The European Social Space Revisited: Comparing Poverty in the Enlarged European Union

The article focuses on apprehending and comparing poverty in the context of the recent enlargement of the European Union. In particular, it discusses how alternative measures of poverty in an enlarged Europe could take into account both income and non-income aspects and the extent to which comparative measures of consistent poverty reflect country-specific versus European-wide thresholds. These measures are analysed and applied to survey data from the former EU-15 and three new EU member states – the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia. The socio-demographic poverty profiles identified in Central Eastern European countries are similar to those of other EU member states, with the exception of a relatively lower relative poverty risk for youth in the new EU countries. On the other hand, unemployment constitutes the strongest risk factor for falling into poverty, be it defined as monetary, non-monetary or consistent poverty, equally in older and new EU countries. The empirical findings indicate important methodological and data requirements and may hence provide a starting point for refining the conceptual and methodological framework for poverty assessment in the enlarged European Union.