On 3 and 4 April 2017, the EUROCITIES Social Affairs Forum held a meeting in Lisbon with poverty and inequality in urban areas as its main topic.

Over 100 representatives from different European cities and professional associations active in the discussed field took part in the meeting, among them two representatives of the City of Ljubljana. They presented the activities of the City of Ljubljana for the prevention of homelessness and mitigating its consequences as well as field work with the homeless on the streets of Ljubljana.

The participants discussed how they are intensively using different approaches which are more or less successful in addressing poverty and rising inequality, although the two issues do not originate in cities. All cities are faced with the urgent housing problem, all need more apartments for the socially weakest groups, and homelessness is on the increase. To facilitate access to city housing additional protection of the right to housing is needed at the highest EU level, otherwise, as larger European cities report, inequalities and divisions within the city will continue to grow, and new ghettos will develop.

Cities should have more autonomy with regard to cross-border and international cooperation in integration, unrestricted by national frameworks, namely, cities often discover they have more in common with other cities beyond their national borders then within their own country.

The higher degree of inclusion of cities in partnerships with the EU is more than welcome. One example is the Urban Agenda for the EU, where EUROCITIES is also a member, as a new method of EU cooperation for ensuring best use of potential deriving from city growth and a successful approach to addressing social challenges the cities are facing. One of the partnerships within the Urban Agenda is dedicated to the urban poverty problem and a specific action plan is in preparation.