Costello Appointed As European Parliament's Rapporteur

Dublin Labour MEP, Emer Costello, has been appointed as the European Parliament's rapporteur for the draft EU Regulation, proposed by the European Commission recently, to establish a new €2.5 billion EU Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived providing food and essential goods to deprived people, the homeless and children, over the 2014-20 period.

She said: "I am honoured to have been asked to guide this important new initiative through the European Parliament by next Spring and, hopefully, to its definitive adoption by the EU by mid-2013, thereby allowing it to start operations as planned early in 2014.

"The purpose of the European Union is to "promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples" (Art.3, TEU) and in agreeing the EU 2020 Strategy in 2010, EU Member States' governments specifically set themselves the task of reducing the numbers in poverty or at risk of poverty by at least 20 million by 2020.

"I firmly believe this new Fund can contribute towards achieving these aims and that it can play an important role in bringing people in from the margins of society, as has been well-documented with the current Food Distribution Programme.

"The new Fund would replace and build upon the Food Distribution Programme, which has been operating since 1987 but which will end in December 2013. The new Fund would support Member States programmes which aim via national partners such as food banks, NGOs and public bodies, to provide food and essential household goods to the 'most deprived people', to the homeless and to children living in materially-deprived homes. The Commission is proposing a total budget of €2.5 billion for the 2014-20 period, though the actual budget will not be finalised until there is overall agreement next year on the EU's 'Multi-annual Financial Framework' for this period.

"My immediate task over the coming months will be to listen to and to work with a wide-range of European and national-level NGOs working with and on behalf of people living in poverty, the homeless, and children, as well as working with MEPs from other Member States and EU officials, and to draft the EP's response with the aim of ensuring that the EP can improve the Commission's proposal (where necessary) and to approve it by next Spring. In this regard I will also work closely with the Irish EU Presidency and particularly with Minister Joan Burton, the incoming Chair of the Social Affairs Council, and her officials who will be tasked with trying to reach agreement within the Council on this proposal."

(CD)