Fighting child poverty: the implementation and monitoring of the Child Guarantee in Romania

Subject: Fighting child poverty: the implementation and monitoring of the Child Guarantee in Romania

The European Child Guarantee (CG) was adopted on 14 June 2021. Consequently, Member States have developed national action plans on how to implement the CG until 2030. Those action plans highlight concrete steps to identify children in need, key actions planned, funding and monitoring. Since then, discussions about monitoring and appropriately funding the CG have not yet led to concrete outcomes.

1. Will the Commission heed Parliament’s repeated requests to appropriately fund the CG and establish a dedicated budget of at least EUR 20 billion, and will it allow the dedicated 5 % of European Social Fund Plus funds from Member States’ allocated budgets to be used to fight child poverty?

2. How will the Commission monitor the implementation of the action plans at a country level and ensure that Member States are not watering down the ambitious CG?

3. Romania’s action plan contains several deficiencies. For example, it fails to cover all vulnerable categories listed by the CG and it fails to provide support to parents in need to raise their children in a way that lifts them out of poverty. In the light of those deficiencies, how did the Commission evaluate and assess the action plan submitted by Romania and its compliance with the CG’s objectives and principles?

Submitted: 9.3.2023

Answer given by Mr Schmit on behalf of the European Commission

(28 April 2023)

1. The existing EU Funds, particularly the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) (1), provide an important contribution towards the implementation of the European Child Guarantee (ECG). Overall, Member States plan to spend under the ESF+ almost EUR 6.1 billion for measures to address child poverty. With national contributions, this amounts to almost EUR 8.9 billion.

Funding is also available from the European Regional Development Fund and the Recovery and Resilience Facility, and additional assistance is provided via the Technical Support Instrument.

Additionally, the Romanian Recovery and Resilience Plan contains measures to improve access to early childhood education and care or to reduce early school leaving for students, with a particular focus on socioeconomically disadvantaged groups.

The Commission considers this financing from the EU budget as an effective trigger to mobilise the national resources and does not intend to propose further EU funding at this stage.

2. In line with point 11 (f) of the Council Recommendation of 14 June 2021 establishing a European Child Guarantee (2), Member States are recommended to report every two years to the Commission on the progress in implementing this recommendation. The Commission expects to receive the first round of such reports by 15 March 2024. In addition, the Commission will use the European Semester to monitor the progress. The Commission is also working with the Social Protection Committee to establish a common monitoring framework.

3. The Romanian action plan has not yet been submitted to the Commission.

1 ∙ ⸱ ESF+ Regulation includes an obligation for Member States to programme an appropriate amount of resources under shared management to address child poverty. For

those Member States with high levels of child poverty, such allocation should be at least 5%. 2 ∙ ⸱ OJ L 223, 22.6.2021, p. 14‐23.