Nutrition and poverty in Europe: An overview

The paper begins with discussion of definitions of poverty that are currently used in Europe and some of the theoretical issues in which nutrition plays a part in operationalizing them.Data on those living in poverty are briefly reviewed, and the paper concludes with an even briefer review of nutrition data pertaining to the poor. POVERTY DEFINITIONSThe definition adopted in the European Council in December 1984 is that 'the Poor shall be taken to mean persons, families and groups of persons whose resources (material, cultural, social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life in the Member State in which they live'.Earlier European Union (EU) efforts to define and measure poverty had been confined to income-based measures, identifying those whose disposable income was below a specified level.The first EU poverty programme had set this level at 50 % of the average disposable per capita income in the relevant member state.This 1984 definition was a more far-sighted approach in that it included resources other than income, and introduced the idea of social exclusion.'Exclusion processes are dynamic and multidimensional in nature.They are linked not only to unemployment and/or to low income, but also to housing conditions, levels of education and opportunities, health, discrimination, citizenship and integration into the local community' (definition from a recent European Social Policy White Paper: European Commission, 1994).In contrast to this definition, income gives only a crude measure of poverty as it excludes services in kind as well as household or individual access to resources and skills.Income-based measures also give no sense of the cumulative impact of poverty; of how exclusion from decent housing and social amenities, transport, from health and education services, and from the general way of life accepted as customary in a given society, affects people over time.Defining poverty in terms of exclusion moves the debate on from absolute to relative issues and measures.'Absolute' measures identify a threshold, below which people are recognized to be in poverty and above which they are not; in other words, a minimal level of income which is supposed to be adequate to meet basic needs.'Relative' measures define poverty in relation to a generally accepted standard of living in a specific society at a