How can EU law contribute to the European Union's policy objective of combating poverty and social exclusion?

The fight against poverty and social exclusion is a policy objective that is high on the political agenda of the European institutions. This is reflected in policy initiatives such as the Europe 2020 Strategy and supported by provisions in the EU Treaties as well as in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. However, these policy objectives and general legal provisions do not have a direct impact on legal claims for financial or other support by persons faced with poverty or social exclusion. This reveals the ambiguity between the EU policy objective of fighting poverty and social exclusion on the one hand and the very modest or even marginal implementation of it in legally binding instruments of EU law on the other. The main objective of this research is to examine how this ambiguity can be lifted, and how EU legal instruments can be improved or developed in order to make more and better contributions towards the realisation of these policy objectives. More specifically, it will study the role the provisions in the EU Treaties, the general principles of EU law and fundamental rights could play in the fight against poverty. It will further provide a critical analysis of the impact of existing EU legal instruments on poverty and social exclusion and come up with proposals to make them more coordinated with the policy objectives. Finally, it will examine what kind of new EU legal instruments could be developed in the fight against poverty and social exclusion.

Keywords:EUROPEAN UNION, SOCIAL EXCLUSION

Disciplines:Social work, Other sociology and anthropology, Law