Anti-poverty rally held in Brussels

Poverty victims and anti-poverty campaigners have staged a rally in Brussels to call on the European Union to put an end to the plight of those who have nothing, Press TV reports.

Campaigners gathered in the Belgian capital Brussels on Tuesday for the annual People Experiencing Poverty Conference.

“In countries like Bulgaria and Romania you are talking more of 50, 60 percent of the population who are really struggling to survive,” Fintan Farrell of the European Anti Poverty Network told the Press TV correspondent in Brussels.

Experts have said that the crisis is totally out of control in some EU countries.

“In Bulgaria, you have had situations where people set themselves alight publicly, because they can no longer cope with the reality they had to face,” he added.

According to official figures, over 125 million people across the EU, about a quarter of the bloc’s entire population, either live in poverty or are at the risk of poverty.

Campaigners told the correspondent that when a person gets caught in the poverty trap, it is very difficult to get out of it, confidence drops, mental health can worsen and finding a job turns into a major challenge.

Economists have said that many eurozone countries currently do not have the financial resources to lift their citizens out of poverty, and that even if economic growth were to start immediately, it would take two years for any real benefits to reach the people.

SRK/MHB/AS