EU Anti-Poverty Strategy: Commission delivers on short-term actions, but long-term ambition remains limited

On 6 May 2026, the European Commission published the first-ever EU Anti-Poverty Strategy, marking a long-awaited milestone in the fight against poverty and social exclusion.

In May 2026, the European Commission is set to launch the first EU Anti-Poverty Strategy, a long-awaited milestone for the Union’s social agenda. However, in the face of the EU’s failure to consider poverty in newly adopted frameworks, the Coalition on the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy urges the Commission to ensure the strategy is ambitious, human-rights based, and backed by adequate funding.

On Thursday, 12 February 2026, the European Parliament adopted its position on the upcoming EU Anti-Poverty Strategy of the European Commission.

The forthcoming EU Anti-Poverty Strategy must be comprehensive, ambitious, adequately funded, and anchored in meaningful targets towards the eradication of poverty. The Coalition on the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy urges Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to uphold this level of ambition during the plenary vote scheduled for January 2026.

This webinar will delve into the EU’s recent legal measures on gender equality and anti-discrimination, including the 2023 Pay Transparency Directive and the 2024 Directives on equality bodies, and discuss what these frameworks mean for trans communities and how they can be effectively implemented at the national level to combat discrimination and promote inclusion.

We call on the European Commission to ensure that its first-ever Anti-Poverty Strategy addresses the realities of those most at risk of exclusion, including trans people and sex workers. 

On 10 July 2025, eight equality organisations sent letters to the European Commission and to business leaders calling on European companies to resist pushback against diversity and inclusion in employment.

On 25 July, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in M.A. and Others v. France that there has been no violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. 

Learn how we're promoting socio-economic rights for the trans community.

Following a slew of attacks on LGBTI rights, Hungarian lawmakers propose a discriminatory bill that would stop trans women from accessing women's pension.

Obtenga más información sobre la situación actual de las personas trans y el sinhogarismo en la UE en el informe de políticas de TGEU.

Learn more about the current situation of trans people and homelessness in the EU in TGEU's policy brief.