EU rich-poor divide widens but still a worldwide low: report

PARIS: Although the gap between rich and poor has widened in the European Union over the past decades, the bloc is a world leader in fighting inequality, experts say.

The internationally accepted Gini coefficient formula that measures income disparities gives the 28-nation EU, as a whole, one of the best rankings in the world for equality, alongside that of Canada.

Both are rated at a rounded-off 31 out of 100 in the ranking (2017), in which higher indexes indicate greater levels of inequality. But the scores of various countries within the European Union differ markedly, with some of those of the former communist states in Eastern Europe bringing down the average.

Bulgaria has the highest level of inequality with a Gini index of 40, according to the EU's statistics office Eurostat. It is followed by the former Soviet states of Lithuania and Latvia, and then Spain, Portugal and Greece. Britain and Romania -- another former Soviet satellite -- are next, both measuring 33.

Germany, France and Poland do slightly better, averaging around 29. Topping the list as the most egalitarian are the three former communist countries of Slovakia (23), Slovenia and the Czech Republic, both around 24. They are followed by Nordic countries Sweden, Denmark and Finland, along with Belgium, The Netherlands and Austria, all scoring between 26 and 28.

While Europe has been more successful than most regions in containing income inequality rises seen around the world, inequalities increased in most of its countries over 1980-2017, according to the World Inequality Lab (WIL).

"The European top one percent grew more than two times faster than the bottom 50 percent," the Paris-based group of experts said in an April report. It pointed to a focus on reducing inequalities between EU member states rather than within the countries themselves.

The largest rise was in formerly communist eastern European countries that were the most egalitarian during the 1980s and moved towards capitalism in the 1990s. Here "privatisations associated with the transition from socialism to capitalism have benefited a small elite," the report said.