Good afternoon everybody.

Welcome to our college readout after the regular meeting of the commissioners.

Executive Vice President Roxana Mînzatu is here to briefly tell you about the College and mainly to present you to the first ever EU anti-poverty strategy. Vice President, the floor is yours. Thank you so much.

Good afternoon and welcome to the readout of our college meeting.

Today, yes, we adopted our social package, measures to fight poverty, to improve the lives of persons with disabilities.

I will go into the details just in a second, but I also want to mention that during our college meeting today,

we had an orientation, debate that regarded our circular Economy Act,

and this was also an important part of our discussions. Now, moving on to The Social package.

I am very happy that today we adopted and I can present to you the first ever EU anti-poverty strategy.

This package is the result of many months of talks and consultations at all levels with governments, regional and local authorities, NGOs,

but most importantly,

with people experiencing poverty or who have experienced poverty and have been able to navigate this challenge.

And this process is important and I want to emphasize it.

I think that Our strategy comes at a time when action is most urgently needed.

Just last week, we received Eurostat data that confirmed.

A picture that is not extremely promising, but that motivates us to work together with our Member States.

1 out of 5 Europeans are at risk of poverty.

And or social exclusion and that amounts to 93 million Europeans,

93 million people.

This includes also another worrisome number,

then that 1 in 4 of our children is also at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

And this comes in spite of the fact that we have acted in the past years,

but the improvement on these numbers, the improvement in people's lives, have been, as we see, limited.

The truth is that with the current economic state of play,

geopolitical state of play, This situation does risk to get worse.

We see the energy shock that is caused by the situation in the Middle East,

adding pressure to households who are already squeezed by a cost of cost of living crisis.

So this amounts to us looking at an economic but also social emergency,

and with this mindset, we are presenting this set of measures. The strategy is built.

3 important pillars housing, housing exclusion, and how we combat it, access to jobs, quality jobs,

the best way out of poverty and into a dignified life,

and supporting children that are affected by poverty and vulnerability. First, on preventing housing exclusion.

We all know that without a roof over your head, there is no foundation on which to build a life.

Students, single parents, low income workers, too many are just one shock away from housing exclusion.

We are putting forward a new approach to housing exclusion, moving from the classic emergency responses to, very importantly, prevention and long term solutions,

and whether we talk about prevention or we talk about long term solutions,

it is built on the housing first principle and the housing first intervention.

In the package,

you will find a proposal for a Council recommendation that is setting out measures that Member States can take so that they can better support those that are most at risk of losing their homes.

Early warning systems, person centered support like debt counseling or targeted rental support,

these are just some examples of the measures included in the recommendation.

We also aim to help governments expand affordable and social housing by mobilizing investment,

by reusing existing homes and by supporting different and innovative housing models.

Then the second topic I want to emphasize in my message today is jobs.

It is clear that we must act and we must be able to act in a targeted way so that we are helping people that are outside of the labor market, inactive people,

with their specific needs so that they can become active professionally according to their talent and to their specific circumstances,

because, as I've said, work is still the most powerful route that takes people out of poverty.

And we are not referring just to any type of jobs, not to just any type of work,

we are talking about quality jobs that are characterized by fair wages and good working conditions.

Looking at this topic, in-work poverty is also tackled in the anti-poverty strategy, as it is still a reality in the lives of many workers in the European Union,

some 16 million people who are still not able, although they have a salary, to make ends meet.

In work poverty is an important challenge that we want to address.

There are more than 50 million people in Europe who also could work but remain outside the labor market for different reasons.

And that are thus at a greater risk of social exclusion.

An important part of this number are women, young people, migrants, and for all of this, we need to design specialized, integrated, targeted support services so that those who can work,

are able to work, will do so and will be able to be relieved out of poverty and have a dignified life.

Now these numbers that I've mentioned, which are in the millions, represent, of course, a loss for everyone, a loss for themselves, the people who are denied the chance to build a better future,

yes, a loss for the economy, for the employers,

for the businesses who are struggling in Europe to find the talent, the resources that they need.

And a huge loss for the children, whose prospects are shaped by whether their parents have a job and what kind of job they have.

Lastly, of course, it is a loss for the taxpayer,

who will pay more to finance more safety net measures as poverty in our societies increases.

Later this year, the Commission will present,

will launch a first stage consultation of our European social partners.

In view of tabling a directive on the effective activation measures for those that are excluded from the labor market,

and this is an important legislative directive that is meant to support people that are outside the labor market to be able to be connected with the types of opportunities that are best fitted for them when this is possible.

The third topic I want to emphasize,

and last from the anti-poverty package protecting children and young people, and this is very important.

We are living in a European Union that has a GDP of €18 trillion and in the same European Union,

some 19 million children are living at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

Poverty in childhood is not only something that is immoral, I would say, but it's something that takes away the hope of the young generation,

and hope is in the end,

the most important driver for their future chances of success and motivation in life.

So with this, we look at the European Child Guarantee, a tool that we already have. It has helped a lot.

It has expanded access to important basic services, education, school meals, medical care for a number of our youngsters through the European Union,

but it is clear that we must go further and ensure that the child guarantee is strengthened and that it delivers improvements in every child's life. And that is why.

We plan to develop a tool that is very important, a European Child Guarantee Card.

It is a digital tool, a platform, I would say, that is to be used by authorities managing the Child Guarantee support services for children affected by poverty,

and this digital tool will help children get the support that they are entitled to. In a way that gaps are eliminated.

So for example, if a child in a situation of vulnerability is entitled to access to healthcare, to medical care, The authority would need to know if that child is able to get the services, medical checkup or treatment, or not,

and what it must do better with the use of EU funds or their own resources,

with their own procedures so that the guarantee is fully covering the needs of the children that are entitled to the child guarantee protections.

Also, what we want to do, and I emphasize this clearly,

is we need to have a good connection between the Child Guarantee and the European Youth Guarantee.

This is important because our support and mechanisms that are dedicated for children should be delivered in such a way that they either improve their situation significantly or if more is necessary,

we are sure that they have a seamless transition to the support that is offered through the Youth Guarantee. Obviously all these need investment.

The scale of what is possible though is clear.

Investing an additional 0.25% of the EU GDP could help 18.5 million people leave poverty behind.

And the question is not whether we can afford to act, but whether we can afford not to act, this being a collective responsibility.

So with this in mind, later this year,

the Commission will launch a new coalition against poverty that is meant to bring together businesses and philanthropic organizations around concrete commitments to reduce poverty.

Also, in the coming months,

we will work with the international financial institutions like the European Investment Bank and the Council of Europe Development Bank so that we can roll out dedicated financing tools.

None of this would be possible without the close involvement of local authorities and civil society organizations who know best the realities on the ground,

so we will step up our cooperation with the Committee of the Regions and with the Economic and Social Committee on the topics.

This strategy is about a choice whether Europe is willing to act with the ambition and solidarity that the moment and the situation demands.

I think it is clear that our choice is that while we are also focusing on our competitiveness and on our security, we choose to protect our people,

we choose to expand opportunities for them,

we choose to preserve our European social model and to ensure that poverty in Europe is reduced and ultimately overcome.

Just a few words in the end on the communication on enhancing the strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities up to 2030,

which my colleague Commissioner Lahbib coordinated.

We are looking at around 90 million Europeans who live with a disability, and for too many of them,

rights that exist on paper are still not a right in real life, in daily life,

whether it be access to work, to education, transport, or independent living.

This is not only a question of fairness or about equal rights,

it is also a question about Europe's social and economic strength.

This is why we are reinforcing our strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities up to 2030,

having a clear focus on delivery.

We will roll out concrete tools like the Digital European Disability Card and the European Parking Card to improve accessibility across transport and public services,

and we will help make independent living a reality for persons with disabilities.

We will launch an EU alliance to support the creation of centers for independent living,

backed by EU funding, and step up actions for inclusive education and employment.

With an aging population, with a growing number of acquired disabilities, disability is something that can happen to anyone at any point in time,

so that shows that it concerns us all and it requires action from our part,

including at European level. That being said,