The European Union will work to lift 20 million of its citizens out of poverty by 2020, officials agreed today ahead of a summit expected to draw up a new ten-year economic plan for the bloc, dpa reported. The EU is currently debating a "2020 strategy" designed to halt its economic decline. EU leaders are expected to sign off on the strategy at a summit on June 17, adopting five headline targets on research, education, job creation, clean energy and poverty. In March they agreed to the idea of the targets, but said that it was too early to put numbers on any of them. The poverty goal was particularly controversial, as member states argued that it would be very difficult to define poverty reliably in a bloc whose wealthiest member, Luxembourg, enjoys a per-capita income some six times higher than the poorest, Bulgaria. Ministers on Monday agreed that the goal should be to lift at least 20 million people out of poverty by 2020. That fits other pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and boost energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy, by 20 per cent by 2020 - the so-called "20-20-20 by 2020" goals. They also decided that three criteria could be used to define poverty: an income of less than 60 per cent of the national median figure, a tradition of long-term unemployment in the household, and "deprivation indicators" such as the lack of a TV, diplomats said. The decision now goes to EU leaders for approval. EU states will subsequently be responsible for policing one another so that they stick to their targets.
