The Social Package launched by the European Commission on 6 May included the unveiling of the European Union’s first Anti-Poverty Strategy. Specifically, the Communication titled “The EU’s Anti-Poverty Strategy: addressing and preventing poverty from childhood to old age” laid the early foundations for what is set to become a defining long-term initiative. As Commission President Ursula von der Leyen noted in her September 2025 State of the Union address, this strategy serves as a framework to eradicate poverty across the EU by 2050.The rationale for tackling poverty is threefold:
- Moral, in the sense that it fulfills the core values and objectives outlined in Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU).
- Economic, as preventing poverty is significantly more cost-effective than managing its long-term societal consequences.
- Political/institutional, in light of the fact that poverty and inequality, when left unaddressed, fuel anti-systemic sentiments, which directly threaten the stability of European democratic institutions.
With this three-pronged rationale as a backdrop, the Anti-Poverty Communication stands out as the key strategic document within the 6 May social package, also outlining a roadmap of the primary initiatives planned for the 2026–2028 period to combat inequality. A brief summary of these upcoming initiatives is provided in the table below.
As the table illustrates, the roadmap set out in the strategic communication was accompanied in the 6 May package by two major initial initiatives to tackle poverty, both of which have been widely discussed in recent months: the Communication on strengthening the impact of the European Child Guarantee, and the Recommendation on combating housing exclusion. While COFACE is tracking these developments closely – particularly regarding the Child Guarantee – we will focus here on highlighting the core pillars of the Anti-Poverty Strategy itself, rather than delving into a detailed family-perspective analysis of these complementary measures.
A Multidimensional View of Poverty
In particular, we welcome the EU institutions’ reiterated view of poverty as a complex, multidimensional phenomenon. This approach rightly recognises that poverty is closely linked to an individual’s socio-environmental context and their interdependent relationships. By steering clear of a blame-oriented narrative that attributes poverty to individual “moral” failings, the text underscores a vital principle: institutions must actively intervene to remove the social, environmental, and cultural barriers preventing well-being, rather than expecting individuals to navigate these challenges in isolation.
In this spirit, the role of the family is explicitly recognised across the package’s documents. As the primary organisational environment for the vast majority of Europeans, the family unit can act as both a vital protective network and a potential catalyst or amplifier of inequality. At COFACE, we are highly gratified by this acknowledgment. It demonstrates the effectiveness of our advocacy and representation work, and reflects the successful mainstreaming of family-focused issues within the European institutions.
The Life-Course Approach
The importance the strategy attaches to interdependent relationships – particularly within the family unit – is further confirmed by the opening chapter of the Communication, which is dedicated to the “life-course approach.” This framework operates on two key premises:
- Targeted measures, on the assumption that poverty cannot be effectively tackled with “one-size-fits-all” solutions; instead, it requires age-specific, targeted tools.
- Holistic interdependence, implying that impact of these tools must be evaluated through a holistic lens that recognises how different age groups depend on one another.
Consequently, it is clear that financial support policies for children yield positive knock-on effects for the entire household. Likewise, labour market activation policies aimed at working-age adults can only succeed if they are paired with measures that guarantee quality care for dependent family members, including both children and older adults.
Active inclusion
A key operational principle of the Communication on the Anti-Poverty Strategy is active inclusion, based on the premise that entering the labour market represents the most effective tool for mitigating poverty risks for the unemployed or economically inactive, just as transitioning into high-quality jobs is vital for those experiencing in-work poverty. This focus represents a core tenet of the Strategy, and is also reinforced in the Communication on strengthening the Child Guarantee. Within the broader Strategy, labour market activation is structurally interlinked with two complementary strategic principles: ensuring universal access to the essential goods and services necessary for individual well-being and social integration, and providing adequate income support.
Horizontal challenges
Furthermore, the Communication demonstrates a commendable awareness of the contextual realities that can complicate active inclusion. In its second section, the document identifies three systemic, cross-generational barriers that act as structural conditions exacerbating the risk of poverty initiatives for individuals and families. The first of these challenges is discrimination, which manifests as cultural biases that restrict vulnerable individuals’ access to employment, housing, and essential care. The second challenge is the widespread rise in the cost of living, which results in an inability to afford basic necessities and causes severe financial strain related to food, energy, and housing – all of which have been further exacerbated by recent inflation. The final barrier centres on access to quality social services, where the overall effectiveness of social inclusion systems relies heavily on the seamless coordination of public administrations.
Roadmap
Looking ahead to the 2026–2028 period, the Anti-Poverty Strategy outlines a sequenced roadmap of targeted policy initiatives designed to operationalise its aims. The rollout is expected to begin in the second half of 2026 with a first-stage consultation of European social partners, which focuses on the labour market activation of excluded individuals and advancing gender equality through improved access to childcare.
The Strategy’s momentum ais expected to accelerate significantly into 2027 with an array of multi-dimensional initiatives across all life stages. For children and youth, the Commission will adopt a Recommendation to enhance the efficiency and integration of child-related benefit systems, alongside the launch of a new toolkit specifically engineered to bridge and coordinate the Child Guarantee with the Youth Guarantee framework. To reinforce active inclusion for the working-age population, 2027 will feature a Commission Recommendation delivering evidence-based guidance to prevent in-work poverty, paired with a comprehensive Compendium of best practices addressing the non-take-up of income support. Old-age security will be targeted concurrently through three interconnected 2027 actions: a Joint European Commission and Social Protection Committee (SPC) Report on adequate social protection in old age, a joint EC/SPC expert report mapping national poverty protection mechanisms for older generations, and a hosted high-level exchange focused on integrated policies for a dignified old age. Finally, the 2027 framework will conclude with a proposal for a Council Recommendation designed to facilitate easier and integrated access to social services through local single-access points.
COFACE takeaways and Concluding reflections
Work-Life balance, energy, and housing
COFACE strongly endorses the strategy’s premise that promoting quality jobs must go hand-in-hand with robust policies that reconcile work and family life. Addressing in-work poverty requires a holistic view that links labour market integration to affordable essential services, such as energy and housing. In this regard, we welcome the immediate focus on the proposal for a Council Recommendation on fighting housing exclusion and the late 2026 update to the Recommendation on energy poverty to shield vulnerable households from severe price shocks.
Early childhood education and care and Child’s rights
Despite its stated commitment to a life-cycle approach, the Strategy seems to implicitly prioritise early-years intervention as the most urgent lever to activate in order to disrupt the intergenerational transmission of poverty. While COFACE welcomes the focus on securing adequate resources for parents and protecting vulnerable children via the Communication on strengthening the European Child Guarantee, a clear disparity in institutional attention remains as, for instance, critical actions for older adults facing long-term care crises are deferred until the announced 2027 Care Deal. Furthermore, while the Strategy’s cross-cutting focus on labour market activation correctly positions formal childcare as an essential tool to help working-age parents secure quality employment, it largely overlooks the needs of informal caregivers for dependent adults, whose labour market participation is similarly restricted by the realities of demographic aging.
Education
From an educational standpoint, COFACE underscores the Strategy’s recognition of access to lifelong learning as a prime defence against social exclusion. We particularly highlight two upcoming milestones: the late 2026 Education Package – featuring a Basic skills support scheme aimed at ensuring 80% of citizens possess essential digital skills by 2030 – and the 2027 toolkit designed to seamlessly bridge the Child and Youth Guarantees. Although the former initiative is not technically part of the Strategy, it closely complements the latter, and their ultimate success might depend on how effectively they are implemented together. In particular, the toolkit will be vital in supporting the transition of vulnerable youth under 29 into stable adulthood by ensuring an individualised, continuous pathway to quality training and employment.
Digital policy
In the digital sphere, the Strategy rightly acknowledges that digital exclusion compounds social isolation and loneliness, particularly for older demographics. Beyond the strict scope of the Anti-Poverty Strategy itself, COFACE welcomes the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act to protect vulnerable consumers online, as well as the planned update to the Voluntary European Quality Framework for Social Services to address administrative complexity and digital barriers. However, we stress that as social inclusion systems and public administrations increasingly rely on digital infrastructure, the EU must guarantee that high-quality, accessible offline alternatives remain permanently available.
Disability
Regarding disability, COFACE notes several highly relevant entry points across the Strategy’s framework. Although some of these key initiatives predate the Strategy and were not strictly introduced by it, they are closely linked, and their capacity to tackle social inequalities and prevent poverty is undeniable. These include the 2026 implementation report on the Adequate minimum wages Directive and a strengthened Disability employment Package under the broader 2030 Disability Rights Strategy. Additionally, the 2027 Compendium on the non-take-up of income support, the Commission Recommendation on child-related benefit systems, and the proposed Council Recommendation for integrated social service “one-stop shops” hold significant potential to improve outreach and reduce administrative stigma for both persons with disabilities and family carers.
General conclusions
Ultimately, while the Anti-Poverty Strategy outlines a commendable vision, it suffers from several strategic ambiguities. Chief among these is the complete lack of new interim quantitative targets, relying instead on the existing 2021 target to reduce poverty by 15 million people by 2030, while leaving the ultimate objective of “eradicating” poverty by 2050 entirely undefined.
Furthermore, the concrete measures intended to support vulnerable groups facing systemic discrimination remain vague, relying too heavily on non-APS equality strategies. Finally, while COFACE supports initiatives like the 2027 European Care Deal, the European Integrated Framework for Climate Resilience, and the mobilisation of private investments via market-led frameworks, the EU must ensure that private financing complements, rather than replaces, robust public social funding, while establishing clear, structured pathways for civil society participation.
Find more information about the Anti-Poverty Strategy here.
Read COFACE’s position paper on Preventing Family Poverty here.
