Toespraak Barroso over bestrijding van armoede en sociale uitsluiting (en)

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen,

It was a pleasure for me, together with President Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, and President Buzek, President of the European Parliament, to welcome here today very eminent religious dignitaries of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim religions, as well as from the Sikh and Hindu communities.

As you know our dialogue that we initiated in 2005 has become a good tradition. And this year, for the first time, it takes place in the context of our new treaty, the Lisbon Treaty, which gives a legal basis to the dialogue between the European institutions and religion, churches and also communities of convictions.

The subject was fight against poverty, the fight for the poor, the fight for human dignity.

The economic and financial crisis has hit many people hard. It is unquestionable that for many of those, charities and faith have played invaluable roles in helping them through very difficult times - both in terms of material assistance, but also by providing spiritual and emotional guidance. This complements in a positive way the support that our social security systems and other actors in our societies were able to provide.

Churches and religious communities are important providers of social services in EU member states. If we want to combat poverty effectively and not only within Europe, but also in many other parts in the world, it is essential to draw from their long standing and wide ranging experience.

Our meeting today takes place against the backdrop of the European Year for combating Poverty and Social Exclusion 2010 and just a few weeks after the adoption in the EU of our Europe 2020 strategy.

We therefore discussed effective ways of getting the most vulnerable back into the midst of our society. We discussed how to allow for equal access to education and training; how to empower people; how to guarantee that everyone has the chance to find a job; how to guarantee sustainability in our societies also from an economic, ecological and social point of view. I have appreciated the high quality of our discussions today and the precious inspiration that participants were able to provide.

I think we can say that all of the participants agreed that sustainable, smart, inclusive growth simply cannot be achieved if we neglect the needs of the 84 million Europeans who live at risk of poverty - many of them are children! Many of them are very young people so it is obvious that the fight against poverty cannot only be the fight for employment. Employment is critically important. It is the best tool to fight poverty, but we need to go beyond that. The current situation in many areas in Europe is dramatic and unacceptable. We cannot defend or afford to waste people and their talent. Nobody should be left behind. We must empower people through high levels of employment, investing in skills and also promoting social inclusion.

I am happy that the Commission succeeded in embedding a credible social dimension in the new Europe 2020 Strategy, endorsed unanimously by Heads of State and Government in June. EU-wide targets and flagship initiatives for poverty reduction and access to education have been agreed and will help build momentum in the member states. I also want to thank President Van Rompuy for his very explicit support to the target of fight against poverty and also President Buzek and the European parliament for their support in this regard. We will now start implementing this important strategy in partnership.

I count on religions, churches and communities of conviction to play an important role in reaching our common European aims, regardless of their creed or denomination. And I am more than happy that all participants, including the EU institutions, are deeply committed to step up our action to alleviate poverty and wider human misery. The European Commission will continue placing people at the heart of policy-making. Social justice, responsibility and solidarity are values that need constantly be embodied and reinvigorated at all levels of society. Within the limits of EU competencies in the social area, we will continue to support and complement action at national, regional and local level, for example through the European Social Fund and also with the presentation of our flagship initiative Platform against poverty. We count on different religions and religious communities to give support to that flagship initiative Platform against poverty and in fact to participate on that. Today in a very informal way we've started a discussion on practical ways of doing that for instance, at local level.

For all of us in the European Union it should be clear: poverty and social exclusion do not belong in our 21st century Europe. This is also a question of ethics; this is also a question of the European Union based on values that we want to build. This is also the spirit of the social market economy that is rightly considered by the Lisbon treaty a priority for our joint European action.

Thank you!