Paul Murphy (GUE/NGL). - Mr President, the economic crisis and austerity have devastated many people’s living standards. In that context the discontinuation of the food distribution programme for the most deprived by the very institutions that are opposing this austerity and pushing millions into poverty was utterly shameful. I was therefore happy to vote in favour of the report on setting up a fund for aid for the most deprived.

According to Eurostat in 2011, 120 million people in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion and shockingly 8.8% of the population are severely materially deprived. The amount of money the EU is prepared to put into this fund now is grossly inadequate next to these enormous challenges. To fight poverty an immediate and radical increase in funding for aid programmes is needed but also impoverishing austerity policies must be ended and a fundamentally different economy based on democratic public ownership and control should be built to guarantee a life of dignity for all.