Some 40% of Romanians were facing poverty and social exclusion in 2014, this being the highest share in the European Union, according to data from the European Union's statistics office Eurostat. Bulgaria registered the same percentage.

At EU level, 24.1% of the population was exposed to the risk of poverty and social exclusion in 2014, reports local Agerpres. In the Czech Republic, the share of people facing this risk stood at 14.8%, in the Netherlands the figure amounted to 16.5%, while in Sweden it was 16.9%.

However, Romania is among the EU member states that made the biggest progress between 2008 and 2014 in reducing the poverty and social exclusion rate. The country reduced the number of people exposed to poverty risk by 0.4 percentage points.

Poland made the biggest progress – down 5.8 percentage points, followed by Slovakia – down 2.2 percentage points.

On the other hand, the countries with the highest increase in the number of people facing poverty and social exclusion were Greece, Spain, and Estonia.

In early August, the European Funds Ministry has allocated EUR 5 million for projects aimed at fighting poverty and social exclusion in cities.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com