More than 100 representatives of ministries, agencies and other State institutions, non-governmental organisations, ESC members, representatives of the academic circles, experts as well as the EESC Vice-President, Irini Pari and the Permanent Representative of the World Bank in Bulgaria, Florian Fichtl participated in the conference Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion - a Public Consensus for a New Effective Policy, which took place on 28^th May 2010.

It was organised by the Economic and Social Council (ESC) as part of the initiatives for the year 2010 - the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. The conference was intended to trigger a broad public debate for shaping a long-term vision in this country for combating poverty and social exclusion through shared responsibility among the State institutions, social partners and the non-governmental sector.

The public consensus on settling the poverty-related social issues is of particular importance, Prof. Lalko Dulevski, Ph.D., President of the ESC said when opening the conference. Hence the Council advocates the elaboration and implementation of a national policy intended to preclude the risk of social exclusion and to promote employment and increase in incomes.

By the end of this year there should be elaborated a draft of a national strategy for combating poverty, Valentina Simeonova, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy assured the participants in the forum. She also expressed the firm intention and willingness of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy to use the analyses and consultations with the ESC on investigating the reasons and the scope of the issue concerning poverty and social exclusion in Bulgaria.

Poverty is not a generic Bulgarian issue, it is also manifested in the other EU Member States, while over 85 million Europeans are affected by it, Irini Pari, EESC Vice-President pointed up in her speech. She also pointed out that poverty and social exclusion are not intrinsic to the crisis period only, but they aggravate namely in times of crisis. Hence at present a priority of the European policy at a Community level is the establishment of preconditions for social inclusion, Ms Pari stressed. In the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy she clearly determined the three priority groups to which the anti-poverty policy should be geared, these are the unemployed, the families suffering material deprivation and groups at risk of poverty. The objectives as set by the EU are reaching 75% employment and reducing poverty by 25% by 2020.