Today marks the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, on which EAPN released the latest report “Poverty and Social Exclusion 2025” from the National Observatory for Combating Poverty. The study indicates that “the absolute number of people at risk consistently remains above two million.”
In statements to Lusa, the national coordinator of EAPN Portugal emphasized that the non-governmental organization advocates “the need to consider various schemes of adequate minimum income” in line with European Commission recommendations.
“In the Portuguese case, this is the Social Integration Income, and [we advocate] that this income be adequate so that people can have a dignified life,” said Maria José Vicente.
She highlighted that the RSI is not merely an economic measure but also includes a social inclusion component, offering support to individuals and families. Therefore, it should be reinforced financially, evaluated, and monitored with the participation of its beneficiaries.
Maria José Vicente stressed the importance of a strategic approach to poverty, given its “multidimensional” nature, with an integrated vision acknowledging that responsibility spans social sectors to labor, education, housing, justice, health, and culture.
According to her, “this integrated, comprehensive vision and commitment from all areas for the common good of all citizens is missing.”
“A society with these poverty levels and rates of social exclusion is a society where democracy is also weakened,” she noted.
The latest data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) for 2023 show a 0.4 percentage point decrease in the poverty rate to 16.6%, but Maria José Vicente pointed out that “despite this reduction, family incomes do not keep up with the rising cost of living.”
“We are attempting to mitigate the effects [of poverty], but we are not addressing its true structural causes, which are primarily low wages,” she argued, also mentioning the precarious labor market and “some setbacks” in measures like the Agenda for Decent Work.
She recalled that a European strategy to combat poverty and a European plan for housing are being defined, with initial meetings underway for the next multiannual funding framework.
“We hope these instruments and strategies being defined at the European level can impact and strengthen both the national strategy to combat poverty and reinforce the commitment to fight poverty not just nationally but also locally,” she advocated.
She, therefore, highlighted the need to coordinate various existing sectoral strategies—such as those for the homeless, the Roma communities, or childhood—towards the same objective, which is the common good of all and the fight against poverty and social exclusion.
