This Common Reference Framework for safe an inclusive activities is intended to provide a structured set of principles, standards, guidelines, and processes that provide a shared understanding and consistent approach for achieving goals, solving problems, or managing activities across the organisation. It acts as a blueprint or foundation for how COFACE operates in all its activities and how it works with key external organisations.
COFACE Core Values
COFACE – FAMILIES EUROPE is a network promoting the well-being, health and security of families and their members in a changing society. And serves as a trusted entity for family mainstreaming and for the voice/needs of families in the EU and beyond.
COFACE Families Europe is rooted in a set of six core values:
COFACE key activities
We advocate for families of all types without discrimination, bringing their voice to the table of European Union decision-making, ensuring that EU policies and legislation work in the general interest.
Furthermore, we support transnational exchanges between COFACE members (civil society organisations representing and supporting families) in the form of expert meetings, trainings, campaigns, conferences, webinars and more.
COFACE members are regularly updated and partners via the Families Corner newsletter, and interact with our social media communities.
Act NOW for families of today
COFACE Families Europe together with its members is very active in addressing the social challenges faced by families of today and advocating for policies to support their well-being. Here are ten specific actions (also available in Easy-to-Read language) which we would like to see integrated in the programme of the European Union from 2024 to 2029.
HIGHLIGHTED COFACE NEWS
Latest articles
COFACE member UNAF welcomes vote on new birth leave in France
On 18 November 2025, the French National Assembly voted in favour of creating a new birth leave as part of the Social Security Financing Bill (PLFSS) for 2026. The measure marks an important step forward for families in France and a major advocacy success for UNAF (Union nationale des associations familiales), a member organisation of COFACE Families Europe, which has been calling for this reform for more than ten years.
FAMS publishes new study on single-parent families affected by gender-based violence
The Spanish member organisation FAMS (Federación de Asociaciones de Madres Solteras) has published a new study examining the relationship between single-parenthood and gender-based violence, with a specific focus on women-led single-parent families in Spain.
Parents with disabilities: Interview with the European Network for Independent Living
The COFACE Disability Platform for the rights of persons with disabilities and their families has carried out a review of EU policies in the fields of employment and work-life balance, to assess whether they provide for targeted measures in support to working parents with disabilities. We had the pleasure of discussing the results of the review with Kamil Goungor from the European Network for Independent Living.
Explore more of COFACE work
COFACE develops different types of publications
including position papers, studies based on feedback from families, briefs on family and EU policies, meeting reports.
Our latest publications include a list of economic principles to help build an economy that cares.
You and the EU
The European Union develops different actions and laws to ensure family and child well-being.
And we at COFACE try to shape these actions based on our core values. These actions include:
- key guidelines and laws for national governments to strengthen their social and family policies;
- different long-term action plans to support governments;
- funding mechanisms to boost NGOs and families.
European Family Lab
Family supports & resilience in challenging times
Family supports are an essential part of making social rights a reality, and civil society has grown over decades to create a wide range of supports to families and children to ensure health and well-being.
Now, more than ever, it is important to connect professionals in real time through transnational exchanges in order to tackle the social impacts of different transitions (digital, green, energy, health) on families and children.
We believe the European Family Lab is the place to connect them, serving as an innovation incubator for ideas and cross-country knowledge transfer to help family professionals deliver the best possible supports for Europeans. We are building the Lab virtual room by virtual room, with a newly launched Education&Training programme for upskilling of professionals and families: the L.I.N.K. Programme.
COMING UP with COFACE
Events
Breakfast Bytes Webinar – Empowering rural women, strengthening families: Community-based solutions in practice
Breakfast Bytes Webinar - Empowering rural women, strengthening families: Community-based solutions in practice
In the run-up to the UN International day of women’s rights (8th March), this webinar will focus on rural women, families, and community-based good practices, and with speakers from the Union of Hungarian Women Association (UHW). Registrations will open soon!
Families in the age of Artificial Intelligence: Rights, inclusion and empowerment
Families in the age of Artificial Intelligence: Rights, inclusion and empowerment
Co-hosted by COFACE Families Europe and KMOP, this expert meeting will convene researchers, policymakers, tech experts and civil society to discuss the impact of Artificial intelligence on family life and inclusion, with a focus on rights, equity and empowerment in the ...
COFACE working group on financial inclusion
COFACE working group on financial inclusion
The objective of this working group is to bring together COFACE members and partners working on financial inclusion, to discuss EU developments and exchange information on key national trends. We will discuss relevant EU legislation, and collect information on challe...