According to data provided by the last  Eurobarometer survey on social impacts of the crisis, there are more and more Europeans who struggle to meet their current expenses. To the general perception of the gravity of poverty around them, more Europeans are concerned about keeping their jobs or the payment of pension and sanitary expenses.

The survey, carried out in May 2010, marks the halfway mark of the 2010 European Year against poverty and comes after EU leaders agreed on 17 June to lift 20 million Europeans out of poverty and social exclusion over the next decade.

Overall, EU citizens believe that poverty has increased in the year prior to the survey, at all levels: 6 out of 10 believe poverty has increased in their local area, three-quarters feel poverty has increased in their country and 60% think poverty has increased across the EU as a whole.

The crisis and calls for austerity measures are perceived by citizens as the main causes for poverty. Greece stands out in this perception with 85% of respondents who think poverty has increased in their country, in an environment marked by the measures for rescue taken by the EU to help the country's economy. It is followed by France, where 83% of those polled perceived an important increase in poverty. 82% of Bulgarians, 77% of Romanians and 75% of Italians also share this view about their own country.

While in some countries, people expect further difficulties, like seven out of ten Romanians and Greeks expect their household financial situation to deteriorate, perceptions did improve in others. For example, 23% of Latvians expect their households' financial situation to deteriorate (down from 65% in July 2009), 32% of Lithuanians (down from 58% in July 2009) and 20% of Hungarians (down from 48% in July 2009). Now less respondents in Latvia, Poland, the UK, Belgium and Finland expect to remain unemployed if they were to lose their job.

Impact of the crisis: Financial troubles, cost of healthcare and concerns about the future of pensions

One in six Europeans reported that their household has had no money to pay ordinary bills, buy food or other daily consumer items, on at least one occasion in the past year and 20% had difficulties in keeping up with household bills and credit commitments.

This is a constant situation for 15% of those polled, while 3% had fallen behind with some bills and credit commitments and 2% were having real financial problems and had fallen behind with many such payments.

Around 3 out of 10 Europeans reported that it had become more difficult to bear the costs of healthcare, childcare or long-term care for themselves or their relatives in the past six months.

Finally, in terms of future income, 73% of EU citizens either explicitly anticipate lower pension benefits or think they will have to postpone their retirement or save more money for old age. Meanwhile, 20% are very worried that their income in old age would be insufficient for them to live a decent life, and 34% are fairly worried by such outlook. In 17 Member States, a majority of respondents are very or fairly worried that their income in old age will not be adequate to enable them to live in dignity.

Presenting the results of this survey Commissioner László Andor stressed that those results confirm that poverty is one of the main concerns for European citizens, a situation which aggravating due to the current economic and financial situation is aggravating the situation further. Andor also highlighted the objectives set out by new strategy Europe 2020 and its target to lift at least 20 million Europeans out of poverty by 2020.