Raad stemt in met Europees fonds voor de meest behoevenden (en)

COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Brussels, 11 December 2013 (OR. en) PRESSE 567

Fund for European aid to the most deprived (FEAD)

The Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) today approved a regulation on the Fund for the most deprived

The FEAD's financial resources of almost 3.5 billion euros will be distributed to member states for seven years (2014-2020)

As the new Fund is needed at the beginning of 2014 in order to provide uninterrupted assistance to the most deprived persons during the winter of 2013-14, the regulation provides that expenditure is possible from 1 December 2013

The member states can choose whether to distribute food and/or other material assistance to the most deprived persons, or to address them by other means such as social inclusion activities

It is expected that the most important means of assistance to the most deprived will indeed be food assistance. As a new element, the member states may also use some of the funding to facilitate food donations from private sources e.g. from supermarkets

The Fund is intended to both replace and expand on the current EU food aid programme, which has been running since 1987

The general objective of the Fund is to promote social cohesion by contributing towards achieving the EU2020 poverty reduction headline target. More specifically, the instrument will aim to alleviate the worst forms of poverty by providing non-financial assistance to the most deprived people