Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-09-13-Speech-2-696-000"
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"en.20110913.45.2-696-000"2
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"Madam President, given the strange and precarious conditions which many people are living and working under, it is not surprising that homelessness is increasingly in the public eye, both in the EU institutions and outside. We have to look at the social consequences of the financial and economic crisis, but in this particular case, it is also important to understand that homelessness existed before, and the crisis just aggravated this situation in a number of Member States. There is, however, also a growing understanding of what is needed to tackle it.
The Member States need to continue developing national or regional plans for action to deal with homelessness along the lines identified in the 2010 Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion. Of course, the Member States are responsible for much of what needs doing, but the EU can encourage and support the Member States in their efforts – for example, by helping to improve our understanding of the problems and possible solutions, finding better tools to measure them, and disseminating knowledge better.
EU funding can also help. The EU structural funds can and should be mobilised to tackle homelessness. The European Regional Development Fund provides funding for social housing for marginalised communities, and should continue to do so in the future. The European Social Fund provides support for the social and labour market reintegration of homeless people. We are currently drawing up the post-2013 financial framework. In this connection, gearing cohesion policy funding to meeting the Europe 2020 headline targets, including for reducing poverty, is vital.
The European Consensus Conference identified possible avenues and we are following them – for example, improving knowledge and monitoring, applying housing-led approaches, and promoting innovation and experimentation. Similarly, Parliament’s declaration of 16 December 2010 on an EU homelessness strategy highlights a number of priorities, including the need for better statistics.
The Commission is actively engaged in work at EU level. Preventing and tackling homelessness is an important aspect of work to tackle social exclusion and poverty under the Europe 2020 strategy. It is also a key area of work under the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion, which covers areas highlighted at the Consensus Conference.
We have just commissioned a new study on the links between homelessness and migration. We are continuing our work on homelessness indicators in conjunction with the Social Protection Committee. We have promoted social innovation based on housing-led approaches which we would like to see applied more widely.
What matters now is putting all our energy and resources into carrying out the tasks identified at EU level so we get results quickly, rather than introducing new procedures or steering structures in the form of high-level groups or committees. Last month, I met key stakeholders to talk about how to step up our work on homelessness and what framework would help ensure that enough attention and energy are put into doing what is needed. This dialogue continues and will also be followed up by action."@en1
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