Subject: Child Guarantee initiative
Paradoxically, in Europe, which is currently one of the wealthiest regions of the world, as many as 20 million children live at or below the poverty line. In some countries more than one in four children live in extreme deprivation and in many countries children are more at risk of poverty than other residents.
In its reports, Parliament has, more than once, called on the Commission and Council to consider the possibility for the EU to establish a means of combating child poverty — an EU ‘Child Guarantee’ initiative.
Does the Commission think that it is necessary to develop a Child Guarantee system with special funding (similar to the Youth Guarantee) in order to ensure that no child will be forgotten and that all children living in poverty can benefit from free medical check-ups, free education, decent housing, and a proper diet?
Answer given by Ms Thyssen on behalf of the European Commission
(24 August 2018)
The Commission recognises that the prevention and fight against child poverty and social exclusion is a key social challenge.
The Commission closely monitors relevant socioeconomic developments in the context of the European Semester while the recently proclaimed European Pillar of Social Rights includes dedicated principles to fight child poverty.
The EU provides funding for measures to promote children welfare and end child poverty through the European Structural and Investment Funds, with EUR 8 billion of the European Social Fund’s budget set aside for access to childcare services and measures against early school leaving. Many Member States are also targeting children under the Fund for Aid to the Most Deprived. The Commission’s proposal for the European Social Fund Plus for the next Programming period will further strengthen and streamline these efforts.
The Commission is currently working on the implementation of the first phase of the European Parliament Preparatory Action on a Child Guarantee/Establishing a European child guarantee and financial support.
A call for tender (1) was launched on 21 March 2018 to contract a comprehensive and detailed study on the feasibility of a child guarantee for four well-known groups of vulnerable children, the situation of which is particularly worrying and urgent. It is expected that the contract will be signed in the coming weeks, that the selected bidder will start working after summer and the final report will be delivered 18 months later.
The second phase of the Preparatory Action, still to be tendered, will examine the feasibility and added value of a child guarantee extended to wider groups of children.
⋅1∙ Reference VT/2017/057. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=624&langId=en&callId=531&furtherCalls=yes | | ( | | )