How Poverty Differs from Inequality on Poverty Measurement in an Enlarged Eu Context: Conventional and Alternative Approaches

The relative poverty measure is the most prominent and most–quoted of the EU social inclusion indicators. This paper argues that, while pragmatically defensible in the pre–enlargement setting, the estimates and relative rankings the below–60%–of–median–income measure produces in the enlarged EU context is stretching its validity, credibility and hence legitimacy as a prime indicator to an untenable degree. We argue that there is a need for a better grounded and in the present context more credible poverty standard, complementing and possibly replacing the relative poverty line.