The European Union should make 2.5 billion euros (3,5 billion dollars) available to those hardest hit by the financial crisis in its next 7-year budget, the European Commission proposed Wednesday. "The current economic and social crisis has taken a terrible toll on the most vulnerable people in European society," said EU Social Affairs Commissioner Laszlo Andor.
As a result, he said the EU was moving away from its 2020 target of reducing the number of poor people in the EU by at least 20 million. The new fund is to come into effect in 2014, replacing the current programme under which agricultural surpluses have been redistributed to the needy since 1987. Such surpluses have been dwindling in recent years.
"This proposed new fund would provide tangible help to Europe's most vulnerable people to overcome the problems they face in their daily lives and to integrate into society," Andor said. "It would demonstrate Europe's solidarity with those who have been worst affected by the crisis," he added. The scheme aims to provide food, clothing and other essential goods to homeless and deprived people. Member states will also be asked to contribute an additional 420 million euros to the fund, which will be able to disburse an annual average of 460 million euros in aid.
The Socialist faction in the European Parliament welcomed Andor's proposal. The fund requires legislative approval. "Europe is showing today that it does not only demand sacrifices but is also capable of showing solidarity towards the most impoverished," said the Socialists' spokesman Alejandro Cercas. To be approved however, EU member states must also agree to the fund at a time when they are embroiled in fraught negotiations over the 2014-20 budget, or Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).