What changed between the plenary report and the adopted text

Changed:31.29. NotesRecognises thatmenstrual poverty as a lackstructural ofform adequateof accesspoverty toand menstrualgender hygieneinequality productsin andthe facilitiesEU, affectsaffecting an estimated 10 % of the menstruating population,population; underlines its disproportionate impact on women and disproportionatelygirls affectson marginalisedlow-income, refugees, asylum seekers, young people, homeless people, persons with disabilities, and others in vulnerable groups,situations; limitingstresses that menstrual poverty seriously limits participation in social, educational and professional life; calls on the Commission andto thedevelop Membera Statescomprehensive toaction proposeplan comprehensiveas measurespart toof tacklethe this,EU anti-poverty strategy, ensuring free or affordable access to menstrual products, includinginformation throughand adequate facilitiessanitary facilities, particularly in thepublic workplaceplaces such as educational institutions, workplaces, public buildings and inreception schools;centres;

Added:34. Stresses the importance of overcoming administrative obstacles that may prevent vulnerable groups, such as Roma, from accessing essential services and social protection, as these barriers perpetuate and exacerbate poverty and exclusion; underlines that national identification numbers could facilitate equal access to essential services while maintaining administrative clarity and accountability;

Added:47. Recalls Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s commitment, in 2019, to ensure that every child in Europe at risk of poverty or social exclusion has access to the most basic of rights, such as healthcare and education, which was followed by the adoption, in 2021, of a Council recommendation establishing a European Child Guarantee; stresses that the objectives of the European Child Guarantee cannot be achieved without an ambitious dedicated budget at both EU and national level; reiterates, in this context, its call for a substantial dedicated budget of at least EUR 20 billion for the European Child Guarantee; underlines the urgent need for this dedicated budget to be allocated in the next multiannual financial framework in order to respond to the growing challenge of child poverty and social exclusion;

Added:49. Welcomes the recent update of the monitoring framework for the European Child Guarantee and the inclusion within the framework of new indicators to improve the effectiveness of monitoring progress in the implementation of this instrument in the Member States; underlines the important role of data collection and monitoring systems in understanding the obstacles faced by vulnerable children and in enabling tailored interventions and resource allocation; calls on the Social Protection Committee to continue its work to improve the monitoring framework in order to maintain its relevance and address remaining data gaps and on Member States to use this common monitoring framework while adapting it to their specific circumstances with regard to child poverty;

Changed:50.51. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the European Child Guaranteeallocation hasof a substantial dedicated budget of at least EUR 20 billion into the 2028-2034European MFF,Child Guarantee, 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; stresses that the use of these funds should be transparent and require the involvement of social organisations in their planning, implementation and evaluation;

Added:57. Recalls the EU objective of transitioning from institutional to community or family-based care; recognises the opportunity provided by the anti-poverty strategy to build bridges with the European Child Guarantee, in particular with measures to support the target group of children in institutional care; calls on the Member States to make full use of the ESF+, as well as other relevant European and national funds, in order to finalise the deinstitutionalisation process so as to ensure that children can live in a family or community environment;

Removed: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;

Removed: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;

Changed: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, such as through the EU school scheme, accessible public transport and targeted energy support for low-income households; stresses the need to ensure a dedicated and sufficiently resourced allocation of funds for food banks that provide material support, including food aid, so that they have adequate operational capacity and the ability to respond swiftly to rising levels of food insecurity and material deprivation; underlines that such support must be complemented by accompanying measures that foster social inclusion and pathways out of poverty in line with ESF+ rules;

Changed:A. whereas in 2024, 93.393,3 million people in the EU (21.0(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, 21.921,9 % of the EU population living in family households with dependent children were at risk of poverty or social exclusion;

Changed:B. whereas severe material deprivation is defined as the lack of necessary and desirable items required to lead an adequate life; whereas, in 2024, 6.46,4 % 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;

Changed:F. whereas single-parent families, particularly those headed by women, face an increased risk of poverty, of 32 % compared to just 11.211,2 % among two-parent families, 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;

Changed:G. whereas indicators of the number of children at risk of poverty have increased from 23.623,6 % in 2019 to 24.224,2 % 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;

Changed: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 39.539,5 %, still well below the EU target for 2030; whereas further substantial efforts are needed to ensure the provision of, and access to, quality training policies that promote lifelong learning;

Changed: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, difficulties in accessing specific healthcare, and unequal distribution of care and domestic tasks; 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(6,6 %) than for men (6.2(6,2 %), while the at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate was higher for women (21.9(21,9 %) than for men (20 %) in all EU countries; whereas in the same year, 23.723,7 % of women and 22.722,7 % of men in the EU considered themselves to be poor, whereas 21.621,6 % of women aged 65 and over were at risk of poverty, compared to around 16.516,5 % of men in the same age group;

Changed: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; whereas across the Member States 30.730,7 % of women experience physical violence or threats and/or sexual violence by any perpetrator over their lifetime; whereas poverty puts women at greater risk of trafficking and sexual exploitation;

Changed: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 20.220,2 % of persons aged 16 and over with a disability lived in a household at risk of poverty; whereas in the same age group, approximately 10.510,5 % 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;

Changed: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 5.45,4 % of school-aged children across Europe experience digital deprivation, with substantial disparities in access to digital resources observed between different countries; whereas in 2023, 97.797,7 % of all households in the EU had access to at least one fixed broadband technology, compared to only 92.292,2 % 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;

Changed: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, 8.28,2 % of all people in employment in the EU experienced in-work poverty 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(13,5 %) compared to full-time workers (7.1(7,1 %); 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;

Changed:V. whereas the 2024 EU Pension Adequacy Report highlights that in 2022, approximately 18.518,5 million individuals aged 65 and above in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion; whereas at-risk-of-poverty rates in this age group in 2022 were 14.214,2 % for men and 19.819,8 % 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;

Changed:Z.AA. whereas there are still at least 1.41,4 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; 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;

Changed:AC.AD. 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 37.137,1 % to 34.434,4 %; whereas significant barriers exist in the current labour market and social protection systems for vulnerable and marginalised groups;

Changed:1. Is concerned that, in 2024, 93.393,3 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;

Changed:a)(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;

Changed:b)(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;

Changed:c)(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;

Changed:d)(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;

Changed:e)(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;

Changed:f)(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;

Changed:g)(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;

Changed: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;