16 percent of the EU citizens live in poverty

Out of the 500 million inhabitants of the EU member states (of the European Union), about 80 million, or 16 percent, live in poverty.

As Head of the European Commission Representation in Romania, Nicolae Idu, stated at the conference 2010- the European Year for combating poverty and social exclusion that such groups are mainly found in the Rromani communities of the European countries.

In addition, 19 percent of the children in the European Union live under the threat of poverty, and 8 percent of the Europeans, although they have a job, claim they are facing poverty.

Nicolae Idu added that at a national level, 17 million euros have been allocated for fighting poverty, out of which 9 million euros have been spent to conduct awareness campaigns at a national level.

In Romania, the activities of the European Year have been implemented by the Ministry of Labour and have had four major objectives: the right of people living in poverty to a dignified life, shared responsibility and participation in the fight against poverty and a political commitment to tackling social exclusion.

On this occasion, two activities have been conducted, ‘The children`s Olympics for the future’ and the competition ‘The journalist- a social actor’.

In this competition, the prize for the section ‘Radio’ has been awarded to reporter Liliana Nicolae, from the National News Station.


Translated by Manuela Stancu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University