On 14 June 2021, EU Member States unanimously adopted the Council Recommendation establishing the European Child Guarantee. By calling on EU Member States to guarantee access to basic rights and services for children in need, this ambitious and innovative framework represents a landmark step forward in protecting the rights of children growing up in poverty and social exclusion in the EU.
The EU Alliance for Investing in Children urges EU Member States to:
- Ensure that the Child Guarantee national action plans target all children in need and that no child is left behind.
- Ensure that the Child Guarantee action plans take a comprehensive approach to addressing child poverty and social exclusion by promoting measures to support parents.
- Ensure that EU funds and national budgets are mobilised to adequately support the Child Guarantee action plans.
- Set ambitious targets and sub-targets to tackle child poverty.
- Set a national framework for data collection and a set of indicators that will take the most vulnerable into account. The monitoring of the Child Guarantee should feed into the European Semester process.
- Ensure meaningful consultations with multi-spectral stakeholders, children, and parents for the designation of the targeted groups of children and the design of the action plans.
Read the full statement here.
Endnote
The EU Alliance for Investing in Children has been advocating for a multidimensional, rights-based approach to tackling child poverty and promoting child well-being since 2014. This statement was endorsed by the following partner organisations of the EU Alliance for Investing in Children:
- Alliance for Childhood European Network Group
- ATD Quart Monde
- Caritas Europa
- COFACE Families Europe
- Don Bosco International
- Dynamo International – Street Workers Network
- European Roma Grassroots Organisations – ERGO Network
- Eurochild
- Eurodiaconia
- EuroHealthNet
- European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities – EASPD
- European Anti-Poverty Network – EAPN
- European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless – FEANTSA
- European Parents’ Association
- European Public Health Alliance – EPHA
- European Social Network – ESN
- Inclusion Europe
- Lifelong Learning Platform
- Lumos
- Mental Health Europe
- Make Mothers Matter
- Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM)
- Roma Education Fund
- Save the Children
- SOS Children’s Villages International.
Contacts:
- Katerina Nanou, Katerina.nanou@savethechildren.org Senior Advocacy Advisor, Child Poverty and Children in Alterative Care, Save the Children
- Enrico Tormen, Enrico.Tormen@eurochild.org, EU Affairs Officer, Eurochild
