...European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and
Inclusion László Andor said:
"I welcome the agreement of the
Parliament and the Council on the creation of this new Fund with a significantly
increased budget, which will be able to ensure that around 4 million people
will benefit from immediate assistance. I urge Member States to make full use
of the Fund and to implement it according to their specific needs".
The FEAD will support Member States' actions to provide a
broad range of non-financial material assistance including food, clothing and
other essential goods for personal use such as shoes, soap and shampoo, to the
most materially-deprived people.
The FEAD will also require that the distribution
of material assistance is combined with social reintegration measures such as
guidance and support to help the most deprived to get out of poverty. Member
States may also choose to provide only non-material assistance aimed at
furthering the social inclusion of the most deprived persons.
The Fund will offer considerable flexibility to Member
States, who will be able to choose, according to their own situation and
traditions, the type of assistance they wish to provide (material or
non-material assistance), and their preferred model for procuring and
distributing the food and goods."
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=1089&newsId=2044&furtherNews=yes
and
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-230_en.htm
