{"id":11809,"date":"2026-01-22T20:35:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/?p=11809"},"modified":"2026-01-22T20:35:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:35:31","slug":"is-a-europe-without-poverty-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/en\/2026\/01\/22\/is-a-europe-without-poverty-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Is a Europe Without Poverty Possible?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Union is preparing its first anti-poverty strategy. A necessary move, given that more than 94 million people remain at risk of exclusion. But already in 2023, the EU had published a recommendation on minimum income, which so far has not produced noteworthy improvements. <\/em>This is evidenced by the Caritas Cares 2025 report: no European country guarantees an exit from poverty through current benefits, due to insufficient amounts and serious access barriers. By moving from the Citizens\u2019 Income to the Inclusion Allowance, Italy has actually reduced the number of beneficiaries. <\/em>This is why a European strategy is needed, one that requires member states to adopt adequate, universal, and integrated instruments aligned with other essential services. The challenge is to turn minimum income into a fundamental right.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Every year on October 17, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is observed. In 2025, this occasion takes on special significance: never before has Europe seemed to be at such a crossroads.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, the European Commission has announced the preparation of its first anti-poverty strategy, a long-awaited and crucial step in a continent where more than 94 million people still live at risk of poverty or social exclusion. On the other hand, data show that welfare systems in Europe remain incomplete and in many cases insufficient, even amid growing inequalities, geopolitical tensions, rising military spending, persistent inflation, and new vulnerabilities linked to ecological and digital transitions.<\/p>\n

The EU Recommendation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The content of the EU\u2019s anti-poverty strategy is not yet known: the Commission has launched a consultation on the issue running until the end of the year, which in Italy stopped in Milan with an event co-organized by the Commission\u2019s Directorate-General for Employment and Bocconi University\u2019s Institute for European Policymaking on October 20.<\/p>\n

Among anti-poverty instruments, minimum income plays a key role as the last line of defense against social exclusion. It is precisely on minimum income that a report prepared with colleagues Massimo Aprea, Michela Braga, and Michele Raitano for Caritas Europa focuses. The report, entitled Thriving, not just surviving<\/em>, fits into the path toward a binding European policy on minimum support mechanisms, already evoked in the 2023 Council Recommendation.<\/p>\n

Adopted on January 30, 2023, the recommendation Adequate minimum income ensuring active inclusion<\/em> has a dual purpose: to ensure that people without sufficient economic resources receive an adequate minimum income; and to ensure that support is integrated with measures for social and labor market inclusion, as well as access to enabling services and assistance for social participation.<\/p>\n

Cash transfers and activation measures are in fact the two pillars that typically characterize national minimum income schemes.<\/p>\n

According to the recommendation, the amount provided should allow a dignified life for all age groups, taking into account the cost of living, the level of the lowest wages or the minimum wage, purchasing power, and the specific needs of households.<\/p>\n

Member states are invited to set, by 2030 at the latest, minimum income levels that meet these criteria and to review them regularly to adjust them to inflation and changing economic conditions.<\/p>\n

Another central element is access: transparent, non-discriminatory criteria, without disproportionate residence or asset requirements and other arbitrary conditions that prevent the measure from reaching those who truly need it.<\/p>\n

Member states are also asked to combine minimum income with other benefits and essential services such as healthcare, housing, and education, with activation measures for those who can work, and to ensure that access is not hindered by bureaucracy, lengthy procedures, or linguistic, digital, and administrative barriers.<\/p>\n

Finally, the recommendation provides for EU-level monitoring through innovative indicators, leading to specific recommendations when measures are inadequate or access is limited.<\/p>\n

However crucial these guidelines may be, the recommendation is not binding: like all documents of this type, it depends on the political will of member states. This is why NGOs, third-sector organizations, and European networks have long called on EU institutions for more substantial commitments on minimum income, imposing legal obligations without leaving room for discretion.<\/p>\n

The Caritas Cares Report: Overcoming System Inadequacy<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This is precisely what the Caritas Cares<\/em> report seeks to urge. It starts from a clear fact: no national minimum income system today succeeds in bringing beneficiaries above the relative poverty threshold, set at 60% of median income.<\/p>\n

Even in the most virtuous countries\u2014Denmark, Finland, Ireland\u2014transfers remain partial; in others, such as Romania and Hungary, the income level reached by recipient households (the so-called adequacy of support) does not exceed 20\u201330% of the threshold.<\/p>\n

As a result, millions of families continue to live in conditions of economic insecurity even after gaining access to public support.<\/p>\n

To be clear, adequacy at 100% of the threshold does not imply that minimum income should necessarily amount to 60% of median income. What is meant is that total support should bring an individual\u2019s overall income\u2014including any work income (in Italy, 12% of workers are poor), child benefits (in the EU, 24.2% of minors are at risk of poverty), and other welfare transfers\u2014up to the 60% threshold.<\/p>\n

For example, a person whose combined work income and child benefits reach 40% of median income would need last-resort support equal to 20% of median income.<\/p>\n

In any case, neither the Caritas report nor the EU recommendation sets the ideal amount at 60% of median income. This figure is chosen as a benchmark for comparison, as it already represents the relative poverty threshold defined by Eurostat\u2019s AROP indicator.<\/p>\n

Beyond statistical debates, based on testimonies from Caritas users across Europe, the report shows that benefits are often insufficient to cover basic needs: utilities, food, transport, childcare, and housing. About 90% of surveyed Caritas organizations state that benefits do not cover real living costs.<\/p>\n

This is compounded by access barriers: complex bureaucracy, strict residence requirements, asset tests that penalize even those with modest homes, and categorical criteria excluding entire population groups. According to Caritas estimates, between 30% and 50% of eligible people do not actually access minimum income schemes\u2014not by choice, but due to administrative obstacles, lack of information, or fear of social stigma.<\/p>\n

The overall picture confirms that the EU recommendation has had limited effects. Three quarters of the analyzed countries introduced no substantial changes after 2023. In some cases, such as Italy\u2019s, there has even been a clear setback.<\/p>\n

Caritas therefore proposes a further step: a binding EU framework in the form of a directive establishing common minimum standards. This would not homogenize systems, but set clear criteria along three fundamental axes: adequacy of amounts, universal access without arbitrary discrimination, and integration with essential services such as training, healthcare, and housing policies.<\/p>\n

Only in this way, the report argues, can minimum income become not merely a survival subsidy, but a lever for active inclusion.<\/p>\n

Italy: A Symbolic Case of Backsliding<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Italy represents a particularly critical case. After the Citizens\u2019 Income introduced in 2019, 2023 saw the advent of the Inclusion Allowance (ADI). At first glance, the two measures share a means-tested logic. But ADI introduced an additional, rigidly categorical criterion: only households with minors, people with disabilities, over-60s, or those already assisted by social services are eligible.<\/p>\n

As a result, hundreds of thousands of poor households, including very low-paid workers (the working poor), were excluded despite incomes below the threshold, because they were deemed \u201cemployable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The argument implies that those who can work do not deserve economic support unless they prove they have no immediate job prospects. This is the exact opposite of the universalist safety-net principle advocated in the report and implicit in the European recommendation.<\/p>\n

The paradox is that Italy, one of the countries with the highest poverty rates in the EU, chose to drastically reduce beneficiaries just as Brussels was calling for broader coverage and greater adequacy.<\/p>\n

In January 2025, ADI amounts were partially adjusted for inflation, but the scheme lacks automatic indexation mechanisms. Its real value, already insufficient, therefore risks further erosion over time.<\/p>\n

Beyond National Borders: A Question of Dignity<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The report insists on a key point: minimum income is not merely a cash transfer, but a fundamental social right. It is the means through which the Union can give concrete meaning to Article 34 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which recognizes the right to adequate assistance for anyone in need.<\/p>\n

It is not charity, nor a disincentive to work, but the foundation for building pathways toward autonomy and inclusion.<\/p>\n

From this perspective, introducing a European anti-poverty strategy represents a historic opportunity. But its success will depend on the ability to include minimum income systems as an indispensable pillar, equipped with common and binding criteria.<\/p>\n

The challenge, as always in social policy, will be to reconcile national competences with the European framework.<\/p>\n

In her 2025 State of the Union address on September 10, Ursula von der Leyen made explicit references to poverty, no longer as rhetoric but as a long-term strategic objective. She stated that the Union must help eradicate poverty by 2050, combining social cohesion, cost-of-living policies, job quality, and social protection.<\/p>\n

This goal is highly ambitious and difficult to achieve with current instruments. For this reason, the fight against poverty cannot be left solely to member states, but must become an integral part of European policies, embedded in the next budget and in labor, social rights, and equality policies. Among these, a last-resort income mechanism must be a fundamental pillar.<\/p>\n

The title of the Caritas report\u2014Thriving, not just surviving<\/em>\u2014captures the ambition that should guide European policies. It is not only about enabling people to survive, but about offering real opportunities for social, cultural, and economic participation.<\/p>\n

This means moving beyond non-binding, easily ignored recommendations and finally establishing a common framework that makes the fight against poverty a shared and measurable objective. This will be the focus of the Milan conference on October 20.<\/p>\n

For Italy, the lesson is even clearer: reverse course from a backward step that excluded the \u201cwrong\u201d poor and realign with European guidelines. Because a society that divides the poor into deserving and undeserving, instead of guaranteeing everyone a minimum level of security, betrays not only Europe\u2019s values, but above all itself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pietro Galeone is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University.<\/em><\/p>\n

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