Rising poverty levels, attacks on democracy, racism and xenophobia and migratory challenges are the main threats to fundamental rights in the European Union in 2024, according to a report published this Wednesday.
According to the most recent report from the European Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), increases in living costs, particularly energy, have pushed 20% of people – one in five people – into poverty, with The risk is greatest among “people living in single-parent families, gypsies and migrants”.
In this sense, the agency, based in Vienna, calls on Member States to ensure that measures to reduce poverty and energy costs reach the most disadvantaged groups.
The FRA identified measures to mitigate social problems in 12 Member States, including Portugal, where there are limits to income increases and social inclusion income is allocated for cases of extreme poverty.
The EU agency also recommends that, with regard to migratory pressure, search and rescue at sea be reinforced (in 2023 more than 4,000 people died trying to reach the EU, according to the report) and conditions provided safer for the treatment of migrants upon arrival.
The agency also denounces excessive state interventions, in particular against the rights to freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression, which constitute threats to civic space, the situation which, combined with a lack of meaningful involvement in public affairs and disinformation, “is undermining democracy across Europe”.
The 27 Member States must also strengthen the protection of civil society, fight against all forms of racism and intolerance, which it classifies as “a worrying trend”, warning of growing anti-Semitism and anti-Islam following the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7th and the military retaliation in the Gaza Strip ordered by Tel Aviv and which is causing a serious humanitarian crisis.
