Be the first to comment!Number of people at risk of poverty & social exclusion on the increase
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The Europe 2020 strategy, adopted by the European Council in June 2010, aims at establishing a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy with high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion.
The key objectives of the strategy are expressed in the form of targets in five areas: employment, research & development (R&D), climate change & energy, education and poverty reduction, to be reached by 2020. These have been translated into national targets in order to reflect the situation and possibilities of each Member State to contribute to the common goal.
The latest statistics provided by Eurostat for Malta show that the number of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion increased continuously between 2008 and 2014, moving the country further away from its Europe 2020 goal.
Despite a significant drop in the share of early leavers from education and training since 2008, in 2015 Malta was the Member States with the largest distance to its national 2020 target, Eurostat said.
Data also show that between the ESD base year and 2012 Malta increased its GHG emissions in non-ETS sectors by 3 %, thus remaining with its Europe 2020 target of increasing emissions by no more than 5 %.
It said that despite the adverse economic situation, Malta has experienced a more or less steady increase in its employment rate since 2008, putting the country closer to its national target than the EU as a whole was to the EU target in 2015.
Eurostat said that the share of 30 to 34 years old with tertiary education has increased continuously between 2008 and 2015, shortening the distance to the national target to 5.2 percentage points. "In contrast, Malta has lagged behind the EU as a whole in terms of renewable energy and R&D expenditure, and has maintained a gap of 0.2 Mtoe to its target on primary energy consumption since 2008."
The radar chart above presents the current situation of Malta by showing the progress made since 2008 and the distance still to cover towards the Europe 2020 key targets.
