At the Committee of the Regions Plenary session held in Brussels on 30-31 January 2014 the Hellenic Presidency of the Council represented by Minister for Internal Affairs, Yannis Michelakis outlined their Presidency of the Council of EU programme. In response to his intervention European Alliance group member Cllr Mrs Linda Gillham called on the presidency to tackle the unacceptable levels of unemployment and poverty across the EU.
Cllr Gillham said that she was deeply shocked when she recently saw poverty figures across the EU such as: 120 million people across the EU experience poverty; 40 million people cannot put food on their table every day; 25 million children experience poverty and 4 million homeless across the EU. Cllr Gillham said "this is unacceptable in today's society and I would plead with you and your presidency to put pressure on the European Commission, European Parliament and Member States to address these issues"
