REPORT on developing a new EU anti-poverty strategy

22.12.2025 - (2025/2095(INI))

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
Rapporteur: João Oliveira
PR_INI

Amendments

• 001-001 (PDF - 99 KB)
• 001-001 (DOC - 38 KB)
• 002-002 (PDF - 96 KB)
• 002-002 (DOC - 40 KB)
• 003-005 (PDF - 123 KB)
• 003-005 (DOC - 44 KB)
• 006-006 (PDF - 111 KB)
• 006-006 (DOC - 41 KB)
• 007-007 (PDF - 114 KB)
• 007-007 (DOC - 40 KB)
• 008-008 (PDF - 109 KB)
• 008-008 (DOC - 40 KB)
• 009-009 (PDF - 110 KB)
• 009-009 (DOC - 40 KB)
• 010-011 (PDF - 112 KB)
• 010-011 (DOC - 43 KB)
• 012-012/REV1 (PDF - 109 KB)
• 012-012/REV1 (DOC - 75 KB)
• 012-013 (PDF - 120 KB)
• 012-013 (DOC - 79 KB)

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

on developing a new EU anti-poverty strategy

(2025/2095(INI))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to Articles 2 and 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union,

– having regard to Articles 145 to 161 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

– having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,

– having regard to the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) and its action plan, with its 2030 targets, and the EU social scoreboard and its headline and secondary indicators,

– having regard to the Porto Declaration of 8 May 2021, the renewed commitments at the 2023 Porto Social Forum, and the La Hulpe Declaration of 16 April 2024,

– having regard to the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in New York in September 2015,

– having regard to the Sustainable Development Report 2025[1], published on 24 June 2025,

– having regard to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted in 1979,

– having regard to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention), adopted on 11 May 2011,

– having regard to the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted in New York on 16 December 1966,

– having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in New York on 20 November 1989, and to the General Comments of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child,

– having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted in New York on 12 December 2006,

– having regard to the UN General Assembly resolution of 18 December 2019 on the rights of the child,

– having regard to the conventions of the International Labour Organization, including Convention No 102 on Social Security (Minimum Standards), Convention No 111 concerning discrimination in respect of employment and occupation, and Convention No 189 on decent work for domestic workers,

– having regard to the European Social Charter, adopted in Turin in 1961,

– having regard to Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin[2],

– having regard to Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation[3],

– having regard to Directive (EU) 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers and repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU[4],

– having regard to Directive (EU) 2022/2041 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on adequate minimum wages in the European Union[5],

– having regard to Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms[6],

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2023/955 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 establishing a Social Climate Fund and amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1060[7],

– having regard to Directive (EU) 2024/1385 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 on combating violence against women and domestic violence[8],

– having regard to the Commission communication of 7 March 2025 entitled ‘A Roadmap for Women’s Rights’ (COM(2025)0097),

– having regard to its resolution of 30 January 2020 on the gender pay gap[9],

– having regard to its resolution of 21 January 2021 on access to decent and affordable housing for all[10],

– having regard to its resolution of 10 February 2021 on reducing inequalities with a special focus on in-work poverty[11],

– having regard to its resolution of 11 March 2021 on children’s rights in view of the EU Strategy on the rights of the child[12],

– having regard to its resolution of 29 April 2021 on the European Child Guarantee[13],

– having regard to its resolution of 5 July 2022 on women’s poverty in Europe[14],

– having regard to its resolution of 5 October 2022 on the situation of Roma people living in settlements in the EU[15],

– having regard to its resolution of 15 March 2023 on adequate minimum income ensuring active inclusion[16],

– having regard to its resolution of 9 May 2023 on the implementation of the school scheme for fruit, vegetables, milk and dairy products under the Common Market Organisation Regulation[17],

– having regard to its resolution of 21 November 2023 on reducing inequalities and promoting social inclusion in times of crisis for children and their families[18],

– having regard to its resolution of 21 November 2023 entitled ‘Children first – strengthening the Child Guarantee, two years on from its adoption’[19],

– having regard to its resolution of 23 November 2023 on job creation – the just transition and impact investments[20],

– having regard to the Council Recommendation of 22 May 2019 on High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Systems[21],

– having regard to Commission Recommendation 2013/112/EU of 20 February 2013 entitled ‘Investing in children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage’[22],

– having regard to the Commission communication of 24 March 2021 entitled ‘EU strategy on the rights of the child’ (COM(2021)0142),

– having regard to Commission Recommendation (EU) 2024/1238 of 23 April 2024 on developing and strengthening integrated child protection systems in the best interests of the child[23],

– having regard to Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/1004 of 14 June 2021 establishing a European Child Guarantee[24],

– having regard to the Commission communication of 7 June 2023 on a comprehensive approach to mental health (COM(2023)0298),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 5 March 2020 entitled ‘A Union of Equality: Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025’ (COM(2020)0152),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 18 September 2020 entitled ‘A Union of equality: EU anti-racism action plan 2020-2025’ (COM(2020)0565),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 12 November 2020 entitled ‘Union of Equality: LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025’ (COM(2020)0698),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 7 October 2020 entitled ‘A Union of Equality: EU Roma strategic framework for equality, inclusion and participation’ (COM(2020)0620),

– having regard to the Council Recommendation of 12 March 2021 on Roma equality, inclusion and participation[25],

– having regard to the Commission Communication of 3 March 2021 entitled ‘Union of Equality: Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030’ (COM(2021)0101),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 27 January 2021 entitled ‘Green paper on ageing – Fostering solidarity and responsibility between generations’ (COM(2021)0050),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 9 December 2021 entitled ‘Building an economy that works for people; an action plan for the social economy’ (COM(2021)0778),

– having regard to the Council Recommendation of 8 November 2019 on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed[26],

– having regard to the Commission report of 28 June 2023 on access to essential services in the EU,

– having regard to the Council Recommendation of 30 January 2023 on adequate minimum income ensuring active inclusion[27],

– having regard to the European Platform on Combatting Homelessness, launched in 2021,

– having regard to the Commission communications of 30 June 2021 entitled ‘A long-term Vision for the EU’s Rural Areas – Towards stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040’ (COM(2021)0345) and of 27 March 2024 entitled ‘The long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas: key achievements and ways forward’ (COM(2024)0450),

– having regard to the opinion of the European Committee of the Regions of 14 October 2025 on an EU anti-poverty strategy[28],

– having regard to the relevant reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights,

– having regard to the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) position paper entitled ‘Towards the eradication of poverty – EAPN vision and recommendations for the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy’, published in 2025,

– having regard to the All Together in Dignity Fourth World position papers I and II entitled ‘Paving the Way towards an EU Anti-Poverty Strategy’, published in January and May 2025 respectively,

– having regard to the Social Platform position papers of March 2025 entitled ‘A post-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework for Social Europe’ and of May 2025 entitled ‘EU Anti-Poverty Strategy’,

– having regard to the Make Mothers Matter position paper entitled ‘Mothers’ Poverty in the EU’, published in 2025,

– having regard to the Commission study of 15 November 2024 entitled ‘Transport poverty: definitions, indicators, determinants, and mitigation strategies’,

– having regard to the Eurochild report entitled ‘Children’s Realities in Europe: Progress & Gaps – Eurochild 2024 flagship report on children in need across Europe’, published in 2024,

– having regard to Rule 55 of its Rules of Procedure,

– having regard to the opinion of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality,

– having regard to the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (A10-000/2025),

A. whereas in 2024, 93.3 million people in the EU (21.0 % of the population) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, which is only slightly lower than the 2019 level; and whereas in 2024, 21.9 % of the EU population living in family households with dependent children were at risk of poverty or social exclusion[29];

B. whereas severe material deprivation is defined as the lack of necessary and desirable items required to lead an adequate life; whereas, in 2024, 6.4 % of the EU population experienced severe material and social deprivation, including lack of adequate heating, overcrowded housing and inadequate nutrition; whereas children and women are disproportionately affected by this phenomenon compared to other population groups;

C. whereas in the 2021 EPSR action plan, the EU adopted the target of reducing the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million by 2030, compared to 2019 figures, including at least 5 million children; whereas even reaching this target would mean that around 78 million people in the EU, including 15 million children, would still be at risk of poverty and social exclusion by that time; whereas the Member States have committed themselves to national targets in order to achieve this headline goal and whereas the trend is pointing in the opposite direction for nearly half of the Member States;

D. whereas poverty constitutes a violation of human dignity that undermines the full realisation of human rights and reflects the unequal distribution of wealth; whereas the need to eradicate poverty requires a more equitable distribution of wealth, equal access to employment and services, and policies that ensure the indivisible and universal nature of political, economic, social and cultural rights; whereas poverty is a multifaceted phenomenon that extends beyond material deprivation and encompasses barriers to education, healthcare, social and democratic participation, and economic opportunity;

E. whereas without a change of approach to eradicating poverty at EU level, it will not be possible to reverse the trend and ensure that every individual has equal opportunities to participate in society; whereas the eradication of poverty requires a coordinated and holistic approach and integrated policies that work in concert to achieve social cohesion and prevent inequalities from worsening; whereas such a comprehensive strategy requires the involvement of Member States, local and regional authorities, social partners and civil society;

F. whereas single-parent families, particularly those headed by women, face an increased risk of poverty, of 32 % compared to just 11.2 % among two-parent families[30], causing family members to more frequently become trapped in a vicious circle of poverty passed down from generation to generation; whereas systemic factors such as a lack of access to services, housing instability, income insecurity and insufficient prevention and family support services undermine families’ ability to care for their children in community settings; whereas targeted preventive family support and assistance, including to victims of domestic abuse, are essential to empower and protect these families and break the cycles of poverty;

G. whereas indicators of the number of children at risk of poverty have increased from 23.6 % in 2019 to 24.2 % in 2024; whereas based on the current trajectory, the EU will fail to meet its target of reducing the number of children in poverty by at least 5 million by 2030; whereas significant disparities are observed among children of ethnic minority origin or from migrant backgrounds, children with disabilities and Roma children; whereas EU and national resources currently deployed are insufficient for addressing the challenge of child poverty in the EU;

H. whereas child poverty often stems from family poverty, and the absence of a comprehensive response means that poverty is perpetuated throughout the life cycle (in childhood, at work and in retirement); whereas in order to break intergenerational disadvantage, the focus must be on the entire family experiencing poverty – parents and children; whereas investing in children and youth, especially in early childhood education and care, including numeracy and literacy development, as well as family support, acts as a preventive measure against poverty and generates significant long-term social benefits, and should therefore not be seen only as social expenditure but as an investment in the future;

I. whereas on 14 June 2021, the Council adopted its Recommendation on a European Child Guarantee, which represents a major opportunity to reduce inequalities and promote the social inclusion of children, and demonstrates its commitment to an integrated policy aimed at breaking the vicious circle of poverty and to ensure that children in need have access to key services, for example free early childhood education and care services, free education (including school-based activities and at least one healthy meal per school day), free healthcare, healthy nutrition and adequate housing; whereas despite the fact that 5 % of European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) funding is earmarked specifically for the reduction of child poverty, the at-risk-of-poverty-or-social-exclusion (AROPE) rate among children has increased in some Member States, indicating the need for more ambitious and effective use of funding;

J. whereas access to quality early childhood education and care services is crucial for the healthy development of young children and to ensure equal educational opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, children with disabilities and those with specific educational needs, laying the foundation for breaking the cycle of poverty, promoting social inclusion and yielding high social returns in future; whereas according to the Commission, the EU needs to invest additional spending of more than EUR 11 billion per year to meet the Barcelona targets and ensure that, by 2030, at least 45 % of children below the age of three and at least 96 % of children between the age of three and the age of compulsory primary education participate in early childhood education and care[31];

K. whereas, in 2022, the average Programme for International Student Assessment score for the measures of basic skills (reading, mathematics and science) of 15-year-olds had decreased by 10 points compared to the last assessment in 2018; whereas underachievement is prevalent among disadvantaged learners, demonstrating a widening of educational inequalities; whereas quality education, with a particular focus on strengthening functional literacy, numeracy and digital competence as foundational skills, is an essential lever in the fight against poverty, as it can lead to better employment opportunities, improved living conditions and a positive impact on both mental and physical health; whereas investing in quality education, particularly for people from minority and vulnerable groups, is one of the most effective ways to sustainably and structurally reduce poverty;

L. whereas in the 2021 EPSR action plan, the EU adopted the target that at least 60 % of adults should participate in training every year by 2030; whereas Member States have committed themselves to national targets in order to achieve this headline goal and whereas the majority of Member States have lost ground in the pursuit of these national targets; whereas in 2022, the rate of adult participation in learning was at 39.5 %, still well below the EU target for 2030[32]; whereas further substantial efforts are needed to ensure the provision of, and access to, quality training policies that promote lifelong learning;

M. whereas women are affected by higher levels of poverty as a result of discrimination and inequalities compared to men, such as greater difficulties in accessing employment, wage disparities, lower work intensity, shorter professional careers, disparities in the value of pensions and social benefits[33], difficulties in accessing specific healthcare, and unequal distribution of care and domestic tasks[34]; whereas poverty among women, in all its diversity, must be understood as a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon that includes not only social, political and cultural aspects but also income, housing, health and access to education and social services, and cannot be eradicated by employment alone but requires a comprehensive, inclusive approach based on both prevention and alleviation of poverty; whereas in 2024, in all but two EU countries, the severe material and social deprivation rate was higher for women (6.6 %) than for men (6.2 %)[35], while the at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate was higher for women (21.9 %) than for men (20 %) in all EU countries[36]; whereas in the same year, 23.7 % of women and 22.7 % of men in the EU considered themselves to be poor[37], whereas 21.6 % of women aged 65 and over were at risk of poverty, compared to around 16.5 % of men in the same age group[38];

N. whereas there is a strong correlation between poverty and gender-based violence and poverty exacerbates the impact of gender-based violence, especially on marginalised women, such as LGBTIQ+ individuals; whereas women living in poverty face a higher risk of experiencing violence, including intimate partner violence and domestic violence, due to factors such as financial dependency, housing insecurity and reduced access to support services[39]; whereas across the Member States 30.7 % of women experience physical violence or threats and/or sexual violence by any perpetrator over their lifetime[40]; whereas poverty puts women at greater risk of trafficking and sexual exploitation;

O. whereas poverty is also both a cause and consequence of intersectional discrimination, disproportionately affecting individuals and communities, namely women, families, people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, Roma and Travellers, people experiencing homelessness, children in institutional care, LGBTQIA+ individuals, older and younger people, undocumented persons, migrants, persons with disabilities, people facing discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, people facing chronic diseases and addiction, informal carers and single parents; whereas these groups are more vulnerable to social exclusion, in addition to the intersection with other forms of human rights violation; whereas significant barriers exist in the current labour market and social protection systems for vulnerable and marginalised groups; whereas addressing poverty therefore requires policies that recognise and combat these overlapping forms of marginalisation, ensuring the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights for all people;

P. whereas in the EU in 2024, the risk of poverty or social exclusion for persons with disabilities was 61 % higher compared to people with no such limitations; whereas in the EU in 2023, approximately 20.2 % of persons aged 16 and over with a disability lived in a household at risk of poverty; whereas in the same age group, approximately 10.5 % of persons with a disability lived in a household at risk of severe material and social deprivation; whereas there is a 24 percentage point employment gap between persons with and without disabilities in the EU, and an even greater gap for women and young persons with disabilities[41];

Q. whereas Roma and Traveller communities continue to experience some of the highest levels of poverty and social exclusion in the EU, with up to 80 % at risk of poverty and 48 % facing severe material deprivation, and whereas Roma children are particularly vulnerable to these conditions; whereas data indicates that Roma women face greater disadvantages than both Roma men and other women in core areas of social life, such as education, employment and health[42];

R. whereas in 2021, 25 % of Roma reported experiencing discrimination in the preceding 12 months in everyday situations, including job seeking, in the workplace, housing, healthcare and education, as well as segregation, and socio-economic exclusion[43], resulting in disproportionately high levels of poverty; whereas 80 % of Roma live below their national at-risk-of-poverty threshold[44];

S. whereas digital exclusion persists in the EU, depriving individuals and groups of fully accessing and using information and communication technologies, thereby hindering their participation in economic, social and political life; whereas a digital gap of more than five percentage points remains between urban and rural areas across the EU; whereas the digital divide potentially exacerbates digital exclusion for those experiencing poverty and is particularly pronounced among vulnerable groups, including people with low incomes or low levels of education, older people, persons with disabilities and people living in rural or isolated areas; whereas almost half of the adult population does not have basic digital skills despite more than 90 % of jobs requiring them; whereas 5.4 % of school-aged children across Europe experience digital deprivation, with substantial disparities in access to digital resources observed between different countries[45]; whereas in 2023, 97.7 % of all households in the EU had access to at least one fixed broadband technology, compared to only 92.2 % in rural areas; whereas in 2023, 32 % of Europeans aged 16 to 29 were found to have below-basic digital skills, with this figure rising to 43 % among those with low educational attainment, highlighting a significant digital skills gap within youth demographics[46];

T. whereas access to fast and reliable internet is essential for participation in a knowledge-driven and informed society, as well as for access to employment, education, public services and healthcare; whereas the digitalisation of public services offers significant opportunities, but it requires targeted efforts to ensure the inclusion of vulnerable groups;

U. whereas a person’s employment situation has a strong impact on their risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU; whereas, in 2024, 8.2 % of all people in employment in the EU experienced in-work poverty[47] as a result of low wages, job insecurity and precarious working conditions; whereas analysis of 2022 data reveals that part-time workers faced disproportionately higher levels of in-work poverty (13.5 %) compared to full-time workers (7.1 %)[48]; whereas in-work poverty remains a structural challenge that places significant social and economic pressure on affected households and poses barriers to social inclusion and economic stability; whereas addressing in-work poverty is essential for promoting fair employment, reducing inequalities and ensuring sustainable and inclusive economic development across the EU; whereas collective bargaining, trade unions and social dialogue play a key role in improving working and employment conditions and, consequently, enhancing living conditions;

V. whereas the 2024 EU Pension Adequacy Report highlights that in 2022, approximately 18.5 million individuals aged 65 and above in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion[49]; whereas at-risk-of-poverty rates in this age group in 2022 were 14.2 % for men and 19.8 % for women; whereas the at-risk-of-poverty rate among those aged 65 and over has steadily increased due to both rising poverty rates and an ageing population;

W. whereas high-quality and affordable public services are essential for achieving high levels of social protection, social cohesion and social inclusion; whereas the delivery of high-quality public services is challenged by a number of issues, including problems related to service continuity, increased demand and insufficient resources, in part exacerbated by an ageing population; whereas everyone in the EU has the right to access essential services of a high quality accompanied by support measures for those in need; whereas people at risk of poverty or social exclusion face structural barriers in this regard, lack of infrastructure, skills or monetary resources, in particular Roma and homeless people;

X. whereas access to water is an essential need and a fundamental human right; whereas approximately 9.8 million people in the EU lack safely managed drinking water services[50]; whereas a further 9.4 million rely on basic water services off-premises[51], and around 450 000 individuals have no access to even basic drinking water services[52]; whereas the lack of access to drinking water and water infrastructure disproportionately affects marginalised groups;

Y. whereas an estimated 1 286 691 people in Europe experienced homelessness on any given night in 2024[53]; whereas Roma people and other marginalised groups are disproportionately affected by forced evictions from municipal accommodation, including Roma who are regular rent payers; whereas in many cases, authorities fail to provide alternative housing or adequate compensation for expropriation[54];

Z. whereas there are still at least 1.4 million people residing in institutions in the EU, although this figure could be underestimated due to a lack of data availability, consistency and coverage; whereas poverty remains one of the contributing factors to family separation in the EU; whereas the placement of children in institutions has serious consequences for children and families by perpetuating stigma and social isolation and feeding an intergenerational cycle of disadvantage[55]; whereas residents of institutions can often feel isolated from the broader community and, while they would like to have better control over their lives, do not have sufficient control over their lives and the decisions that affect them; whereas despite the fact that the EU has long been committed to the process of deinstitutionalisation, efforts are still needed at both EU and national level to enable vulnerable groups to live in a family or community environment;

AA. whereas people living in poverty are disproportionately affected by limited access to healthy food and quality healthcare; whereas poverty is consequently associated with an increased risk of physical and mental health problems; whereas the link between poverty and health is significantly influenced by barriers to healthcare, such as access to primary care, and reduced hospital admissions; whereas poverty, social isolation and chronic stress are closely linked, undermining mental well-being and increasing the risk of addiction and experiencing higher mortality rates, and increasing the risk of premature death; whereas poverty and addiction are mutually reinforcing, creating a vicious circle that exacerbates social exclusion; whereas eradicating poverty in turn requires a health-led, evidence-based approach to addiction that prioritises prevention and recovery;

AB. whereas families face multiple and interrelated challenges that no single service or organisation can resolve on its own; whereas continuity of services as well as proper coordination between services are essential to prepare for and facilitate the transitions that children will face; whereas families at risk may have limited access to mental health services due to financial barriers, stigma or lack of availability; whereas discrimination has a direct link to poverty, as discriminatory experiences prevent people experiencing poverty from realising an adequate standard of living;

AC. whereas social security systems must be strengthened to adapt to demographic challenges, new forms of work and the green and digital transitions; whereas the effectiveness of social protection in reducing poverty declined in the 2021-2024 period from 37.1 % to 34.4 %[56]; whereas significant barriers exist in the current labour market and social protection systems for vulnerable and marginalised groups;

AD. whereas minimum income schemes remain an important tool for securing income and reducing inequality and poverty across the EU; whereas these minimum income schemes vary considerably between Member States in terms of the adequacy and coverage of benefits and their link to labour market activation measures; whereas minimum income levels are well below national poverty thresholds in most Member States; whereas the non-take-up rate for minimum income schemes is estimated at between 30 % and 50 % of the eligible population, which undermines the objectives of this support instrument;

AE. whereas it is necessary to ensure participation of people with lived experience of poverty in designing and evaluating policies that affect them, with a view to increasing the democratic participation, empowerment and social emancipation of people living in poverty, as well as obtaining more effective and equitable results from those policies;

AF. whereas the outermost regions’ (ORs) remoteness, insularity, small size, difficult topography and climate, and economic dependence on specific industries and products severely restrain their development; whereas inequalities are one of the greatest social challenges facing the ORs and whereas they are disproportionately affected by high levels of poverty and unemployment, high school dropout rates and high rates of people not in education, employment or training; whereas gross domestic product in the ORs is significantly below EU and Member State averages (60 % of the average across the EU-27);

AG. whereas the factors contributing to the cycle of poverty in rural areas are specific and the challenges of vulnerable people living in rural areas differ from those of vulnerable people living in urban areas; whereas a lack of employment opportunities, public services (including education and public transport) and digital connectivity, high energy and transport prices and demographic developments such as depopulation contribute to an increase in poverty in rural areas; whereas women living in rural areas are particularly vulnerable to poverty due to limited access to employment, services and social support; whereas the EU anti-poverty strategy must take these territorial specificities into account and ensure tailored policy responses and funding mechanisms that effectively promote social inclusion and territorial cohesion;

AH. whereas there should be multilevel coordination and integration regarding instruments linked to the anti-poverty strategy; whereas a robust governance mechanism for monitoring the objectives of the strategy is essential; whereas the strategy will only deliver results if it is accompanied by adequate financial resources and if its objectives are supported by the various relevant EU sectoral funds; whereas the provisions on poverty and social inclusion in the current multiannual financial framework (MFF) should be renewed, adequately funded and ring-fenced in the upcoming MFF;

AI. whereas transparent and in-depth data collection and reporting mechanisms at EU and Member State level are necessary to monitor progress in relation to the EPSR headline targets for 2030, including the objective of reducing the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million compared to 2019 figures;

A strategy aimed at eradicating poverty

1. Is concerned that, in 2024, 93.3 million people in the EU were still at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including 20 million children, equating to one in four children in the EU, and that 27 million people in the EU were affected by severe material and social deprivation;

2. Highlights that poverty is a complex phenomenon affecting all areas of life, rooted in systemic and structural injustice, and intersecting with historical inequalities based on gender and gender expression, race and ethnicity, religion, migration status, age, sexual orientation and disability;

3. Stresses that the most sustainable anti-poverty policy is one that prevents poverty from arising in the first place; calls for a comprehensive approach to prevention that tackles the root causes and the multidimensional aspects of poverty and social exclusion, as well as the points at which they intersect, with regard to access to quality jobs, social protection and minimum income, public services, education, early childhood intervention, healthcare, food, housing, energy and taxation; emphasises that combating poverty can only be achieved by promoting policies that ensure the indivisibility and universality of political, economic, social and cultural rights;

4. Recalls that poverty disproportionally affects marginalised and vulnerable groups of society, such as women, families, people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, Roma and Travellers, people experiencing homelessness, children in institutional care, LGBTQIA+ individuals, older and younger people, undocumented persons, migrants, persons with disabilities, people facing discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, people facing chronic diseases and addiction, informal carers and single parents; emphasises the need for targeted measures to address this, paying particular attention to those most vulnerable to extreme poverty;

5. Recalls that the EU has committed, under the EPSR action plan, to reduce the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million by 2030, including at least 5 million children; stresses that without a paradigm shift in the approach to combating poverty, and without adequate funding, the EU and its Member States will not achieve these poverty reduction objectives;

6. Calls on the Commission to present a comprehensive, ambitious and adequately funded anti-poverty strategy that includes the following general objectives and guidelines:

a) recognition of poverty as a violation of human dignity undermining the full realisation of human rights and as a basis for the promotion of a rights-based approach in line with international legal frameworks, particularly Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

b) the setting of the goal of urgently eradicating poverty by 2035 at the latest, building on the standards of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the EPSR, while also developing interim progress indicators, clear milestones and a monitoring framework enabling adequate coordination of policies and funding needs;

c) proper coordination between the Commission and the Member States, and where applicable with regional authorities, respecting the principle of subsidiarity, to achieve this goal;

d) a comprehensive, people-centred and integrated life-cycle approach to long-term anti-poverty policies, combining universal and targeted measures starting in childhood and throughout all stages of life, with the goal of eradicating poverty and promoting social inclusion as a cross-cutting criterion in sectoral policies;

e) participation by people with lived experience of poverty in defining, implementing and evaluating policies that affect them, in an inclusive, effective and transparent manner that goes hand in hand with a methodology and capacity building;

f) a fundamental and horizontal principle of non-discrimination throughout the anti-poverty strategy to tackle structural inequalities and societal stigmas rooted in discrimination that exacerbate poverty and social exclusion;

g) the allocation of adequate and sustained budgetary resources for anti-poverty measures through the MFF and national budgetary mechanisms to support the full implementation of the anti-poverty strategy and ensure its long-term impact;

7. Calls on the Commission to acknowledge the structural links between poverty and gender-based violence and to address gender-based violence as a key strategy for eradicating poverty, in particular poverty among women and children, recognising that eliminating all types of violence is essential for women’s ability to participate fully in their communities and the economy, to access education, employment and social services, and thereby achieve financial independence; urges the Commission and the Member States to boost public investment in policies that address gender-based violence; welcomes the EU’s ratification of the Istanbul Convention and urges Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia to complete their ratification processes without further delay; calls on the Commission to ensure the effective implementation of the Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence, guaranteeing that women experiencing poverty and other types of violence have adequate and unconditional access to shelters, survivor support services, legal aid and social welfare, regardless of their residence or migration status;

Fair working conditions and a more equitable distribution of income and wealth

8. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to implement the goal of full and decent employment, as well as adequate social protection, services for all and a fair distribution of income and wealth as a guideline for economic and social policies; calls on the Commission and the Member States, in this context, to strengthen their active labour market policies, in particular for those furthest from employment; emphasises that effective active labour market policies should go beyond access to employment and also include enabling services for people to remain in employment;

9. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote policies to protect and promote labour rights, quality jobs, stable employment relationships and protection against unjustified dismissal, fair wages, including equal pay for equal work and equal pay between women and men, lifelong learning, upskilling and reskilling, health and safety in the workplace, non-discrimination and access to adequate social protection; welcomes, in this regard, the announcement of a Quality Jobs Roadmap to ensure a just transition for all workers and self-employed people, notably by increasing collective bargaining coverage; stresses that this roadmap represents an opportunity to establish an individual right to training and lifelong learning; stresses the persistence of in-work poverty for one in twelve workers across the EU; insists, in this context, that there should be no in-work poverty in the EU, and urges the Commission and the Member States to seriously tackle this problem, by addressing structural barriers beyond job quality, including access to and support for childcare services, improving the recognition of qualifications, and addressing the lack of tailored career guidance and training support; stresses that the transposition of Directive (EU) 2022/2041 on adequate minimum wages will be key for preventing and fighting poverty risks among workers, while reinforcing incentives to work;

10. Stresses the need to strengthen democratic participation at work as a tool to combat in-work poverty, through the right to organise and to collective action and enhanced collective bargaining, through trade union rights, namely the freedom to establish and join trade unions, by improving work-life balance and providing fair working conditions, including working time, and by adapting working conditions to human needs;

11. Emphasises the need to strengthen public employment services, training pathways and job-search support systems for people experiencing poverty and for vulnerable groups, particularly long-term unemployed and low-skilled individuals; stresses the importance of individualised guidance, recognition of informal skills and linking training to quality job opportunities; calls on the Member States to ensure the development and expansion of national frameworks for the validation of non-formal and informal learning, enabling the recognition of practical experience in sectors such as construction, agriculture, healthcare and social care, hospitality, manufacturing, artisanal, logistics, and information and communications technology, building on the Council Recommendation of 20 December 2012 on the validation of non-formal and informal learning[57];

12. Stresses the importance of supporting women’s entrepreneurship and self-employment opportunities, particularly in rural, island and other geographically remote areas, as a means of achieving better economic inclusion and gender equality and combating poverty, creating local employment and fostering inclusive economic development; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure targeted support for women entrepreneurs through improved access to funding, business training, digital tools and markets; calls on the Commission to develop policies that facilitate women’s access to quality jobs and entrepreneurial paths, through incentives for companies to hire and promote women, particularly single mothers, and to provide flexible working arrangements;

13. Highlights that segregation in access to mainstream education for children with disabilities results in social exclusion, and remains a challenge across the EU; calls for the anti-poverty strategy to ensure accessibility of education for children with disabilities, both in terms of physical infrastructure and educational resources, in order to guarantee equal opportunities for all pupils; stresses the potential of affordable assistive technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance inclusive teaching for pupils with disabilities, offering personalised support, adaptive tools and better communication; encourages Member States to invest in these technologies and ensure teachers are trained to integrate them effectively; further calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure robust safeguards against the misdiagnosis of intellectual disabilities or special education needs among Roma children, which results in educational segregation; stresses the importance of non-discriminatory assessment practices, as well as inclusive education policies that uphold the rights and dignity of all children;

14. Recommends that the Commission and the Member States take into account the approach of the 2023 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights to combat poverty through effective access to work and the goal of full employment and quality jobs, namely by creating or strengthening specific instruments aimed primarily at combating unemployment and underemployment, providing personalised support and increasing the employability of people furthest from the labour market, particularly those from disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, such as Roma people and persons with disabilities; considers that these instruments should take into account the role of both the private and public sectors and the social responsibilities of the Member States;

15. Considers that the social economy is an essential component of the EU’s social market economy and a driver for the implementation of the EPSR and its targets, often providing employment to vulnerable and excluded groups; calls for the anti-poverty strategy to strengthen the social economy in line with the EU’s social economy action plan and the Liège roadmap for social economy in the European Union; reiterates its call for the Commission to explore innovative funding mechanisms, such as social impact bonds, to finance projects to support the development of the social economy in the EU[58];

16. Expresses concern that, as highlighted in the 2025 Joint Employment Report[59], no Member State has yet established an adequate minimum income scheme reaching at least the national at-risk-of-poverty threshold; urges the Commission to present an EU directive on adequate minimum income and active social inclusion, while respecting the competences of the Member States, the national specificities of social protection systems and the principle of subsidiarity; stresses that such a proposal would contribute to the eradication of poverty and to fostering the integration of people absent from the labour market by setting common standards on adequacy, accessibility and coverage of minimum income schemes; calls on the Member States to ensure that minimum income schemes and other social schemes are adjusted to preserve their adequacy and accessibility, so as to protect vulnerable households;

17. Calls on the Member States to develop fair taxation policies; underlines that the fight against poverty has implications going beyond employment and social policies; highlights that effective social transfers, including child benefits, minimum income schemes, pensions, and energy and housing subsidies, are a powerful instrument for reducing poverty and social exclusion and promoting social cohesion; calls on the Member States to strengthen and adequately fund such redistributive mechanisms;

18. Calls on the Commission and the Member States, in the light of the cost-of-living crisis, to ensure access to affordable essential goods and services such as food, energy, water, housing, transport and communications;

 

Access to quality public services, social protection and support measures

19. Urges the Commission and the Member States to combat poverty by promoting public policies that ensure the indivisibility and universality of political, economic, social and cultural rights; insists on the importance of a multidisciplinary approach and on combating poverty and social exclusion, in particular by promoting access to housing, public spaces and services, healthcare, well-being and quality of life; calls on the Member States to develop methodologies for assessing structural or systemic barriers to breaking out of poverty and social exclusion and to participating fully in society, whether these barriers are found in their legal systems, public policies or their implementation at territorial level;

20. Calls for the inclusion of qualitative indicators in the EU anti-poverty strategy to better reflect multidimensional aspects of poverty;

21. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to significantly increase public investment in policies that guarantee social rights, by providing universal access to high-quality public services, and goods and services of general economic and social interest such as decent housing, food, water, sanitation, energy, transport, communications, and cultural and leisure activities; stresses that access to healthy and affordable nutrition is an essential need, particularly for individuals and families experiencing extreme poverty, children, elderly people living alone and marginalised communities; underlines the contribution of such investment to breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty and enabling social and employment inclusion, particularly in areas such as education, including early childhood education and care, healthcare, including mental healthcare, and social protection;

22. Calls on the Commission to support the Member States in promoting a housing policy that ensures universal access to decent and affordable housing, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, namely Article 25 thereof, and includes specific action to address homelessness; calls on the Commission to ensure that the European affordable housing plan meets the housing needs of all EU countries, while respecting the principle of subsidiarity, with a particular focus on people experiencing poverty, vulnerable children, young people and marginalised communities; underlines the essential role of affordable and accessible housing in supporting deinstitutionalisation and preventing institutionalisation due to poverty, inadequate housing or lack of support[60]; calls for this plan to dedicate robust EU funding to the expansion and renovation of public and social housing stock; calls for the revision of State aid rules to allow greater investment by the Member States in public and social housing, measures to support social and cooperative housing schemes of the not-for-profit sector and the social economy, and measures to protect tenants, ensuring housing stability, preventing no-fault evictions and to combat speculative practices;

23. Urges the Commission to support the Member States, while respecting the principle of subsidiarity, in implementing and extending programmes and measures, such as Housing First, to address and prevent homelessness, with special attention given to child homelessness, recognising homelessness as one of the most severe and visible forms of poverty and social exclusion; urges the Commission to put forward a robust action plan, with specific targets, with a view to ending homelessness across the EU by 2030, which must include specific measures to prevent homelessness in general, child and family homelessness, homelessness due to job losses and insecure employment conditions in particular, and to tackle female homelessness – often caused by family and domestic violence – as well as measures to improve the accessibility of housing for persons with disabilities and older people;

24. Calls on the Member States to establish and support centres dedicated to homeless individuals, offering basic and specialised medical care tailored to the needs of homeless persons, including physical and mental health services, complemented by educational programmes aimed at preventing drug abuse, including counselling, and skills development initiatives to support reintegration into society; calls on the Commission to provide guidance and facilitate the exchange of best practice among the Member States to ensure the effective and humane operation of these centres;

25. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to adopt effective measures and policies aimed at implementing the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’, combating inequalities and discrimination in the workplace, particularly those based on gender, racial or ethnic origin, disability, age, socio-economic background, sexual orientation, gender identity or migration status; stresses the importance of a swift implementation of Directive (EU) 2023/970 on equal pay for equal work, and of information campaigns and training on conscious and unconscious biases, in order to prevent such inequalities and discrimination;

26. Calls for new, accelerated efforts to close the gender employment gap and the gender pension gap, and to increase investment in public services and social infrastructure; urges the Commission to encourage the Member States to develop targeted actions to ensure adequate pension levels;

27. Calls on the Member States to develop policies to strengthen maternity, paternity and parental and other carers’ rights, promoting work-life balance, including flexible working-time arrangements, facilitating women’s access to guaranteed income during maternity leave, and supporting women’s reintegration into work after pregnancy and maternity leave, and ensuring adequate conditions for breastfeeding in the workplace; encourages the Member States to introduce and promote accessible and adequately compensated paternity leave policies, enabling fathers to establish strong bonds with their children, equally share caregiving responsibilities, and take necessary time off to support early childhood development and family well-being;

28. Highlights the disproportionate impact of unpaid care work on women and on their economic security; calls on the Member States to reinforce their public national and regional care systems to ensure that all individuals, both older and younger, regardless of their background, have access to professional care services that guarantee good working conditions for care professionals; highlights that home care services are essential to providing quality, person-centred care for people in need, including older people, as well as high-quality childcare; encourages the Member States to explore the possibility of adopting practices and measures that provide support to informal carers, particularly those caring for individuals from low-income households, who, following professional assessment, are deemed unable to live independently, as a means of supporting dignified, community-based care;

29. Calls on the Members States to develop policies and access to returnship support for workers, especially women who have been out of the workforce for a number of years due to family responsibilities;

30. Urges the Member States to ensure universal access to affordable, high-quality public healthcare for all, including prenatal, maternal, neonatal and paediatric healthcare – including primary prevention, vaccination programmes and primary care – access to diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation, and access to a diverse range of medical and therapeutic specialist treatments, guaranteeing all women the right to sexual and reproductive healthcare, in addition to targeted measures to ensure early identification and intervention for those at risk of health and developmental issues, and also to improve targeted early childhood intervention services aimed at promoting the development, well-being and social inclusion of children;

31. Notes that a lack of adequate access to menstrual hygiene products and facilities affects an estimated 10 % of the menstruating population, and disproportionately affects marginalised and vulnerable groups, limiting participation in social, educational and professional life; calls on the Commission and the Member States to propose comprehensive measures to tackle this, ensuring free or affordable access to menstrual products, including through adequate facilities in the workplace and in schools;

32. Calls on the Member States to strengthen public, universal and solidarity-based social security systems in order to ensure full and effective social protection for all, including workers, the self-employed and pensioners, and to prevent and address the root causes of poverty and in-work poverty, in line with the 2019 Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed; insists on the importance of addressing the challenges faced by people in precarious or non-standard employment, particularly young people facing age discrimination and lacking sufficient contribution records to access social security benefits, and including artists and workers in the cultural and creative sectors; calls on the Member States to address poverty among the elderly through specific measures, with particular attention to women, who are disproportionately affected; calls on the Member States to adequately take into account, in their pension schemes, periods of absence from work due to parental leave;

33. Stresses that the informal economy should be addressed in the anti-poverty strategy, given that it remains widespread throughout the EU, resulting in jobs without access to rights, adequate pay, social protection, or health and safety standards at work; encourages the Member States to create inclusion pathways between the informal and formal economies, for example by introducing simplified registration procedures for seasonal, manual and domestic workers;

34. Calls on the Member States to address youth poverty and socio-economic inequality, recognising that young people are disproportionately affected by unemployment, precarious employment, housing exclusion and social vulnerability; stresses that young people are overrepresented in sectors characterised by part-time, seasonal, precarious and undeclared work, and that rates of young people not in education, employment or training remain persistently high in several Member States and more than twice as high as the overall EU unemployment rate; highlights the need to strengthen the Youth Guarantee as a key instrument for promoting the inclusion of young people in the labour market, as well as the need to use the strategy to develop more synergies between this instrument and the European Child Guarantee, and to strengthen both instruments by adopting targeted measures, advancing affordable housing solutions for young people within the upcoming affordable housing plan, and enhancing tailored mental health support and social inclusion services specifically designed for young people; calls for strengthened support for young people transitioning out of alternative care, to ensure a stable and dignified path into adulthood, namely by providing enhanced access to training and employment opportunities, or support with university or vocational education and training, in order to reduce the risk of poverty, social exclusion and homelessness during this critical period;

35. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to consider the hidden phenomena of poverty, to combat the stigmatisation of people living in poverty, and the non-take-up of available social benefits;

36. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to revise relevant legislation in order to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on socio-economic status, recognising its intersection with other forms of discrimination; underlines that a clear legal basis is necessary to ensure enforceable rights and protection for people experiencing poverty and social exclusion; further calls on the Council to adopt its position on the horizontal anti-discrimination directive in order to launch interinstitutional negotiations;

37. Calls on the Member States to review policies and measures that penalise people experiencing extreme poverty, and the sanctions against those providing support; emphasises that such measures often undermine dignity, worsen exclusion and are counterproductive to long-term social inclusion objectives;

38. Urges the Member States to explore and implement proactive mechanisms to ensure that all individuals eligible for social benefits, especially those in groups targeted for social assistance, are informed effectively of and granted access to them, thereby reducing non-take-up, including by reducing the administrative burden of benefit claims, ensuring more transparency, and ensuring that staff are trained to reach out to and assist people experiencing poverty, in order to build trust in the relevant institutions;

39. Regrets that the target of the EU Roma Strategic Framework 2021-2030 on reducing the poverty gap between Roma communities and the general population by at least half is still far from being reached; highlights that the EU anti-poverty strategy should share the common goal of promoting fundamental rights, reducing inequality and addressing structural discrimination with the EU Roma Strategic Framework and the European Child Guarantee; underlines the importance of ensuring that these initiatives are implemented in synergy, particularly in tackling child poverty and breaking the cycle of intergenerational disadvantage among Roma families and traveller communities;

40. Stresses the growing digital divide, which can deepen poverty by limiting access to information, and the need for measures to address the digital exclusion of low-income and marginalised groups, including older people; calls, in this regard, on the Commission and the Member States to foster the digital inclusion of vulnerable groups through measures and support programmes ensuring their access to digital technologies, infrastructure and connectivity, as well as training on basic digital skills; recommends the inclusion of clear indicators to monitor digital inclusion, especially among children, while continuing to safeguard their online activity and that of teenagers;

41. Considers that the target of the full digitalisation of key public services set out in the EU’s Digital Decade policy programme can accentuate inequalities, particularly between urban and rural areas, age groups and socio-economic groups, by moving away from individualised support; stresses, in this regard, the need to strike a balance between the process of digitalisation of public services and administration, and the needs of vulnerable groups; calls on the Commission and the Member States to address this issue in the context of the anti-poverty strategy and national action plans, ensuring the necessary resources, in-person support and proper training for staff in key public administration services, to ensure equal access to public services and prevent the widening of the digital divide;

42. Recalls that the increasing use of algorithms and AI systems in essential public services can pose significant risks of reinforcing existing forms of discrimination, particularly against people experiencing poverty; urges the Commission, in this regard, to promote AI systems that are ethical by design and to ensure the horizontal principle of non-discrimination in all EU regulations relating to AI;

43. Stresses the fact that poverty and mental health are closely intertwined and that each can negatively affect the other; recommends that the Member States strengthen support for people, including families and children in vulnerable situations, through mental health and psychosocial support services, and ensure the deployment of sufficient resources and adequately trained professionals to provide these services effectively;

44. Stresses the importance of ensuring the right for everyone to access, create and participate in culture, and of eliminating economic, social and territorial discrimination in access to culture;

45. Highlights that people at risk of poverty and social exclusion are disproportionately impacted by climate change; reiterates that the green and digital transitions must be socially fair and inclusive; calls for the EU anti-poverty strategy to incorporate adequate and targeted measures that reinforce and complement efforts towards a just transition, ensuring a comprehensive approach to tackling social and economic inequalities; urges the Commission to commit sufficient funding in the 2028-2034 MFF for investments in supporting people during these transitions, with particular attention to low-income households;

46. Stresses that people living in rural areas, remote communities and areas with a low density of public services are more vulnerable to falling into poverty and experiencing social exclusion due to a lack of employment opportunities, public services (including education and public transport), digital connectivity, and high energy and transport prices; calls for the specific needs of people living in these areas to be considered in the anti-poverty strategy;

A strategy with child poverty at its core

47. Deplores the fact that the number of children at risk of poverty and social exclusion has increased; calls on the Commission to ensure that the anti-poverty strategy actively combats child poverty through a life-cycle approach, considering that the first years of children’s lives are crucial to their physical, mental, cognitive, social and emotional development, and to their lifelong fulfilment, in order to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty;

48. Calls on the Commission to support the Member States in strengthening and fully implementing the European Child Guarantee without delay, to ensure access to effective and free healthcare, education, early childhood education and care, effective access to adequate and decent housing, and healthy nutrition for all children in need; underlines, in this context, the importance of effective and universal access to affordable school meals; highlights the central role of the European Child Guarantee in fighting child poverty and social exclusion, and recommends proper coordination and connection between this instrument and the anti-poverty strategy; stresses the importance of its full and timely implementation by the Member States; calls on the Commission and Member States to make available, and make full use of, all resources, including the ESF+ and the Recovery and Resilience Facility, to effectively implement the European Child Guarantee, while also ensuring increased funds to foster educational inclusion;

49. Underlines the importance of after-school care and combating early school-leaving; considers that the anti-poverty strategy is an opportunity to promote the improvement in the quality of early childhood education and care services through adequate financial and human resources, training for staff, improved early warning systems, and measures for the evaluation and continuous improvement of pedagogical quality, such as literacy and numeracy, in order to ensure the overall development of children; stresses the importance of closing persistent gaps in functional literacy and numeracy, through targeted interventions in formal and informal education settings, to reduce significant barriers to overcoming poverty;

50. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the European Child Guarantee has a dedicated budget of at least EUR 20 billion in the 2028-2034 MFF, implemented through the ESF+, in order to respond to the growing challenges of child poverty and social exclusion, and for the Member States to allocate at least 5 % of ESF+ funds to specific projects and structural investments combating child poverty, with at least 10 % earmarked for the Member States with child poverty and social exclusion levels exceeding the EU average; emphasises that this investment in the next generation, in addition to ensuring the well-being of children, is a sound investment that would prevent future societal costs[61]; stresses that the use of these funds should be transparent and require the involvement of social organisations in their planning, implementation and evaluation;

51. Reiterates its call on the Commission to carefully monitor the implementation of the European Child Guarantee in all of the Member States, as part of the European Semester and country-specific recommendations; considers that the country-specific recommendations should reflect Member States’ budgetary compliance with the minimum requirement of allocation for tackling child poverty set out in the ESF+ Regulation;

52. Urges the Member States to ensure the provision of quality childcare accessible to all, with the aim of supporting early childhood education and care as crucial drivers in breaking the cycle of poverty and increasing parents’ participation in the labour market, recognising that caregiving responsibilities disproportionately fall on women;

53. Calls on the Member States to ensure a child-focused orientation in their social protection systems and to strengthen them by providing specific benefits for children in need, to support their development and well-being, such as child allowances, school meals and cost-reduction programmes for cultural, sport, leisure and extracurricular activities;

54. Stresses that children affected by poverty and social exclusion face difficulties in various areas of their development; emphasises, in this regard, the importance of a multisectoral approach, in which all relevant stakeholders work in partnership to develop an integrated strategy to identify difficulties and combat inequalities in childhood, providing child protection and family support services; highlights that some children and their families affected by poverty may need specific support, e.g. from speech therapists, ophthalmologists, psychologists, occupational therapists and nutritionists; calls for the anti-poverty strategy to actively promote partnerships between educational, healthcare and social services in order to facilitate access to care and the transfer of information between services, with a view to improving integrated support and coordination mechanisms for children in need;

55. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure every child’s right to family life, meaning that poverty, precarious housing situations or lack of access to adequate public services are never used as the sole grounds for placing children in institutional care; recommends that the Member States develop national prevention strategies and proactive social policies to prevent the separation of children from their family environment; calls on the Member States to ensure that recourse to institutionalising children and young people is treated as a last resort, and to invest in safe foster care systems for children and young people to ease the transition from institutional care to family and community-based care; recommends that the Member States design and implement monitoring mechanisms to identify poverty-related family separation;

56. Condemns all forms of violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect with regard to children; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure investments in child protection systems, including tackling violence against and among children, e.g. cyber violence and bullying, especially when based on socio-economic grounds and affecting vulnerable children, in order to encourage the exchange of best practice in this area with a view to eradicating violence and harassment;

Combating poverty by increasing democratic participation

57. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure adequate, effective and transparent mechanisms to facilitate the meaningful and continuous participation of people with lived experience of poverty in all stages of policymaking, including the design, implementation and evaluation of policies affecting people living in poverty, to go hand in hand with a methodology and capacity building that would enable such participation, resulting in co-creation and not merely consultation, in line with the principle ‘nothing about us without us’;

58. Recommends that an annual conference be held to assess the implementation of the anti-poverty strategy, with a broad and diverse composition, including people with lived experience of poverty, particularly women; highlights that the conference should contribute to the EU’s formal monitoring of the anti-poverty strategy by providing space for reviewing progress against clear benchmarks and indicators; calls, in this regard, for the direct participation of people with lived experience of poverty to be actively supported and recognised as essential to evaluating the anti-poverty strategy’s actual impact;

59. Recognises the importance of the various social organisations, including not-for-profits, involved in combating and preventing poverty, and the role that these organisations play in the fight against poverty, and underlines the need to meaningfully involve them and to strengthen the resources allocated to support their work;

Proper institutional coordination, governance

60. Underlines that the success of the anti-poverty strategy will also depend on an intersectional approach and adequate funding, as well as proper horizontal and multi-level coordination between all levels of governance and decision-making involved in its delivery; reiterates the necessity of comprehensively integrating the anti-poverty strategy into all relevant policies, to ensure consistency, impact and long-term sustainability;

61. Considers that the scope of responsibilities at EU, Member State and regional level for achieving the goal of eradicating poverty should be defined appropriately, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity;

62. Calls on the Commission to introduce a horizontal principle into the anti-poverty strategy, requiring all relevant EU sectoral policies to carry out an ex ante impact assessment on poverty and inequality, including through the distributional impact assessments[62], with particular attention to the effects on those most at risk of experiencing social exclusion and extreme poverty;

63. Emphasises the need for the EU to continue focusing on the fight against homelessness, extreme poverty and social exclusion, through adequate financial support, promoting mutual learning of Member States’ strategies and experiences, and establishing a systematic approach to monitoring progress and the efficiency of the measures taken;

64. Recommends that the anti-poverty strategy have a designated person responsible at European Commission level; calls on each Member State to appoint a national coordinator and implement the anti-poverty strategy through a national action plan, with the involvement of those with lived experience of poverty, the local and regional authorities, social partners and civil society organisations involved in combating and preventing poverty in its implementation;

65. Calls for a designated Commission task force on poverty eradication, with the aim of monitoring the implementation and coordination of the anti-poverty strategy, as well as the integration of its objectives into other EU policies;

66. Recalls that the at-risk-of-poverty-or-social-exclusion (AROPE) indicator fails to encompass the root causes of poverty, notably by omitting persons living outside of private households, qualitative aspects of poverty and lived experiences of marginalisation; underlines that poverty extends beyond insufficient income or material deprivation; calls on the Social Protection Committee to work with relevant stakeholders on renewing the measuring of AROPE statistics in order to expand it towards a stronger, disaggregated and more multidimensional vision of poverty and social exclusion;

67. Stresses that the anti-poverty strategy will only deliver results if accompanied by adequate funding at EU and national level; insists on the need to safeguard and strengthen cohesion policy in order to continue supporting economic, social and territorial cohesion and combating asymmetries between and within the Member States of the EU under the next MFF; calls, in this regard, for an adequate and ring-fenced allocation of funds to reinforce policies that contribute to eradicating poverty, including targeted support for marginalised and vulnerable groups; highlights the essential role of the ESF+ in promoting social inclusion and combating poverty, notably by providing aid to the most deprived and the European Child Guarantee, as well as the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund in this context; stresses the importance of optimising the use of EU funds, including the Recovery and Resilience Facility, to finance concrete anti-poverty measures such as affordable and energy-efficient housing, access to quality early childhood education and care, accessible public transport and targeted energy support for low-income households;

68. Recalls the thematic enabling conditions applicable to the ERDF, the ESF+ and the Cohesion Fund set out in Annex IV to Regulation (EU) 2021/1060[63] of the European Parliament laying down common provisions for these funds, in particular enabling condition 4.4., entitled ‘National strategic policy framework for social inclusion and poverty reduction’; stresses the importance of linking the anti-poverty strategy and its funding to the previously defined specific objectives; calls on the Commission and the Council to ensure that the common provisions of the ERDF and the ESF+ better reflect these specific objectives, and to incorporate the anti-poverty strategy into the next MFF, as well as gender mainstreaming;

69. Recalls that energy and transport, among other elements, are key essential services to which everyone should have access, and therefore insists that extra attention be paid to the social climate plans that Member States are required to design and implement under the Social Climate Fund, investing in energy efficiency, housing renovation, and the accessibility and affordability of renewable energy sources and transport systems; calls on the Member States to actively involve people in vulnerable situations, so that the support can effectively reach those who need it the most; calls on the Member States to exchange best practices in the fight against energy poverty, such as energy vouchers and energy price regulation;

70. Stresses that EU funds are difficult to access at local level and for organisations with fewer technical resources due to their complexity; underscores the need to simplify the implementation of EU funding mechanisms and the arrangements for providing final beneficiaries with these funds, and to train staff at the relevant public authorities and at the organisations; underlines that according to the ESF+ Regulation, the co-financing rate for support to the most deprived persons must be continued, to stay at or similar to 90 %, which should facilitate access to this financing for programmes and activities designed to help eradicate poverty;

71. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.

 

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

The draft report views poverty as a violation of human rights and the rights of peoples, and considers that these rights – political, economic, social and cultural – should be fully respected, as they are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated, and should be at the core of anti-poverty policies.

Poverty and social exclusion are a reflection of the unequal distribution of wealth, in terms of both income and assets.

The multifactorial origins and multidimensional expression of poverty require policies that aim to achieve social cohesion and prevent inequalities from worsening. Effective anti-poverty action requires an integrated approach that tackles poverty at its roots in a comprehensive manner, with policies that do not compartmentalise or segment it, or view it as a natural or inevitable social phenomenon.

In 2024, 93.3 million people in the EU (21.0 % of the population) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion; the risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU was higher for women than for men (21.9 % compared to 20.0 %); within the EU, professional status strongly influenced the risk rate of poverty or social exclusion, which varies between 10.9 % for workers and 66.6 % for the unemployed; in 2024, 21.9 % of the EU population living in family households with dependent children were at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

There have been fallbacks in some areas in the EU in recent years: indicators of the number of children at risk of poverty – child poverty increased from 23.6 % in 2019 to 24.2 % in 2024 – and the effectiveness of social protection in reducing poverty declined in the 2021-2024 period from 37.1 % to 34.4 %.

The Action Plan for the European Pillar of Social Rights, adopted in 2021, sets the limited goal of reducing the number of people in poverty by 15 million, including 5 million children, by 2030. Considering only this target would mean that around 78 million people, including 15 million children, in the EU would still be at risk of poverty and social exclusion by that time.

In the rapporteur’s view, it is therefore essential that the Member States and the EU establish poverty eradication as a political goal for social progress, whether in the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy and the corresponding national action plans, or in the review of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

The rapporteur also considers that this goal should be addressed comprehensively in all sectoral policies. The specific impacts that decisions taken by individual sectors could have on poverty should be taken into account, along with the need for coordination among them. It is therefore considered important to introduce an ex ante analysis of the impact of sectoral policies on poverty.

Statistical data confirm the significant impact of access to employment, fair wages and social transfers on reducing the risk of poverty.

However, they also expose the harsh reality of workers living in poverty as a result of low wages, job insecurity, and discontinuous or part-time work.

Furthermore, they show that women are affected by higher levels of poverty as a result of discrimination and inequalities compared to men, such as greater difficulties in accessing employment, wage disparities, lower work intensity, shorter professional careers, disparities in the value of pensions and social benefits, unequal distribution of care and domestic tasks, and difficulties in accessing specific healthcare.

The rapporteur considers it essential that the strategy lead the Commission and Member States to implement the goal of full employment as a guideline for economic and social policies.

In this context, policies to improve the quality of employment and working conditions should be promoted and supported, the creation of an instrument to combat poverty through the universal realisation of the right to work and the objective of full employment should be explored, and an initiative should be presented applying the Council recommendation on adequate minimum income that ensures active social inclusion and participation in employment and contributes to eradicating poverty.

In order to ensure full and effective social protection for workers and prevent poverty, Member States should strengthen public, universal and solidarity-based social security systems.

Both the Commission and the Member States should adopt effective measures aimed at implementing the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’, combating inequalities and discrimination in the workplace, particularly those affecting women.

Member States should pay particular attention to ensuring universal access to affordable, high-quality public maternal, neonatal and paediatric healthcare, and to developing policies to strengthen maternity, paternity and parental rights, promoting work-life balance, facilitating women’s return to work after pregnancy and maternity leave, and ensuring adequate conditions for breastfeeding in the workplace.

It should also be borne in mind that elderly people, persons with disabilities, single-parent families, ethnic minorities and migrants are groups that are more vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion, and that migrant children are overrepresented in the group at risk of poverty, and this specific situation should therefore be taken into account in measures to respond to and prevent poverty.

Child poverty stems from family poverty, and the absence of a comprehensive response means that poverty is perpetuated throughout the life cycle (first in childhood, then at work and finally in retirement), increasing the likelihood of intergenerational poverty.

On 14 June 2021, the Council adopted its recommendation establishing a European Child Guarantee, with the aim of ensuring that children in need have access to essential services such as, for example, free early childhood care and education services, free education (including supplementary activities carried out in schools and at least one healthy meal per school day), free healthcare, healthy nutrition and adequate housing.

This important contribution to combating child poverty in the EU should – in the rapporteur’s view – be accompanied by a specific budget allocation of at least EUR 20 billion under the next multiannual financial framework, which will provide the financial means to support the national action plans for the Child Guarantee from the EU budget.

Another concern is the need to counter the stigmatisation and discrimination of people living in poverty.

Actions to reduce poverty often encounter obstacles in the form of stigmatising and discriminatory political attitudes towards people living in poverty. They are falsely accused of enjoying privileges and rights that are allegedly denied to other citizens. Specific policies and measures to combat poverty in its various dimensions are often cited as supposed proof of this privilege enjoyed by people living in poverty.

In other situations, it is the anti-poverty solutions themselves that result in the stigmatisation of people living in poverty. An example of this is the frequent ghettoisation of people living in poverty in social housing estates, which contribute to their social exclusion in a number of ways, including in terms of land use and urban planning.

The EU Anti-Poverty Strategy should include measures to counter the stigmatisation and discrimination of people living in poverty and ensure that actions against poverty are focused on social integration, addressing the so-called hidden phenomena of poverty and the non-take-up of available social benefits.

Poverty prevention should be based on promoting policies that ensure the indivisibility and universality of political, economic, social and cultural rights. These policies provide structural solutions with a comprehensive impact on social cohesion, counteracting the stigmatisation and discrimination of people living in poverty, as well as misguided approaches such as the criminalisation of poverty. These solutions should be complemented by immediate or ad hoc support measures, where these are necessary to provide adequate responses to the specific needs of the most vulnerable groups.

In this context, it is essential to ensure public investment in policies that guarantee universal, free and high-quality public services, considering their contribution to breaking the cycles of poverty, particularly in areas such as education, healthcare, social services, water and sanitation, and universal access to decent housing, energy, transport, food, and cultural and leisure activities;

The Commission should support Member States in promoting a housing policy that ensures universal access to this right, considering specific measures for the situation of homeless people; The Commission should develop a plan aimed at meeting the housing needs of all EU citizens – including the creation of additional and specific EU funding for the expansion and refurbishment of public housing stock.

The rapporteur considers that the psychological difficulties arising from poverty and social exclusion have not been taken into account sufficiently in the Commission’s mental health strategy and in national action plans. It therefore recommends that Member States implement specific measures in this area.

Based on the understanding that poverty is a violation of human rights, it is essential that mechanisms be created to enable the participation of people living in poverty in defining, implementing and evaluating policies that affect them. The creation of these mechanisms should aim to increase democratic participation, empower and emancipate people living in poverty, and achieve more effective and equitable results from those policies.

The rapporteur also considers that the success of the Strategy will depend on proper coordination among the various levels of decision-making and intervention. The scope of responsibilities at EU, Member State and regional level for achieving the goal of eradicating poverty should therefore be clearly and adequately defined, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity.

The rapporteur recommends the establishment of an annual conference to assess the implementation of the Strategy, with a broad and diverse composition, including people living in poverty.

Based on the positive experience gained with the European Child Guarantee, it is recommended the Strategy have a designated person responsible at European Commission level and that each Member State appoint a national coordinator and draw up a national action plan, involving local and regional authorities and organisations involved in combating and preventing poverty in its implementation.

The EU Anti-Poverty Strategy should recognise and support the action of social organisations of various kinds that are involved in combating and preventing poverty, particularly through direct support for people living in poverty.

The next multiannual financial framework will need to play an important role in strengthening policies and social support that contribute to eradicating poverty, significantly reinforcing and making better use of the ESF+, the ERDF, the FEAD and the AMIF.

 

 

 

ANNEX: DECLARATION OF INPUT

Pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure, the rapporteur declares that he included in his report input on matters pertaining to the subject of the file that he received, in the preparation of the report, prior to the adoption thereof in committee, from the following interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register[64], or from the following representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies:

1. Interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register

United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner

UNICEF

European Committee of the Regions

European Economic and Social Committee

European Anti-Poverty Network

ATD Fourth World

Social Platform

Save the Children

Eurochild

European Roma Rights Centre

Caritas Europa

European Anti-Poverty Network – Portugal

Cáritas Diocesana de Setúbal

UDIPSS Setúbal

Agir+

ADBES - Associação Desenvolvimento e Bem-Estar Social

2. Representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies

The list above is drawn up under the exclusive responsibility of the rapporteur.

Where natural persons are identified in the list by their name, by their function or by both, the rapporteur declares that he has submitted to the natural persons concerned the European Parliament's Data Protection Notice No 484 (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/data-protect/index.do), which sets out the conditions applicable to the processing of their personal data and the rights linked to that processing.

 

OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUALITY (17.10.2025)

for the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

on developing a new EU anti-poverty strategy

(2025/2095(INI))

Rapporteur for opinion: Lina Gálvez

 

 

AMENDMENTS

The Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality submits the following to the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, as the committee responsible :

Amendment  1

Motion for a resolution

Citation -1 (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to Articles 2 and 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union,

Amendment  2

Motion for a resolution

Citation -1 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to Articles 8, 9, 151, 153 and 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Amendment  3

Motion for a resolution

Citation 4 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted in 1979,

Amendment  4

Motion for a resolution

Citation 9 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention), adopted in 2011,

Amendment  5

Motion for a resolution

Citation 10 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to the Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin1a,
	_________________
	1a OJ L 180, 19.7.2000, p. 22, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2000/43/oj.

Amendment  6

Motion for a resolution

Citation 10 b (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation1a,
	_________________
	1a OJ L 204, 26.7.2006, p. 23, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2006/54/oj.

Amendment  7

Motion for a resolution

Citation 10 c (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms1a,
	_________________
	1a OJ L 132, 17.5.2023, p. 21, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2023/970/oj.

Amendment  8

Motion for a resolution

Citation 10 d (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to Directive (EU) 2024/1385 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 on combating violence against women and domestic violence1a,
	_________________
	1a OJ L, 2024/1385, 24.5.2024, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2024/1385/oj.

Amendment  9

Motion for a resolution

Citation 11 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to Commission Recommendation (EU) 2024/1238 of 23 April 2024 on developing and strengthening integrated child protection systems in the best interests of the child1a,
	_________________
	1a OJ L, 2024/1238, 14.5.2024, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reco/2024/1238/oj.

Amendment  10

Motion for a resolution

Citation 12 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to the Commission communication of 18 September 2020 entitled ‘A Union of Equality: EU anti-racism action plan 2020-2025’ (COM(2020)0565),

Amendment  11

Motion for a resolution

Citation 12 b (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to the Commission communication of 12 November 2020 entitled ‘Union of Equality: LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025’ (COM(2020)0698),

Amendment  12

Motion for a resolution

Citation 12 c (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to its resolution of 30 January 2020 on the gender pay gap1a,
	_________________
	1a OJ C 331, 17.8.2021, p. 5.

Amendment  13

Motion for a resolution

Citation 15 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to its resolution of 5 July 2022 on women’s poverty in Europe1a,
	_________________
	1a OJ C 47, 7.2.2023, p. 2

Amendment  14

Motion for a resolution

Citation 20 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to the Commission communication of 7 March 2025 entitled ‘A Roadmap for Women’s Rights’ (COM(2025)0097),

Amendment  15

Motion for a resolution

Citation 28 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	– having regard to the Make Mothers Matter report to be published in September 2025 entitled ‘Mothers’ Poverty in the EU’,

Amendment  16

Motion for a resolution

Recital A a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	A a. whereas women continue to be disproportionately more affected than men by both absolute and relative poverty, as well as the risk of social exclusion, due to structural gender inequalities; whereas poverty among women, in all its diversity, must be understood as a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon that includes not only social, political and cultural aspects but also income, housing, health and access to education and social services, and cannot be eradicated by employment alone but requires a comprehensive, inclusive approach based on both prevention and alleviation of poverty; whereas in 2024, in all but two EU countries, the severe material and social deprivation rate was higher for women (6.6 %) than for men (6.2 %)1a, while the at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate was higher for women (21.9 %) than for men (20 %) in all EU countries1b; whereas in the same year, 23.7 % of women and 22.7 % of men in the EU considered themselves to be poor1c, whereas 21.6 % of women aged 65 and over were at risk of poverty, compared to around 16.5 % of men in the same age group1d;
	_________________
	1a Eurostat, Data Browser, ‘Severe material and social deprivation rate by age and sex’, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_mdsd11__custom_17284202/bookmark/table?lang=en&&bookmarkId=a0f88fa5-9110-4302-a67d-d58f889214d0&&page=time:2024.
	1b Eurostat, Data Browser, ‘Persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion by age and sex’, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_peps01n__custom_17280682/bookmark/table?lang=en&&bookmarkId=1136c1ef-3d9f-4fda-82fb-cf7423eac65e&&page=time:2024.
	1c Eurostat, Data Browser, ‘Subjective poverty by age and sex’, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_sbjp01__custom_17284289/bookmark/table?lang=en&&bookmarkId=7d0decb7-866a-4494-b901-58a61bebd575&&page=time:2024.
	1d Eurostat, Data Browser, ‘Persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion by age and sex’, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_peps01n__custom_17280682/bookmark/table?lang=en&&bookmarkId=1136c1ef-3d9f-4fda-82fb-cf7423eac65e&&page=time:2024.

Amendment  17

Motion for a resolution

Recital A b (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	A b. whereas female poverty is both a cause and a consequence of intersectional discrimination experienced by women, in particular by those facing specific forms of marginalisation and structural discrimination on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, disability, age, migration status, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or belief, as well as women from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds and especially trans and intersex women; whereas single mothers and women living in the EU’s remote, island and outermost regions face specific challenges and an increased risk of poverty; whereas a lack of legal recognition of same-sex relationships and gender identity in Member States contributes to the exclusion of LGBTIQ+ individuals from essential social services and family-related benefits, thereby reinforcing cycles of poverty and marginalisation; whereas Roma women face particular discrimination regarding education and decent work; whereas only 28 % of Roma women aged 20–64 were in employment in 2022, in comparison with 58 % of Roma men in the same age category1a; whereas women visibly wearing religious clothing often face discrimination in employment, including, according to the latest FRA report, 45 % of Muslim women1b; whereas migrant women, including refugees and asylum seekers, experience multiple forms of discrimination in securing formal employment and housing; whereas migrant women have higher poverty and exclusion rates due to barriers to accessing employment, recognition of qualifications and childcare1c;
	_________________
	1a Fundamental Rights Agency, ‘Roma in 10 European countries’, Publications Office of the European Union, 2022, https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2022-roma-survey-2021-main-results2_en.pdf.
	1b Fundamental Rights Agency, ‘Being Muslim in the EU’, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024, https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2024-being-muslim-in-the-eu_en.pdf.
	1c Eurostat, Statistics Explained, ‘Migrant integration statistics - at risk of poverty and social exclusion’, Data extracted in 26 September 2024, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Migrant_integration_statistics_-_at_risk_of_poverty_and_social_exclusion.

Amendment  18

Motion for a resolution

Recital A c (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	A c. whereas there is a strong correlation between female poverty and child poverty; whereas in 2024, across the EU, the at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate (24.2 % of people under 18)1a and the severe material and social deprivation rate (7.9 % of people under 18)1b were highest among children; whereas in 2024, 26.1 % of people under 18 in the EU considered themselves to be poor1c; whereas one in four children in the EU are at risk of poverty or social exclusion1d; whereas in 2024, 8 % of children in the EU under the age of 17 lived in jobless households1e; whereas empowering mothers economically has a direct and lasting positive effect on children’s well-being and is essential to breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty and ensuring equal opportunities for children;
	_________________
	1a Eurostat, Data Browser, ‘Persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion by age and sex’, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/bookmark/1136c1ef-3d9f-4fda-82fb-cf7423eac65e?lang=en&&page=time:2024.
	1b Eurostat, Data Browser, ‘Severe material and social deprivation rate by age and sex’, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_mdsd11__custom_17284216/bookmark/table?lang=en&&bookmarkId=a3bbdd78-6da8-43f5-8b3b-b2eb4a3ddadc&&page=time:2024.
	1c Eurostat, Data Browser, ‘Subjective poverty by age and sex’, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_sbjp01__custom_17284300/bookmark/table?lang=en&&bookmarkId=a2e1c6ea-e1ca-43ca-a78c-5bb0645fdd77&&page=time:2024.
	1d Eurostat, Data Browser, ‘Persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion by age and sex’, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_peps01n__custom_17501965/default/table?lang=en.
	1e Eurostat, Statistics Explained, ‘Household composition statistics’, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Household_composition_statistics#Data_sources.

Amendment  19

Motion for a resolution

Recital A d (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	A d. whereas single-parent families are at greater risk of poverty and social exclusion and experience a higher probability of poverty persisting across several generations; whereas approximately one in six children in the EU (17 %)1a grows up in a single-parent household; whereas most single-parent households are led by women1b; whereas single-parent households, particularly those headed by women, face a disproportionate risk of poverty (over 32 %), compared to just 11.2 % among two-parent families1c; whereas poverty remains one of the contributing factors to family separation in the EU; whereas nearly 20 million children, one in four, are at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU1d, and whereas the current trend will not meet the target of reducing the number of children in poverty by at least 5 million by 20301e; whereas child poverty is one of the most urgent and difficult forms of poverty to eradicate, with long-lasting consequences for children’s development and life chances and the future of our societies; whereas significant disparities are observed among children from ethnic or migrant backgrounds and children with disabilities1f; whereas having children further increases the risk of poverty for single adults, a risk that disproportionately affects women, who are most often responsible for childcare and are nearly twice as likely as lone fathers not to work, while more than one third of working lone mothers are employed only part-time1g;whereas empowering mothers to earn more and achieve financial stability is a powerful and effective lever for reducing child poverty; whereas some municipalities in Member States have recognised the special challenges faced by single mothers and have introduced targeted policies and support measures;
	_________________
	1a Eurostat, ‘Young people – family and society’; https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Young_people_-_family_and_society.
	1b Eurostat, Statistics Explained, ‘Household composition statistics’, accessed 23 June 2025, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Household_composition_statistics#Data_sources.
	1c Eurostat, At-risk-of-poverty rate by poverty threshold and household type, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_li03/default/table?lang=en.
	1d Eurostat, Statistics Explained, ‘Children at risk of poverty or social exclusion’, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Children_at_risk_of_poverty_or_social_exclusion.
	1e Commission communication of 4 March 2021 entitled ‘The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan’ (COM(2021)0102).
	1f UNICEF, ‘Child Poverty Policy Brief’, 2024, https://www.unicef.org/eu/documents/policy-brief-child-poverty.
	1g European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), Beijing + 25: the fifth review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the EU Member States, https://eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/20190441_mh0119039enn_pdf.pdf.

Amendment  20

Motion for a resolution

Recital A e (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	A e. whereas there is a strong correlation between poverty and gender-based violence and whereas poverty exacerbates the impact of gender-based violence, especially on women in marginalised situations, such as LGBTIQ+ individuals; whereas women living in poverty face a higher risk of experiencing violence, including intimate partner violence and domestic violence, due to factors such as financial dependency, housing insecurity, and reduced access to support services1a; whereas in the EU-27, 30.7 % of women experience physical violence or threats and/or sexual violence by any perpetrator over their lifetime1b; whereas poverty puts women at greater risk of trafficking and sexual exploitation;
	_________________
	1a EIGE, https://eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/financial-independence-and-gender-equality.pdf.
	1b EIGE, ‘Gender-based violence survey’, https://eige.europa.eu/newsroom/eu-gender-based-violence-survey?language_content_entity=en.

Amendment  21

Motion for a resolution

Recital A f (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	A f. whereas women experiencing homelessness are often invisible in statistics and face gendered pathways into homelessness; whereas the normative definitions of homelessness often fail to capture the realities faced by women, which differ from those of men as they are less likely to sleep rough and more likely to rely on informal or temporary accommodation arrangements, risking gender-based violence and losing custody of their children; whereas LGBTIQ+ individuals, especially transgender people and those experiencing homelessness, face heightened risks of poverty and social exclusion due to structural discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare and access to social protection systems;

Amendment  22

Motion for a resolution

Recital A g (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	A g. whereas unpaid and underpaid care work, disproportionately carried out by women, remains a major driver of gender inequalities in income, career progression, and pensions, resulting in lower lifetime earnings and a significant gender pension gap; whereas women tend to live longer and are more likely to need long-term care (LTC) as they age1a; whereas the majority of LTC workers are also women, many of whom are migrants1b; whereas in 2021, wages in the LTC and other social services sectors were 21 % below the average wage1c; whereas gender-based horizontal segregation in the labour market contributes to persistent pay inequalities;
	_________________
	1a United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), ‘The growing need for long-term care’, https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/ageing/documents/un-ageing_briefing-paper_Long-term-care.pdf.
	1b EIGE, ‘Gender inequalities in care and consequences for the labour market’, Publications Office of the European Union, 2021, https://eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/20204948_mh0220888enn_pdf.pdf.
	1c Eurofound, ‘Wages in long-term care and other social services 21 % below average’, 2021, https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/resources/article/2021/wages-long-term-care-and-other-social-services-21-below-average.

Amendment  23

Motion for a resolution

Recital A h (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	A h. whereas economic inactivity and unemployment substantially increase the risk of poverty and social exclusion for both women and men; whereas in 2024, the gender employment gap in the EU was 10.0 percentage points, meaning that the proportion of men of working age in employment exceeded that of women by 10.0 percentage points1a; whereas among Roma women the employment rate is even lower, namely 28 %1b; whereas in 2023, the gender pay gap in the EU stood at 12 %1c, whereas women are disproportionately highly represented in low-paid, precarious job sectors and in flexible forms of work, with atypical and flexible contracts (part-time work, temporary work, etc.); whereas, although work in highly female-dominated sectors is essential and of high socio-economic value, it is often undervalued and paid less than work in male-dominated sectors; whereas there is an urgent need to reassess the adequacy of wages in female-dominated sectors related to their socio-economic value and to move forward on minimum wages, minimum income and pay transparency in EU regulations; whereas women face pregnancy and maternity discrimination as well as early retirement from the labour market owing to care responsibilities and the impact of menopause disorders on their health or social circumstances; whereas only 20.7 % of women with disabilities are in full–time employment1d; whereas trans women are three times more likely to be unemployed as the general population average1e; whereas migrant women, including refugees, experience multiple forms of discrimination concerning employment and housing; whereas a persistent gender pay gap contributes to lifelong economic inequality, including disparities in pensions and increased risks of poverty among elderly women, hindering competitiveness in the EU; whereas this pay gap is driven by factors such as occupational segregation, differences in working hours, and unequal representation in senior roles, which collectively hinder women’s economic independence and social security; whereas addressing the gender pay gap is essential to achieving fair labour markets and reducing gender-based poverty across all age groups; whereas in 2024, women in the EU received on average 26.1 % less pension income than men, and 5.3 % of women received no pension at all1f; whereas this is a result of the imbalances created by persistent lifelong inequalities; whereas this pension gap means that women are more likely to fall below the poverty line as they get older, also bearing in mind that life expectancy is higher for women than for men, deepening the consequences of poverty and social exclusion; whereas income inequality remains a major concern across the EU; whereas, despite overall economic growth, income gains have disproportionately benefited the highest earners, while low- and middle-income households have seen only marginal improvements; whereas in 2023, the Gini coefficient for equalised disposable income in the EU stood at 29.6 %, highlighting persistent disparities in income distribution1g; whereas the gender poverty gap is expected to increase by 2030, as women will continue to make up the majority of the world’s extreme poor and the gap may widen further with the digitalisation of our labour markets, considering the gender gap in education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and the gap in some employment sectors, such as defence and aerospace, information and communications technology and energy;
	_________________
	1a Eurostat, Statistics Explained, ‘Gender statistics’, accessed 23 June 2025, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Gender_statistics.
	1b Fundamental Rights Agency, ‘Roma in 10 European countries’, 2022, https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2022-roma-survey-2021-main-results2_en.pdf.
	1c Eurostat, Statistics Explained, ‘Gender pay gap statistics’, Data extracted in March 2025, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Gender_pay_gap_statistics.
	1d European Disability Forum, ‘2023 EU Gender Equality Index: Women with disabilities still left behind’, 2023, https://www.edf-feph.org/2023-eu-gender-equality-index-women-with-disabilities-still-left-behind/#:~:text=22%25%20of%20women%20with%20disabilities,15%25%20of%20men%20without%20disabilities.
	1e European Commission, Directorate for Justice and Consumers, ‘Legal gender recognition in the EU’, Publications Office of the European Union, 2020, https://commission.europa.eu/system/files/2020-09/legal_gender_recognition_in_the_eu_the_journeys_of_trans_people_towards_full_equality_sept_en.pdf.
	1f European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion and Social Protection Committee, ‘The 2024 pension adequacy report’, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024, https://employment-social-affairs.ec.europa.eu/pension-adequacy-report-current-and-future-income-adequacy-old-age-eu_en.
	1g Eurostat, Data Browser, ‘Living conditions in Europe – income distribution and income inequality’, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Living_conditions_in_Europe_-_income_distribution_and_income_inequality.

Amendment  24

Motion for a resolution

Recital A i (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	A i. whereas in 2024, women in the EU received on average 26.1 % less pension income than men, and 5.3 % of women received no pension at all1a; whereas this is a result of the imbalances created by persistent lifelong inequalities; whereas this pension gap means that women are more likely to fall below the poverty line as they get older, also bearing in mind that life expectancy is higher for women than for men, deepening the consequences of poverty and social exclusion; whereas greater labour inclusion throughout a person’s lifetime will help to close the gender pension gap;
	_________________
	1a European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion and Social Protection Committee, The 2024 pension adequacy report, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

Amendment  25

Motion for a resolution

Recital A j (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	A j. whereas ‘time poverty’ means the absence of available time after deducting the time necessary for paid employment and unpaid work (including caregiving), study or other basic necessities of life such as mental and physical self-care; whereas time poverty deprives women of the time or autonomy necessary to ensure decent working conditions, financial autonomy, training or access to the basic resources and minimum services that would guarantee them a healthy life and enable them to participate fully in their communities and societies; whereas time poverty limits women’s opportunities to engage in long-term, full-time employment, restricting their earning potential and increasing their reliance on low-wage or part-time jobs, reducing their pension contributions and heightening financial dependence in old age; whereas these overlapping disadvantages highlight the urgent need to link gender equality with income security and comprehensive care policy reforms; whereas addressing time poverty requires a fundamental rethinking of how care and domestic work are organised, valued and redistributed across society; whereas there is an urgent need to link care justice with economic justice and to challenge the systems that commodify labour while extracting value from the unpaid and invisible work predominantly carried out by women;

Amendment  26

Motion for a resolution

Recital A k (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	A k. whereas women are overrepresented among those in energy poverty, are more dependent on natural resources and have fewer assets or resources to adapt to the impacts of climate change; whereas the energy crises and rising living costs, especially related to housing, reduce women’s financial capacity to build an autonomous existence, making it harder for women with no income or a low income to escape domestic violence;

Amendment  27

Motion for a resolution

Recital A l (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	A l. whereas menstrual or period poverty is the lack of adequate access to menstrual hygiene products and facilities, affecting an estimated 10 % of the menstruating population in the EU, disproportionately affecting marginalised and vulnerable groups, and limiting their participation in social, educational and professional life; stresses that period poverty remains a persistent barrier to gender equality in the EU, with low-income women and girls often forced to choose between menstrual hygiene products and other basic needs;

Amendment  28

Motion for a resolution

Recital A m (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	A m. whereas people of African descent are at higher risk of poverty, social exclusion and energy poverty than the general population in the EU; whereas 33 % of people of African descent have difficulties making ends meet; whereas one in four people of African descent have been refused as tenants based on their racial or ethnic origin; whereas 45 % of people of African descent live in overcrowded housing1a;
	_________________
	1a EU Fundamental Rights Agency, ‘Being Black in the EU’, Publications office of the European Union, 2024, https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2023-being-black_in_the_eu_en.pdf.

Amendment  29

Motion for a resolution

Recital A n (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	A n. whereas there is a 24-percentage-point employment gap between people with and without disabilities in the EU, and an even greater gap for women and young people with disabilities1a;
	_________________
	1a European Disability Forum, ‘EDF 7th Human Rights Report. The Right to work: The employment situation of persons with disabilities in Europe’, 2023, https://www.edf-feph.org/publications/human-rights-report-2023-the-right-to-work/.

Amendment  30

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 1 – point d

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
d) A comprehensive and integrated approach to anti-poverty policies and measures and the goal of eradicating poverty as a cross-cutting criterion in sectoral policies;	d) A comprehensive and integrated approach to anti-poverty policies and measures and the goal of eradicating poverty as a cross-cutting criterion in sectoral policies, especially taking into consideration the EU equality, inclusion and social policy areas;

Amendment  31

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 1 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	1 a. Calls on the Commission to develop a gender-responsive strategy, understanding the gender dimensions of poverty and placing a strong focus on structural poverty that affects women and girls in particular, and applying an intersectional approach in order to address, in particular, single-parent families – which are mostly led by women – mothers with low-income, women with disabilities, women from marginalised racial, ethnic and socio-economic groups, including Roma women, migrant and elderly women, victims of gender-based violence, and LGBTIQ+ individuals;

Amendment  32

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 1 b (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	1 b. Stresses that the most sustainable poverty reduction policy is one that prevents poverty from arising in the first place; underlines that the anti-poverty strategy must address the root causes of female poverty and deliver on structural changes for women and those most at risk, focusing on social investments in accessible and high-quality healthcare, childcare, inclusive education, decent and affordable housing, adequate social protection systems, and targeted measures to tackle the non-take-up of benefits; urges the Commission to address the gendered and intersectional risks of poverty, including in-work poverty and pension poverty, through adequate minimum wages, minimum income, social protection and collective bargaining; calls on the Member States and the Commission to further explore the potential of basic income schemes as part of broader anti-poverty strategies that take into account the specific socio-economic vulnerabilities of women, and to ensure that EU frameworks and data collection tools (e.g. Eurostat, national statistics offices) better capture gender aspects of poverty and its root causes;

Amendment  33

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 1 c (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	1 c. Calls on the Commission to acknowledge the structural links between poverty and gender-based violence and to address gender-based violence as a key strategy for eradicating poverty, in particular poverty among women and children, recognising that eliminating all types of violence is essential for women’s ability to participate fully in their communities and the economy, to access education, employment, and social services, and thereby achieve financial independence; urges the Commission and the Member States to boost public investment in policies that address gender-based violence; welcomes the EU’s ratification of the Istanbul Convention and urges Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia to complete their ratification processes without further delay; calls on the Commission to ensure the effective implementation of the Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence, guaranteeing that women experiencing poverty and other types of violence have adequate and unconditional access to shelters, survivor support services, legal aid, and social welfare, regardless of their residence or migration status;

Amendment  34

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 3

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
3. Calls on the Commission and Member States to promote policies to protect and promote labour rights and improve the quality of employment, including stable employment relationships, fair wages, decent and safe working conditions and access to social protection;	3. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote policies to protect and promote labour rights and improve the quality of employment, with particular focus on women in the labour market, including stable employment relationships, fair and transparent wages across all sectors - including female-dominated sectors such as social, care, health and education – with a view to ensuring equal pay for work of equal value, decent and safe working conditions and access to social protection; calls on the Commission and the Member States to focus particularly on reducing the gender employment gap, the pay and pensions gaps, and in-work poverty among women by providing flexible working arrangements and accessible and affordable care services in order to facilitate women’s access to quality jobs; urges the Commission to mandate the introduction of workplace policies that support menstrual health – including the option of menstrual leave, and accommodations for workers experiencing women-specific conditions, e.g. menopause, migraine and endometriosis – and paid time off for regular breast screening check-ups, in order to promote women’s health and well-being throughout all stages of life;

Amendment  35

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 3 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	3 a. Recalls that poverty continues to be measured based on accumulated household income, even if not all members of the household earn the same or distribute resources equally; calls for individualised rights and calculations based on individual income in order to combat the true extent of women’s poverty and for time poverty to be included as a measure;

Amendment  36

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 3 b (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	3 b. Stresses the importance of supporting women’s entrepreneurship and self-employment opportunities, particularly in rural, island and other geographically remote areas, as a means of achieving better economic inclusion and gender equality and combating poverty, creating local employment and fostering inclusive economic development; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure targeted support for women entrepreneurs through improved access to funding, business training, digital tools and markets; calls on the Commission to develop policies that facilitate women’s access to quality jobs and entrepreneurial paths, through incentives for companies to hire and promote women, particularly single mothers, and to provide flexible working arrangements;

Amendment  37

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 3 c (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	3 c. Calls on the Commission to integrate education, training and lifelong learning into the anti-poverty strategy, with a focus on inclusive education and the reintegration of early school leavers; recommends expanding digital and media literacy programmes and investing in second-chance education; emphasises the need to link the anti-poverty strategy to inclusive education, upskilling and reskilling programmes, as well as civic engagement, specifically targeting vulnerable groups, women and girls, long-term unemployed people, single parents and early school leavers; calls on the Commission and the Member States to bridge the digital divide for women and girls in poverty by ensuring affordable internet access, digital skills training and access to online public services, with a focus on rural and marginalised communities;

Amendment  38

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 5 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	5 a. Highlights that climate change has a disproportionate impact on people experiencing poverty, making them more vulnerable to health issues, energy poverty, housing insecurity and forced displacement; stresses the urgent need for gender-responsive climate action to prevent women and girls from falling deeper into poverty; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction strategies and other preparedness mainstreaming activities are inclusive and take into account the specific vulnerabilities and capacities of women and girls, including through investments in gender-responsive education, healthcare access, and economic resilience; calls on the Commission to ensure that the anti-poverty strategy contributes to addressing the disproportionate impact of climate change on people experiencing poverty and to guarantee their inclusion in the green transition; calls on the Commission to ensure adequate funding to address climate poverty, with a focus on energy efficiency and housing renovation in the post-2027 multiannual financial framework, to ensure that people living in poverty receive adequate support during the green transition;

Amendment  39

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 6

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
6. Urges the Commission and Member States to combat poverty by promoting policies that ensure the indivisibility and universality of political, economic, social and cultural rights;	6. Urges the Commission and the Member States to combat poverty by promoting policies that ensure the indivisibility and universality of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights; calls on the Member States to develop methodologies for assessing structural or systemic barriers to breaking out of poverty and social exclusion and to participating fully in society, whether these barriers are found in their legal systems or public policies, or their implementation at territorial level;

Amendment  40

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 7

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
7. Calls on the Commission and Member States to significantly increase public investment in policies that guarantee universal, free and high-quality public services, considering their contribution to breaking the cycles of poverty, particularly in areas such as education, healthcare, social protection, and universal access to decent housing, water and sanitation, energy, transport, and cultural and leisure activities;	7. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to significantly increase public investment in policies that guarantee universal, affordable and high-quality public services, considering their contribution to breaking the cycles of poverty and reducing gender inequalities, particularly in areas such as early childhood education with personalised educational support plans for young parents – particularly mothers – high-quality, accessible and affordable childcare and long-term care services – above all for persons with disabilities – healthcare – including free medicine for children, affordable dental care, accessible mental health support, and access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, including to family planning information services, affordable modern contraception and safe and legal abortion care – social protection, and universal access to decent and affordable housing, water and sanitation, energy, transport, recreational and social activities, and digital access to facilitate remote working, for example for women with care responsibilities; calls on the Member States to invest adequate funds in early childhood education and care and to ensure that national education systems provide gender-equal high-quality education in order to tackle educational poverty, which often affects women’s opportunities and their ability to improve their social well-being and economic independence, including through financial and banking literacy; calls for new accelerated efforts to close the gender employment gap and the gender pension gap and to increase investment in public services and social infrastructure which are essential for both family support and women’s economic independence, and calls for a commitment to advance towards care societies;

Amendment  41

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 7 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	7 a. Recommends that Member States ensure the provision of essential, affordable and inclusive services for all, paying particular attention to the protection and needs of women and vulnerable groups;

Amendment  42

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 7 b (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	7 b. Stresses the need to strengthen healthcare systems and make them accessible, affordable and inclusive, taking into account the specific health needs of women; calls on the Commission and the Member States to guarantee that all young people – particularly girls and LGBTQI+ young people, notably those in rural areas and those affected by low income or marginalised for other reasons – have access to youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services and information – including age appropriate comprehensive sexuality and relationship education, information about family planning, and counselling services in school and community-based environments – affordable contraception and menstrual products and safe and legal abortion care, as part of an inclusive and gender-sensitive anti-poverty strategy;

Amendment  43

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 7 c (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	7 c. Reaffirms that comprehensive SRHR, including access to contraception, antenatal/maternal care, safe abortion, fertility services, and age-appropriate sexuality education, are essential components of gender equality and poverty alleviation; calls on the Commission and the Member States to embed SRHR as a core pillar in all strategies targeting poverty among women and girls;

Amendment  44

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 7 d (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	7.d Encourages the promotion of community-based care approaches that are participatory, locally rooted and designed with direct input from those affected by poverty, to ensure that services, spaces and support mechanisms reflect the actual needs and realities of the people they serve; highlights the importance of involving women and marginalised communities in the planning and design of such spaces, to ensure they are safe, inclusive and responsive to gender-specific needs;

Amendment  45

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 7 e (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	7 e. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to guarantee the right of all individuals, particularly those in vulnerable situations, to be properly informed about the full range of public services and social support available to them, including in the areas of housing, healthcare, education, employment and protection from gender-based violence; stresses that information must be clear, culturally and linguistically appropriate, and proactively disseminated;

Amendment  46

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 8 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	8 a. Calls on the Commission to address the specific challenges and vulnerabilities faced by homeless women, recognising that homeless women often experience homelessness differently than men, being at greater risk of violence, sexual assault and trafficking, as well as of specific health concerns related to reproductive health and hygiene; underlines that decent and affordable housing is a fundamental right and a precondition for the enjoyment of other fundamental rights; stresses that the anti-poverty strategy must include a dedicated section on combating homelessness, recognising it as one of the most severe and visible forms of poverty and social exclusion, paying particular attention to its gendered dimensions; calls on the Commission to further develop the European Platform on Combating Homelessness (EPOCH) by increasing its funding for both activities and governance and expanding its three work streams on monitoring, mutual learning and access to EU funds, with a particular focus on homeless women; invites the Commission to encourage the Member States to embed gender-responsive Housing First models in national homelessness strategies, prioritising women fleeing gender-based violence, migrant women, racialised women, single mothers, women with disabilities, and women in rural areas, as well as LGBTIQ+ people, in line with EPOCH; calls for inclusive access to essential services, social protection and housing for women in all their diversity, regardless of legal status; highlights the need for culturally sensitive and multilingual support services, particularly in urban and border regions; calls on the Commission to mobilise EU funds in the post-2027 multiannual financial framework (e.g. ESF+, ERDF, InvestEU) to combat severe material deprivation and to support affordable housing specifically for women experiencing homelessness, as a convergence measure with the European care strategy and the European Child Guarantee;

Amendment  47

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 8 b (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	8 b. Acknowledges the vulnerability of people without adequate housing, survivors of human trafficking and people who use drugs, who often face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and exclusion, which both stem from and reinforce poverty; underlines that women and gender minorities within these groups are disproportionately exposed to gender-based violence, exploitation, stigma and barriers to accessing essential services, further deepening their socio-economic marginalisation;

Amendment  48

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 8 c (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	8 c. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to take targeted, effective and efficient measures to remove the barriers that hinder access to services of general interest in vulnerable areas – particularly for women and girls in all their diversity in rural and remote regions, including outermost regions – as such barriers are key drivers of poverty and social exclusion; calls for access to be ensured in these areas to high-quality public services such as care, education, health, housing and energy, paying particular attention to areas at risk of depopulation;

Amendment  49

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 8 d (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	8 d. Calls for the adoption and implementation of binding legal measures preventing financial discrimination against individuals with a history of illness – including cancer survivors and persons with mental health conditions – paying particular attention to women, who often face intersectional socio-economic vulnerabilities; stresses the importance of the ‘right to be forgotten’ in this context, particularly in relation to accessing financial services such as insurance and credit, as well as housing, without being penalised for past medical conditions, to ensure socio-economic reintegration and decrease the risk of poverty; highlights the potential of personal budgeting approaches, where individuals receive financial resources directly to spend according to their own needs, to promote autonomy and dignity, and to better tailor support in anti-poverty efforts;

Amendment  50

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 9 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	9 a. Calls on all Member States to swiftly and fully implement the Pay Transparency Directive in order to address essential aspects of the gender pay gap within sectors, and to require companies to publish gender pay gap analyses and conduct information and training campaigns on unconscious bias and stereotypes; calls on the Commission and the Member States to take regional disparities into consideration and to ensure that such measures are tailored to address the specific needs of regions where gender gaps and labour market inequalities are most pronounced; calls on the Commission, in addition, to tackle the issue of structural undervaluation of work in female-dominated sectors and to ensure equal pay for work of equal value by reassessing the value of work in typically female-dominated areas of employment such as social, care and health services, and education, through gender-neutral job evaluation tools developed and applied to establish a better and fairer remuneration scheme;

Amendment  51

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 9 b (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	9 b. Calls for new accelerated efforts to close the gender employment gap and the gender pension gap and to increase investment in public services and social infrastructure and calls for a commitment to advance towards care societies;

Amendment  52

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 9 c (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	9 c. Calls on the Commission to take into account the specific challenges faced by older women living in poverty in the framework of the strategy; urges the Commission to encourage the Member States to develop targeted actions to ensure adequate pension levels, including automatic indexation to inflation;

Amendment  53

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 10

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
10. Calls on Member States to develop policies to strengthen maternity, paternity and parental rights, promoting work-life balance, facilitating women’s return to work after pregnancy and maternity leave, and ensuring adequate conditions for breastfeeding in the workplace;	10. Stresses that the majority of unpaid care work is still carried out solely by women and that this has negative consequences for the occupational gender gap and economic independence; emphasises that in order to address the complex nature of women’s poverty it is necessary to change the division of work and to give incentives to women and men to promote the fairer sharing of unpaid care and domestic work, and to facilitate women’s integration and reintegration into the labour market in order to achieve an 'equal earner, equal carer’ model of society; calls on the Member States to develop policies to strengthen maternity, paternity and parental rights, promoting work-life balance and flexible working arrangements, including the right to work remotely, facilitating women’s return to work after pregnancy and maternity leave, including by providing high-quality, accessible and affordable childcare, and ensuring adequate conditions for breastfeeding and infant care in the workplace; calls on the Member States to introduce and promote accessible and adequately compensated paternity leave policies, including increasing fathers' statutory paternity leave and parental allowances and offering non-transferable leave for fathers or the other parent, in order to promote the true sharing of care responsibilities, allowing for women’s position in the labour market to be strengthened and enabling the other parent to establish strong bonds with their children and take necessary time off to support early childhood development and family well-being, and to thus contribute to reducing women’s ‘time poverty’; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure the full implementation of the Work-Life Balance Directive;

Amendment  54

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 10 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	10 a. Urges the Commission to tackle the systematic undervaluation of work carried out in female-dominated sectors, such as the social, health and care services and education sectors, which leads to in-work poverty, and to work with the Member States and social partners to develop gender-neutral job evaluation tools and criteria allowing for an EU-wide definition and comparison of ‘the value of work’, with the aim of more fairly valuing and remunerating the work carried out in female-dominated sectors;

Amendment  55

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 10 b (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	10 b. Calls on the Commission to encourage the Member States to develop fair and effective national systems of wealth taxation, with the aim of reducing inequality and ensuring that those with the greatest means contribute fairly to the financing of public goods; recalls that international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have highlighted wealth taxation as a useful tool to tackle rising inequalities and strengthen public finances;

Amendment  56

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 10 c (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	10 c. Calls on the Commission to conduct a comprehensive study on the effects of working time reduction, including experiences from pilot projects such as the four-day working week in the United Kingdom, which showed positive outcomes for workers’ health and well-being, work-life balance and productivity; recognises the success of different countries that have trialled working time reductions and encourages the Member States to explore and support initiatives aimed at reducing working hours without loss of pay, as a means to reduce poverty, enhance democracy, and promote quality employment, gender equality and better mental and physical health;

Amendment  57

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 10 d (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	10 d. Highlights the economic disincentives to motherhood faced by many women across the EU; calls for comprehensive family policies that support childbearing without long-term financial penalties, especially regarding career breaks and pension gaps;

Amendment  58

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 10 e (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	10 e. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to develop a dedicated European action plan for senior women, including measures to address the gender pension gap, priority access to social and home-care services, continuous training opportunities and part-time employment schemes to combat isolation and old-age poverty;

Amendment  59

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 10 f (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	10 f. Urges the Commission to develop and implement a comprehensive EU wide menstrual health strategy to combat menstrual poverty; believes that menstrual health and hygiene must be explicitly integrated into national and EU-level public health and anti-poverty policies; urges the Commission to support the Member States in including menstrual education and provision of sanitary products within holistic gender-responsive health and social policies, particularly for women experiencing homelessness, victims of gender-based violence, and women from vulnerable groups such as those of migrant backgrounds and asylum seekers; urges the Commission and the Member States to mandate the provision of free menstrual products in public schools and universities, government buildings, shelters, public institutions and centres supporting marginalised women and girls, with a view to combating period poverty; calls on the Member States, furthermore, to eliminate VAT and other indirect taxes on menstrual hygiene products, in line with gender equality objectives;

Amendment  60

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 11

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
11. Urges Member States to ensure universal access to affordable, high-quality public maternal, neonatal and paediatric healthcare;	11. Urges the Member States to ensure universal access to affordable, high-quality public maternal, neonatal and paediatric healthcare, as well as elderly care and care for persons with disabilities, to reduce the disproportionate number of women who take on unpaid care roles which limit their ability to participate in the labour market and earn a living;

Amendment  61

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 11 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	11 a. Calls on the Commission to issue a recommendation encouraging the Member States to implement binding legal measures to advance poverty reduction efforts by addressing financial discrimination faced by women with a history of illness, including cancer survivors and women with mental health conditions, based on the principle of the right to be forgotten, in order to ensure their reintegration into the labour market and society and to reduce their risk of poverty, while paying particular attention to women facing intersectional socio-economic discrimination;

Amendment  62

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 13

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
13. Calls on the Commission and Member States to consider the so-called hidden phenomena of poverty, to combat the stigmatisation of people living in poverty and the non-take-up of available social benefits, and to take into account the fact that elderly people, people with disabilities, single-parent families, ethnic minorities and migrants are groups that are more vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion;	13. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to consider the so-called hidden phenomena of poverty, to combat the stigmatisation of people living in poverty, and to adopt a gendered and intersectional approach in anti-poverty strategies, recognising that elderly women, women with disabilities, single-parent families, which are mostly led by women, women from racial and ethnic minorities, migrant women, victims of gender-based violence, and LGTBIQ+ individuals are groups that are more vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion than others;

Amendment  63

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 13 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	13 a. Calls on the Commission to set disaggregated targets to reduce poverty among the most marginalised women, in line with the European Pillar of Social Rights and targets under the Sustainable Development Goals, and to track progress with intersectional indicators;

Amendment  64

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 13 b (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	13 b. Points out that female poverty creates child poverty and that tackling it is key to breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty; calls on the Commission and the Member States to encourage the introduction or strengthening of universal child benefits as a key instrument to reduce child poverty, support families and promote a fairer distribution of wealth, while respecting national competences and social protection systems; calls for the EU and the Member States to consider the development of a specific status for single-parent families, which are disproportionally led by single mothers, who are often even minors themselves;

Amendment  65

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 13 c (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	13 c. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to prioritise the reduction of child poverty, noting that approximately one in four children in the EU is at risk of poverty or social exclusion; recognises that child poverty is closely linked to the economic situation of their mothers, who often face higher risks of poverty due to gender pay gaps, precarious employment and disproportionate caregiving responsibilities1a;
	_________________
	1a Eurostat, Statistics Explained, 'Children at risk of poverty or social exclusion'. Data extracted on 7 May 2025, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Children_at_risk_of_poverty_or_social_exclusion.

Amendment  66

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 13 d (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	13 d. Recognises the EU's responsibility for the task of addressing and eliminating human trafficking, which has a cross-border and gendered dimension, as women in poverty are disproportionally exposed to the risk of sexual exploitation as well as of labour exploitation; whereas labour exploitation can consist of excessive working hours, unsafe or unhealthy working environments, and denial of labour rights such as sick leave and the right to organise or strike, which disproportionately affect women workers in export-oriented sectors;

Amendment  67

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 13 e (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	13 e. Underlines that the lack of safe and legal migration routes currently available, in addition to the increasingly stringent migration policy contributing to Fortress Europe, is a cause of maginalisation and precarity among migrant people, especially women and children; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure safe and legal migration routes and the proper provision of social services to all people, including women and children, irrespective of their migration status;

Amendment  68

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 14

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
14. Recommends that Member States increase support for families and people in vulnerable situations through mental health and psychosocial support services;	14. Recommends that the Member States increase support for the socio-economic and emotional well-being of families, particularly single mothers, and people in vulnerable situations, through mental health and psychosocial support services and by providing opportunities for participation in sports, high-quality educational and training programmes, and cultural and recreational activities, ensuring that these services are gender-sensitive;

Amendment  69

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 16 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	16 a. Encourages the conference to explicitly address gendered dimensions of poverty, including period poverty;

Amendment  70

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 17 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	17 a. Calls on the Commission to establish a committee of people experiencing poverty, comprising people experiencing poverty, in particular women, LGBTQI+ people and other marginalised people, with a mandate to contribute to the design, implementation and evaluation of the strategy; recognises that communities directly affected by poverty are best placed to inform policies that have an impact on their daily lives; calls on the Commission to ensure that the participation of people experiencing poverty is meaningful, including by providing adequate financial compensation and the necessary support tools such as interpretation and accessible formats;

Amendment  71

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 17 b (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	17 b. Calls on the Commission to create a special working group comprising people experiencing poverty, academics, representatives of Eurostat, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, the European Institute for Gender Equality, the statistics offices of the Member States, policymakers and civil society organisations, and practitioners working in essential services;

Amendment  72

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 17 c (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	17 c. Urges the Commission to include a targeted section within the strategy encouraging Member States to repeal laws and administrative provisions that criminalise survival activities in public spaces, including laws targeting begging, rough sleeping, informal economic activities, and other forms of subsistence work;

Amendment  73

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 18 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	18 a. Calls on the European Institute for Gender Equality and the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights to conduct EU-wide research into the intersectional aspects of poverty;

Amendment  74

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 18 b (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	18 b. Calls on the Commission to develop an intersectional tracking methodology for poverty reduction impact and to develop disaggeregated targets with the goal of reducing poverty among the most marginalised women, in line with the European Pillar of Social Rights and the targets under the Sustainable Development Goals;

Amendment  75

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 18 c (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	18 c. Stresses that the effective implementation and monitoring of the strategy requires the systematic collection and use of disaggregated data; calls on the Commission to reissue equality data collection guidelines to empower the Member States to collect disaggregated data, including by racial or ethnic origin, gender, age, disability and migration status, in full compliance with fundamental rights and data protection standards, to accurately identify and address pockets of poverty and exclusion, reveal structural inequalities and inform evidence-based policy responses at all levels of governance;

Amendment  76

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 20

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
20. Calls on the Commission to introduce a horizontal principle into the Strategy focused on considering the impacts of sectoral policies on poverty, including the obligation to carry out an ex ante impact assessment;	20. Calls on the Commission to introduce a horizontal principle into the strategy focused on considering the impacts of sectoral policies on poverty, including the obligation to carry out an ex ante impact assessment, paying particular attention to women’s disproportionate vulnerability to poverty and regional disparities;

Amendment  77

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 20 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	20 a. Calls on the Commission to include the European Institute for Gender Equality’s Gender Equality Index in the social scoreboard;

Amendment  78

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 21 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	21 a. Calls on the Commission to pressure the Member States to establish fair, redistributive and progressive taxation systems, ensuring that public budgets are sufficiently equipped to finance the eradication of poverty and the reduction of inequalities and addressing the unequal distribution of wealth and resources; underlines that tax justice is essential to upholding social cohesion and the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights;

Amendment  79

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 21 b (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	21 b. Calls on the Commission to strengthen the European Semester process by introducing more robust and gender-responsive recommendations within country-specific recommendations, beyond the currently limited indicators in the Social Scoreboard, to better capture gender inequalities and address the structural links between poverty and gender-based violence;

Amendment  80

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 22

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
22. Calls for the strengthening of the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) and better use of the ESF+, the ERDF, the FEAD and the AMIF in order to reinforce policies that contribute to eradicating poverty;	22. Calls for the strengthening of the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) and better use of the ESF+, the ERDF, the FEAD and the AMIF in order to reinforce policies that contribute to eradicating poverty; stresses that the ESF+ should be maintained as a separate fund in the post-2027 MFF, as the fund is key to enhancing accessible, affordable and adaptable social services for all vulnerable groups, especially women and girls with disabilities;

Amendment  81

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 22 a (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	22 a. Underlines that, as an obligation stemming from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the EU must mainstream  actions to support vulnerable groups at higher risk of poverty, such as persons with disabilities, through all programmes in the MFF post-2027; considers it essential to ensure that persons with disabilities, especially women and girls, have equitable access to all programmes funded by the EU, in line with the strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities 2021-2030; urges the Commission to develop a methodology to track spending that benefits persons with disabilities, particularly women and girls, and to verify that all programmes and EU-funded projects guarantee gender equal opportunities and access to EU funding for persons with disabilities;

Amendment  82

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 22 b (new)

Motion for a resolution	Amendment
	22 b. Emphasises the need for gender budgeting and gender-disaggregated data in the design, implementation and follow-up of the new EU anti-poverty strategy; calls on the Commission to develop specific indicators to track access to menstrual products and SRHR services, and to ensure that EU funds demonstrably reduce the gendered dimensions of poverty;

ANNEX: DECLARATION OF INPUT

Pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure, the rapporteur declares that she included in her report input on matters pertaining to the subject of the file that she received, in the preparation of the draft report, from the following interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register[1], or from the following representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies:

1. Interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register

Make Mothers Matter (MMM)

2. Representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies

 

The list above is drawn up under the exclusive responsibility of the rapporteur for the opinion.

Where natural persons are identified in the list by their name, by their function or by both, the rapporteur declares that he has submitted to the natural persons concerned the European Parliament’s Data Protection Notice No 484 (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/data-protect/index.do), which sets out the conditions applicable to the processing of their personal data and the rights linked to that processing.

 

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

Date adopted	13.10.2025
Result of final vote	+ : 26 - : 8 0 : 0
Members present for the final vote	Margarita de la Pisa Carrión, Valérie Devaux, Heléne Fritzon, Lina Gálvez, Alexandra Geese, Chiara Gemma, Fernand Kartheiser, Arba Kokalari, Elena Kountoura, Sebastian Kruis, Judita Laššáková, Eleonora Meleti, Carolina Morace, Maria Noichl, Sirpa Pietikäinen, Giusi Princi, Emma Rafowicz, Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, Benedetta Scuderi, Laurence Trochu, Marko Vešligaj, Maria Walsh, Lucia Yar
Substitutes present for the final vote	Christine Anderson, Veronika Cifrová Ostrihoňová, Paulo Do Nascimento Cabral, Elisabeth Grossmann, Billy Kelleher, Katrin Langensiepen, Manuela Ripa, Beatrice Timgren, Marianne Vind
Members under Rule 216(7) present for the final vote	Peter Agius, Daniel Caspary

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL
BY THE COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

26	+
PPE	Agius Peter, Caspary Daniel, Do Nascimento Cabral Paulo, Kokalari Arba, Meleti Eleonora, Pietikäinen Sirpa, Princi Giusi, Ripa Manuela, Walsh Maria
Renew	Cifrová Ostrihonová Veronika, Devaux Valérie, Kelleher Billy, Yar Lucia
S&D	Fritzon Heléne, Gálvez Lina, Grossmann Elisabeth, Noichl Maria, Rafowicz Emma, Scheuring-Wielgus Joanna, Vesligaj Marko, Vind Marianne
The Left	Kountoura Elena, Morace Carolina
Verts/ALE	Geese Alexandra, Langensiepen Katrin, Scuderi Benedetta

 

8	-
ECR	Gemma Chiara, Timgren Beatrice, Trochu Laurence
ESN	Anderson Christine
NI	Kartheiser Fernand, Lassáková Judita
PfE	Kruis Sebastian, de la Pisa Carrión Margarita

 

0

0

 

Key:

+  :  in favour

-  :  against

0  :  abstentions

 

 

 

 

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

Date adopted	3.12.2025
Result of final vote	+: –: 0:	42 12 2
Members present for the final vote	Maravillas Abadía Jover, Grégory Allione, Li Andersson, Marc Angel, Pascal Arimont, Konstantinos Arvanitis, Nikola Bartůšek, Gabriele Bischoff, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Andrzej Buła, David Casa, Estelle Ceulemans, Leila Chaibi, Per Clausen, Henrik Dahl, Johan Danielsson, Marie Dauchy, Margarita de la Pisa Carrión, Mélanie Disdier, Niels Geuking, Isilda Gomes, Alicia Homs Ginel, Irena Joveva, Martine Kemp, Marit Maij, Jagna Marczułajtis-Walczak, Eleonora Meleti, Idoia Mendia, João Oliveira, Branislav Ondruš, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Hristo Petrov, Dennis Radtke, Nela Riehl, Liesbet Sommen, Villy Søvndal, Pál Szekeres, Georgiana Teodorescu, Romana Tomc, Jana Toom, Raffaele Topo, Francesco Torselli, Brigitte van den Berg, Marianne Vind, Mariateresa Vivaldini, Jan-Peter Warnke, Séverine Werbrouck
Substitutes present for the final vote	Raúl de la Hoz Quintano, Jaroslav Knot, Arba Kokalari, Lara Magoni, Sara Matthieu, Kim Van Sparrentak, Angelika Winzig
Members under Rule 216(7) present for the final vote	Adrian-George Axinia, Emmanouil Fragkos

 

 

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL BY THE COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

42	+
NI	Branislav Ondruš, Jan-Peter Warnke
PPE	Maravillas Abadía Jover, Pascal Arimont, Andrzej Buła, David Casa, Raúl de la Hoz Quintano, Niels Geuking, Martine Kemp, Arba Kokalari, Jagna Marczułajtis-Walczak, Eleonora Meleti, Dennis Radtke, Liesbet Sommen, Romana Tomc, Angelika Winzig
Renew	Grégory Allione, Irena Joveva, Hristo Petrov, Jana Toom, Brigitte van den Berg
S&D	Marc Angel, Gabriele Bischoff, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Estelle Ceulemans, Johan Danielsson, Isilda Gomes, Alicia Homs Ginel, Marit Maij, Idoia Mendia, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Raffaele Topo, Marianne Vind
The Left	Li Andersson, Konstantinos Arvanitis, Leila Chaibi, Per Clausen, João Oliveira
Verts/ALE	Sara Matthieu, Nela Riehl, Villy Søvndal, Kim Van Sparrentak

 

12	-
ECR	Adrian-George Axinia, Lara Magoni, Georgiana Teodorescu, Francesco Torselli, Mariateresa Vivaldini
PfE	Nikola Bartůšek, Marie Dauchy, Mélanie Disdier, Jaroslav Knot, Margarita de la Pisa Carrión, Pál Szekeres, Séverine Werbrouck

 

2	0
ECR	Emmanouil Fragkos
PPE	Henrik Dahl

 

Key to symbols:

+ : in favour

- : against

0 : abstention

 

 

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