COMMON DEFINITIONS
   
Without being exhaustive, the following definitions allow us to have 
a common understanding of poverty, exclusion and precariousness 
within the European Union. These definitions are extracted from 
"Exclusion sociale et pauvreté en Europe" - Ministère de l'emploi et 
de la solidarité - La documentation française. 2001.
Poverty: Poverty can be absolute or relative. Absolute poverty focuses on the notion of needs and involves the identification of a  - threshold- level under which a minimum consumption level of food or housing, for example, is not satisfied.
Relative poverty, in contrast, describes how many individuals in a society are bellow a certain threshold. This threshold can be defined either in terms of consumption or income in relation to the national average. (The most common threshold is 60 % of the median income in a country) 
Exclusion: In addition to the lack of economic and monetary ressources, which might lead to situations of poverty, the concept of exclusion introduces other dimensions which best define the place of the individual in society and the risk he faces of falling apart from social boundsties.
According to the European Observatory on national policies to combat social exclusion, the NGOs and France as stated in its law from 1998 on combating social exclusion, the exclusion process involves a denial of fundamental rights. 
Precariousness: According to the French economic and social council notice of the 11/02/1987, precariousness can be defined as the lack of one or several securities, such as employment, which allowing people and families to meet their professional, family and social obligations and benefit of fundamental rights. The resulting insecurity can be more or less important and have more or less serious and definitive consequences. It may lead to poverty when affecting several fields of existence, when becoming persistent, and when it preventing people from assuming responsibilities or gaining access to their rights in the predictable future.