Jean Lambert is Vice President of the Anti - Poverty Intergroup. She recently co-authored a Parliamentary Written Declaration which calls for the eradication of poverty in Europe as the basis for a fairer European social model.
Please encourage your MEP to sign the Written Declaration before the lapse date of January 21st 2006.
NEW !! READ THE WRITTEN DECLARATION
Jean Lambert - Poverty Statement
5 July 2005
As Vice President of the European Parliament Anti-Poverty Intergroup, I want the fight against poverty to be government necessity - not just a policy. This means consistent action on international and local scale, in the short and the long term.
I support the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) whose key objective is to ensure that world leaders tackle the causes of poverty and meet and exceed their own promises on the Millennium Development Goals. The GCAP White Band is a powerful symbol but if we are to succeed then it must have the same resonance on every white band day from now until the EU reaches its target of 0.7% aid, which should be now, not in 2015.
Action within the UK is badly needed, 24% of children are at risk of poverty. However, money to reduce the child poverty gap must be new money and not taken from others in poverty. The UK has a higher rate of poverty than many other EU states. We must therefore be sure that all forms of poverty are tackled. In the past seven years of Labour government, inequality figures have effectively stayed the same. The UK, under the Presidency of the EU, has the chance to take the important first steps. I hope the trend will now start to change for the better and that the UK will realise it can learn from Scandinavia, for example.
Poverty takes away choice and can crush hope. Extreme poverty constitutes a violation of fundamental human rights. I will fight for the restoration of those rights and - along with the Members of the Anti-poverty Intergroup - will be calling on the UK Government to do the same.
Jean Lambert
Related Websites:
International Movement ATD Fourth World
Poverty figures are from Poverty and Inequality in Britain: 2005 by the Institute for Fiscal studies and DG Employment and Social Affairs, Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion 2005