Supporting families: central component of the European Semester
What is the European Semester? It is the main European process aiming to coordinate economic, employment and social policies in the 27 countries of the EU. In this context, the European Commission publishes recommendations for reforms in each country of the EU.
Based on the country-specific recommendations published with the 2026 European Semester Spring Package on 3 June 2026 (see full overview here), a clear picture emerges: family-related policies are increasingly being viewed not only as social measures but also as economic and labour-market investments. Across the EU, governments are being encouraged to strengthen childcare, long-term care, social inclusion, housing, and child poverty reduction as part of broader efforts to improve competitiveness, labour supply, and social cohesion.
Families at the heart of labour market policy
One of the strongest trends is the growing recognition that better family support is essential for increasing employment, particularly among women. Several countries received recommendations to expand childcare services and reduce barriers preventing parents from participating fully in the labour market:
- Austria is urged to improve the quality and availability of childcare services to support women’s full-time employment.
- Czechia is encouraged to reduce disincentives for parents returning to work and expand childcare provision.
- Germany is asked to improve the availability and quality of early childhood education and care.
- Greece, Romania and Slovakia are similarly encouraged to expand early childhood education and care as a way of increasing labour market participation among women and underrepresented groups.
This confirms that childcare is increasingly viewed not simply as a family service, but as critical economic infrastructure that enables parents to work.
Long-term care emerges as a major policy priority
Countries across all regions of Europe received recommendations to improve access, affordability, quality, or sustainability of care services for older people and dependent adults. These include:
- Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia.
- Cyprus and Greece are encouraged to expand long-term care services.
- Bulgaria is asked to strengthen integrated community-based care services.
The prominence of long-term care reflects demographic ageing across Europe and growing concerns about the burden placed on informal carers, who are often women. Improving care systems is increasingly seen as essential both for family wellbeing and for maintaining labour market participation. CSRs which call for cost-effectiveness of long-term care systems (as is the case for Belgium) must not lead to decreasing budgets but better investments.
Renewed attention to child poverty and vulnerable families
Efforts have been stepped up to reduce poverty and social exclusion, especially among children and vulnerable households. This is reflected in a number of CSRs:
- France, which is encouraged to tackle both child poverty and in-work poverty, partly through better access to early childhood education and care.
- Spain, which received a specific recommendation to address child poverty through more effective social transfers and social assistance.
- Italy, which is asked to improve social protection and access to services for vulnerable people, particularly children.
These recommendations suggest that social investment in children remains a significant concern within the European Semester framework, particularly in the context of rising living costs and persistent inequalities.
Early childhood education and care remains a cornerstone
Beyond its employment effects, early childhood education and care (ECEC) is increasingly recognised for its role in child development and equal opportunities. Recommendations relating to ECEC appear in:
- Cyprus, Greece, Germany, Malta, Romania and Slovakia.
- France links access to quality ECEC specifically to reducing child poverty and improving opportunities for disadvantaged children.
The emphasis on ECEC reflects continuing EU concern about educational inequalities that emerge early in life and can persist across generations.
Education and skills with a focus on inclusion
Many recommendations address educational outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged children and young people. Examples include:
- Austria’s call to strengthen basic skills from an early age.
- Luxembourg’s recommendation to improve opportunities for disadvantaged students and those from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
- Sweden’s focus on students from disadvantaged socioeconomic and migrant backgrounds.
- Slovakia’s recommendation to ensure inclusive access to quality education, especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Access to affordable housing
Housing affordability appears more prominently than in previous years.
- Cyprus is encouraged to increase the availability of affordable and social housing.
- Lithuania is advised to expand quality social housing.
- Portugal receives extensive recommendations to improve housing affordability and expand affordable and social housing supply.
- Denmark is encouraged to increase housing supply in major cities.
Although framed primarily as economic issues, housing challenges have direct implications for family formation, child wellbeing, and intergenerational solidarity.
What do these recommendations tell us?
Taken together, the 2026 country-specific recommendations suggest that the European Semester is increasingly adopting a life-course and family-oriented perspective. Rather than treating family policy as a separate social domain, the recommendations integrate family concerns into labour market participation, social inclusion, education, health, housing, and long-term care policies.
Three overarching messages stand out:
- Care is becoming a strategic policy issue, with both childcare and long-term care viewed as essential social and economic infrastructure.
- Child poverty and social inclusion remain key concerns, particularly for vulnerable families and disadvantaged children.
- Family policy is increasingly linked to economic performance, especially through its impact on employment, skills development, demographic resilience, and social cohesion.
The 2026 Semester package therefore reinforces the idea that supporting families is not only a social objective but also a central component of Europe’s long-term economic and demographic strategy.
See further information about the European Semester here and in the COFACE members forum here.
