Action Cluster 1: Integrated Actions
The Partnership on Urban Poverty presents five action clusters through which it aims to reduce poverty and improve the inclusion of people in poverty or at risk of poverty in urban areas across the EU. One of the clusters consists of transversal actions that tackle several priority topics in an integrated manner. This cluster is composed of the three Actions:
Action 1: Cohesion Policy post 2020 - Block Grant for urban autorities to fight urban poverty
Action 2: Setting up a European network of national observatories with experience in urban poverty
Action 3: Developing data on urban poverty at EU level
What bottleneck do the Actions address?
The effectiveness of European funds is crucial for the regeneration of deprived urban neighbourhoods, but the possibilities to adopt truly integrated approaches are very limited under the current funds regulations for the period 2014-2020, inter alia due to a lacking spatial focus and flexibility of the relevant funds (ESF and ERDF).
There is a lack of open access and awareness of the possibilities to compare statistical data on urban poverty, disaggregated at sub-municipal level. While some Member States have developed online visualisation or mapping tools that provide poverty indicators at Sub-City District level, many local authorities and particularly small and medium-sized urban areas do not have adequate access to statistical indicators on poverty with sufficient spatial disaggregation.
Another shortcoming is the lack of reliable and comparable statistical data in European and national statistics about poverty spatially disaggregated, especially concerning specific domains related to the implementation of children’s rights, homelessness, and the situation of Roma. Thus, local authorities have difficulties in identifying deprivation and understanding its causes.
How do the Actions aim to solve the bottleneck?
To overcome the limitations of the present EU funding framework, the Partnership proposes to establish the Block Grant,oriented to provide the EU with an effective and specific funding instrument to address the urban poverty challenge via comprehensive strategies (Action 1).
To solve the lack of access to statistical poverty indicators, the Partnership suggests creating a European one-stop shop website (Action 2) to make relevant statistics available in order to deliver evidence-based policies to fight urban poverty.
Action 3 is dedicated to the provision of a comprehensive overview of the situation of children at risk of poverty and social exclusion, homelessness, and Roma in the EU in order to deliver statistical urban poverty data as close to the local level as possible (NUTS III).
Have steps for implementation already been taken?
In light of the proposed changes to the regulatory framework of Cohesion Policy, the Partnership is reassessing the feasibility of the Action regarding the establishment of the Block Grant for the time being.
During the last Partnership meeting on 5 June 2018, it was discussed that enabling data provision from national observatories to Eurostat would contribute to both actions on launching a European network and developing data at the EU level, by improving the availability and the flow of data. In this regard it is positive that retrospective data on homelessness will become available in 2019 by EU-SILC (Statistics on Income and Living Conditions).
What is the further planning?
The Partnership plans to conduct a survey with national authorities about the existence of national observatories. Belgium further considers linking this Action with the one about developing urban poverty data at EU level.
Who are the Action Leaders?
The French CGET and the Spanish Ministerio de Fomento lead Action 2. Action 3 is led by the Belgian PPS Social Integration.
Related activities:
- Find the final Action Plan of the Partnership here.
- Read about the latest meeting of the Partnership in June 2018 here.
Update, July 2019: Two reports have been published in relation to the Action "Setting up a European network of national observatories with experience in urban poverty": a Report about Urban Deprivation/Poverty Observatories in the EU (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) and a Report on Employment and economic development in the priority neighbourhoods (CGET-OPNV).
Disclaimer: All views expressed in this Action description are solely those of the Urban Poverty Partnership members as stated in the Action Plan and not those of any individual party or entity with which they may be associated.
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