With over 20 per cent of Europeans at risk of poverty, the EU faces a stark choice: to continue fragmented approaches or to deliver real change. The forthcoming Anti-Poverty Strategy must connect policies, involve people experiencing poverty and secure funding to make eradicating poverty a political reality rather than an empty promise.

Across the European Union, poverty remains a stark reality for millions of people. The latest numbers show that 21 per cent of the population lives at risk of poverty or social exclusion, representing over 1 in 5 people. The president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen has committed to the eradication of poverty by 2050 in her 2025 State of the Union address. Considering the slow progress and the imminent failure to meet the EU target of reducing poverty by 15 million people by 2030, the forthcoming EU Anti-Poverty Strategy (EU APS), announced for 6th May 2026, arrives at a decisive moment. After decades of failed attempts to eradicate poverty, the question is inevitable: how do we ensure this is not an empty promise? 

For the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN), the EU-APS is a critical opportunity to move beyond fragmented approaches and to centre those most exposed to poverty and social exclusion. The EU has a rare opportunity to reject the harmful narrative that poverty is inevitable and adopt a strategy that serves its people. Eradicating poverty is a political choice: one that depends on collective decisions about wealth distribution, resource allocation, and the democratic participation of the most marginalised. 

Seeing poverty in all its complexity 

The EU has historically treated poverty reduction as an economic issue: a means to growth and competitiveness rather than to ending a violation of rights. Poverty is rooted in systemic and structural injustices, shaped by unequal distributions of wealth and power, intersecting with gender, race, disability, age, migration status and other grounds of exclusion. Poverty is often intergenerational: in 2023, 20 per cent of adults who had a poor financial situation as children were at risk of poverty themselves, compared with 12.4 per cent of those who grew up in financially secure households. This pattern is reinforced by structural barriers, which disproportionately affect marginalised groups, such as access to education, precarious employment and inadequate social protection. For instance, only 51 per cent of people with disabilities are employed, compared to 75 per cent without disabilities, with women and young people facing the largest gaps.

Connecting the dots across EU policies 

Poverty does not exist in isolation, yet EU frameworks continue to operate separately. While the union of equality strategies address discrimination on grounds such as gender, race, disability and sexual orientation, they generally fail to integrate a social rights or anti-poverty perspective, with the notable exception of the Roma Strategic Framework, which explicitly links equality and poverty reduction.

Conversely, anti-poverty policies often overlook discrimination and inequality. This fragmentation contributes directly to the persistence of the ‘missing poor’: people whose lived realities are inadequately captured by EU data and indicators on poverty, including undocumented migrants, homeless people, institutionalised populations and those facing multiple forms of discrimination.

Key EU policy areas, such as the Just Transition, climate and energy, housing and urban development, fail to sufficiently integrate an anti-poverty lens. As a result, these policies risk exacerbating inequalities if social impacts are not systematically assessed and mitigated. The EU-APS must mainstream poverty across these areas, guarantee the meaningful participation of people experiencing poverty and back its commitments with adequate funding. 

Adequate funding for a transformative strategy 

Despite strong rhetoric on social inclusion, the current EU economic governance continues to undermine efforts to eradicate poverty. The Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), under the revised EU fiscal framework, constrains countries to keep their budget deficits below 3 per cent of GDP and public debt under 60 per cent of GDP, or risk sanctions under the excessive deficit procedure (EDP). The European Semester, which operationalises these rules, remains primarily oriented towards fiscal discipline, competitiveness and increasingly, defence spending. With the recent European Council decision to introduce flexibility under the SGP to allow member states to increase defence expenditure, the message is clear: military spending is a strategic necessity while social and climate justice are secondary.

Without a funding framework and economic governance architecture that explicitly aligns social investment with the objectives of the EU-APS, it risks becoming a statement of intent rather than a vehicle for transformation. The EU APS must therefore be backed by the European Semester and the MFF, including a strengthened European Social und Plus (ESF+), that prioritise social inclusion and poverty eradication.

A strategy that impacts people’s lives 

We must build and implement the EU-APS not merely for people experiencing poverty, but with them. This means valuing their participation as experts and rights holders. Their knowledge is essential to understanding the complexity of poverty: what works, what fails, and why. Similarly, as national and local authorities lead on social services, protection and housing, an effective EU-APS must be translated into robust National and Local Anti-Poverty Strategies developed in partnership with civil society and people experiencing poverty.

This is why EAPN calls for the creation of two permanent structures within the EU-APS: a committee for people experiencing poverty and a committee for civil society organisations. These spaces must be designed to enable meaningful, respectful and well-supported participation, with clear methods, adequate resources and safeguards against extractivist consultation practices. These committees should be central to the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the EU-APS. The establishment of a dedicated EU anti-poverty coordinator, equipped with a clear mandate, adequate resources and staff, could play a pivotal role in coordinating the work of these committees and ensuring policy coherence across EU policy areas.

Towards 2050: from promise to political choice 

Eradicating poverty in all its dimensions by 2050 is undeniably a monumental task, but it is feasible. The EU must make poverty eradication a deliberate political choice and a guiding principle across all policy areas.

The forthcoming EU Anti-Poverty Strategy is the avenue to turn the 2050 commitment into a credible roadmap: one that must be adequately funded, anchored at the national and local levels and built with the participation of the most marginalised.

Photo credits: Shutterstock / Sandra Matic