, arguing that in many cases, a job alone is not sufficient to lift a person out of poverty. In the context of activation, a few stakeholders shared their concern that sanctions for not engaging in activation measures may need to be accompanied by counseling to be effective.

The coordination of stakeholders in the area of minimum income and active inclusion was identified as a key challenge. In this regard, the lack of solid comparable data and its limited exchange between different institutions and services was repeatedly brought up. The participants agreed that support should be integrated, enabling, and personalized, with some highlighting the need for social services to adopt a proactive approach. While the adoption of the Recommendation was welcomed as a crucial step by most participants, a few of them shared the wish for a binding EU legislative instrument on minimum income.

Other challenges mentioned by some participants were the poverty concentration in urban districts or entrepreneurial poverty in the form of inequal access to social protection for self-employed.

Opportunities

Participants agreed that minimum income policies need to be linked to inclusive employment and that the support for individuals should be personalised and integrated to increase take-up and be effective. To this end, cooperation between social, education/training and employment services, as well as support for training courses and coaching programmes are essential. In addition, addressing territorial disparities is key to creating an effective ‘right to stay’. There was agreement that in-work benefits can play a role in addressing in-work poverty, to complement structural measures to ensure that work pays. 

Another opportunity identified by the stakeholders was to strengthen mutual learning such as the Minimum Income Network working group (MINET) and use research results on what works in different Member States. 

Regarding delivery, outreach of employment services was identified as a key opportunity, particularly in areas with high poverty rates. Participants signaled the importance of inclusion of people experiencing poverty in policy design and implementation. 

Lastly, participants pointed to EU funding as an opportunity to improve governments’ capacity and to the European Semester as a tool to provide policy guidance. Some participants asked for the direct involvement and participation of regional and local authorities in the design of EU funding and the opportunity to directly apply for EU funding.

Implementation of the Council Recommendation establishing a European Child Guarantee

Challenges

For the European Child Guarantee (ECG), the main implementation challenge shared was fragmentation, both within and between different levels of government (national, regional, local), as well as across policy areas and services. 

As regards implementation of the five key strands of the ECG, stakeholders highlighted remaining gaps particularly in access to early childhood education and care and affordable housing. Limited access to quality services in rural areas, the need for early identification measures, and lack of information and awareness were also referred to as elements hindering take-up of child services. 

Other challenges brought forward by multiple participants were insufficient identification of ‘children in need’, and the lack of available administrative data. 

Furthermore, stakeholders also highlighted that there is insufficient support available for young adults who turn 18 years old and are not covered by support measures for children anymore. For example, having to leave youth care after turning 18 is a recurring pathway into homelessness. 

Participants highlighted that it is difficult to keep child poverty on the political agenda, and that funding is limited and often only temporary and project based. 

Opportunities

According to the participants, early intervention and continued support are essential. Next to strengthening school meal programmes, extracurricular activities (for example, sports and cultural activities) should be expanded. Creating youth housing centers is a potential avenue to support young adults leaving alternative care. Participants agreed that considering recent developments, mental and emotional support services for children are crucial. To ensure that their voices are heard, some participants called for meaningful child participation in policy design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

Data collection and analysis were a prominent topic as well: participants indicated enhanced data collection, including at the municipal level, as an opportunity to better design and target policies. 

In terms of coordination and delivery, multiple stakeholders called for a strong mandate for the national Child Guarantee coordinators, low threshold access to services, the involvement of municipal and local level, and a stronger outreach. Also, successful examples of national and local schemes with a positive impact and high returns, such as universal school meals, should be scaled up.

Many participants pointed to the importance of ensuring predictable and safeguarded funding under the new Multiannual Financial Framework. Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu encouraged participants to continue engagement and welcomed written contributions. 

List of participants

Member States Representatives

• Belgium: Public Planning Service for Social Integration
• Bulgaria: Representation of the Republic of Bulgaria to the EU
• Estonia: Permanent Representation of Estonia to the EU
• Spain: Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU
• Italy: Ministry of Labour and Social Policies
• Romania: Ministry of Labour and Social Policy

Representatives from the regional/local level

• City of Ghent
• Lyon Métropole
• City of Rotterdam

Social partners

• European Trade Union Confederation 
• BusinessEurope
• Services of General Interest Europe
• SMEunited

Representatives from civil society organizations

• All Together in Dignity Fourth World
• European Anti-Poverty Network
• EU Alliance for Investing in Children
• European Food Banks Federation

Observers

• Eurocities
• EUROFOUND
• European Network of Public Employment Services
• OECD
• UNICEF

Related links

EU initiatives on affordability

General information on minimum income in the EU

2025 Minimum Income Report

General information on European Child Guarantee

European Child Guarantee National action plans and progress reports

Public consultation Anti-poverty Strategy