European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless: FEANTSA Launches New Project to Protect the Rights of Destitute Mobile EU Citizens
On Tuesday 2 May, the European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless (FEANTSA) started a new project called PRODEC – Protecting the Rights of Destitute Mobile EU Citizens, which will run for the next two years. PRODEC, funded by the European Programme on Integration and Migration (EPIM), aims to create a sense of urgency at the European political level on the issue of homelessness among mobile EU citizens, to ensure legal certainty with regard to these citizens’ access to rights and to empower destitute mobile EU citizens to claim their rights. FEANTSA’s project partners will be Eurodiaconia, the Salvation Army Belgium, GEBEWO from Germany and St. Mungo’s from the United Kingdom.
Over the last few years, controversial debates on the consequences of the 2004 and 2007 enlargements and of the economic recession, along with a political crisis related to migration flows in general, have put into question EU free movement and the right of EU citizens to move and settle in another Member State. This situation of instability, coupled with EU rules on free movement that are open to interpretation and implemented in different ways at national level, has been jeopardising the living situations of that small minority of mobile EU citizens who have not succeeded and for whom moving to another Member State has led to destitution. An increasing number of mobile EU citizens among the homeless population was reported in several EU Member States, in the countries on which PRODEC activities will focus – namely Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom – but also in France, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Moreover, when it comes to providing services to destitute mobile EU citizens, the role of homelessness services is often challenging because of uncertainty regarding the level of rights of the individuals concerned and the services they are entitled to.
Through the activities included in this project, FEANTSA aims to develop the appropriate litigation strategy that would help to counter the restrictive interpretation of free movement, provide EU institutions with concrete and enforceable proposals for revision of the existing framework, provide professionals with the necessary knowledge on how to support destitute mobile EU citizens and provide the latter with the necessary tools that can assist their social inclusion and way out of destitution.
