What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

Added: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;

Removed:e) Participation by people living in poverty in defining, implementing and evaluating policies that affect them, in an appropriate, effective and transparent manner;

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

Removed:A more equitable distribution of wealth

Added: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;

Removed:2. Calls on the Commission and Member States to implement the goal of full employment as a guideline for economic and social policies;

Added: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;

Removed: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;

Added: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;

Removed:4. Recommends that the Commission and Member States consider creating an instrument to combat poverty through the universal realisation of the right to work and the goal of full employment, aimed primarily at combating unemployment and underemployment;

Added: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;

Removed:5. Urges the Commission to present an initiative on adequate minimum income to ensure active social inclusion and participation in employment and contribute to eradicating poverty, while respecting the competences of Member States, the national specificities of social protection systems and the principle of subsidiarity;

Added: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;

Removed:Ensuring the indivisible and universal nature of political, economic, social and cultural rights

Added: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;

Removed: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;

Added: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;

Removed: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;

Added: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;

Removed:8. Calls on the Commission to support Member States in promoting a housing policy that ensures universal access to this right and includes specific consideration of the situation of homeless people; calls on the Commission to develop a plan to meet the housing needs of all citizens in EU countries – including the creation of additional and specific EU funding for the expansion and refurbishment of public housing stock;

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

Removed:9. Calls on the Commission and Member States to 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;

Added: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;

Removed: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;

Added: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;

Removed:11. Urges Member States to ensure universal access to affordable, high-quality public maternal, neonatal and paediatric healthcare;

Added: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;

Removed:12. Calls on Member States to strengthen public, universal and solidarity-based social security systems in order to ensure full and effective social protection for workers and pensioners and to prevent poverty;

Added: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;

Removed: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;

Added: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;

Removed:14. Recommends that Member States increase support for families and people in vulnerable situations through mental health and psychosocial support services;

Added: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;

Removed:Combating poverty by increasing democratic political participation

Added: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;

Removed:15. Calls on the Commission and Member States to ensure adequate, effective and transparent mechanisms for political participation by people experiencing poverty in the decision-making, implementation and evaluation of policies affecting them at all levels of decision-making;

Added: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;

Removed:16. Recommends that an annual conference be held to assess the implementation of the Strategy, with a broad and diverse composition, including people living in poverty;

Added:16. Expresses concern that, as highlighted in the 2025 Joint Employment Report, 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;

Removed:17. Considers that the Commission should strengthen the resources allocated to supporting the various social organisations involved in combating and preventing poverty;

Added: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;

Removed:Proper institutional coordination and adequate budgetary resources

Added: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;

Removed:18. Considers that the success of the Strategy will also depend on proper coordination among the various levels of decision-making and intervention;

Added:Access to quality public services, social protection and support measures

Added: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;

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

Added: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;

Added: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; 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;

Added: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;

Added: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;

Added: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;

Added: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;

Added: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;

Added: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;

Added: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;

Added: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;

Added: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;

Added: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;

Added: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;