A major report is set to warn that the EU and its member states are failing to tackle serious inequalities and letting down millions of the most vulnerable and marginalised people in Europe.
‘Falling through the cracks: Exposing inequalities in Europe and beyond’, which will be released on 18 June 2019, warns that significant socio-economic and environmental inequalities are persisting or even worsening in Europe.
The report has been put together by the Make Europe Sustainable for All, a pan-European project which promotes the implementation of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in collaboration with SDG Watch Europe, a cross-sectoral civil society alliance made up of over 100 organisations that also advocates for implementing the SDGs.
The SDGs are the world’s crisis plan to end poverty and protect the planet, tackling inequalities is one of the 17 goals that all EU countries have signed up to deliver in the coming years. Inequalities also cut across and affect many of the other SDGs.
The new report maps the reality of various forms of inequality, both nationally and at the European level. It will include 15 national reports and 11 thematic reports exploring key dimensions of inequality, including gender, age, disability, ethnicity and homelessness.
‘Falling through the cracks: Exposing inequalities in Europe and beyond’ will be launched at the European Development Days in Brussels on 18 June 2019. It can be accessed and downloaded here.
Campaigners have been calling for the EU to put sustainable development at the heart of its agenda for many years. Civil society even launched a Manifesto for a Sustainable Europe in September last year.
Since the European election last month, calls have grown to deliver on the SDGs, by making them a core part of the EU’s work – and personal responsibility of the next European Commission President – and for sustainable development to be a ‘golden thread’ through all of the EU’s work.
