EU fixes first poverty reduction goal

(LUXEMBOURG) - EU nations on Monday agreed to work to pull 20 million Europeans out of poverty and exclusion over the next decade, a move which pleased NGOs but still lacks detail at the national level.

The new objective is part of broader ambitions between now and 2020 which also includes bringing the employment rate for 20-64 year olds up to 75 percent.

The anti-poverty objective begs the vital question, how do you measure penury?

EU social affairs ministers meeting in Luxembourg put forward three criteria. Later this month it will be up to the heads of state and government to endorse them at an EU summit.

The first is the most classic: people living on less than 60 percent of the median national income -- some 80 million Europeans including 19 million children according to official Eurostat figures.

With some capitals feeling such a strict definition left too many out of the net, other markers were added: those living in a jobless household and those ticking some of the boxes for "material deprivation".

Taken together the three indicators bring the "at-risk-of-poverty" and "exclusion" numbers to some 120 million people throughout the 27-nation European Union.

Therefore the "ambitious" aim agreed by the EU ministers is to bring one person in six from that total out of poverty by 2020.

Some feel the target is too ambitious and a mid-term review of the goals will be carried out in 2015.

Others felt the goals did not sufficiently address the problems of "poor workers".

For Fintan Farrell, director of the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN), an umbrella group of non-governmental organisations, the system the EU is setting up is "a bit too complicated".

However he hailed the "ambitious target".

"It's an important advance, that we have actual targets identified at this level," he said, as the proposal moves forward for approval at an EU summit this month.

"The real proof of commitment will be if they follow this up at national level," he added.

Council of Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumers (EPSCO)