National strategy to reduce poverty
The Romanian Government took a number of decisions aimed mainly at supporting low-income persons.
Corina Cristea, 31.03.2022, 13:50
The Bucharest Government approved on Wednesday the National Strategy on Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction and the Action Plan for the period 2022-2027. Their purpose is to reduce the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 7% until 2027, as compared with 2020. According to data made public by Eurostat last year, there were around 6 million persons at risk of poverty and social exclusion in Romania in 2019, accounting for 31.2% of the population, as compared with around 9 million such persons or 44.2% of the population in 2008. The National Strategy includes, among other, measures to combat poverty, the right to social assistance, access to services of general public interest, social and economic participation of vulnerable categories in terms of the human rights observance, as well as recovery and resilience measures in the social security system, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and in other special situations.
The document passed by the Government has four strategic objectives. Among them is ensuring decent living standards for all and combating transitional situations of resource poverty, so that they do not turn into structural poverty and social exclusion problems. Another objective is making social investment, which means addressing directly the causes of poverty transmission from a generation to another. Modernising the social protection system and improving administrative capacity for the coordination of these measures is also stipulated. The implementation of these measures is mainly financed from European funds and from the budget of every relevant institution or public authority. The Government also earmarked 160 million lei (32 million euro) for the setting up of 100 day social centres for elderly.
The Government will soon increase the amount for inpatient meals, to around 4 euro a day, according to Marcel Ciolacu, head of the Social Democratic Party, part of the ruling coalition. According to Ciolacu, the Health and Finance ministers have already agreed on it, with the measure likely to take effect next week at the latest, being an urgent measure prompted by the accelerated rise in the price of food.
A package of social and economic measures for the population is to be discussed Monday, at the meeting of the ruling coalition. The version proposed by the Social Democratic Party includes provisions such as vouchers worth 50 euro granted every other month to people with pensions below 300 euro and vouchers worth 30 euro for school kits and clothing for one-parent and low-income families. According to the social-democrats, this social package, supported also by the European Commission, could be financed from European funds with up to 700 million euros. The version supported by the National Liberal Party, in the ruling coalition, includes doubling the value of food vouchers, to around 100 euro, to be granted at least until next June. (EE)
