Subject: Scrutinising the European Commission on its monitoring of the European Child Guarantee
In their respective reports entitled ‘Guaranteeing Children’s Future’ and ‘Invisible Children’, the non- governmental organisations Save the Children and Eurochild highlight that Spain has become the Member State with the second highest incidence of child poverty in the EU and that the country's child poverty rate even increased from 31% to 33% between 2019 and 2021.
In the light of the above:
1. Does the Commission consider this rise in child poverty to be linked in any way to the policies followed by the Spanish Government during the COVID-19 crisis?
2. Given that the above-mentioned Eurochild report states that families with children are suffering the most from the consequences of the pandemic, is the Commission planning to draw up any kind of strategy to protect them?
3. Given that six Member States have not even submitted their national plans yet and given that the Commission has not published any information on when these are expected to be submitted, does the Commission consider it appropriate to increase funding for the European Child Guarantee?
Submitted: 16.5.2023
Answer given by Mr Schmit on behalf of the European Commission
(26 June 2023)
1. In the context of the European Semester, Spain has a long-standing recommendation to improve family support linked to the high levels of child poverty. The Commission indicated in its country report 2022 that income support to children in Spain is among the lowest in the EU and builds largely on reducing the tax burden, which is of limited advantage for low-income families. In June 2020, Spain introduced a national minimum income scheme which continued to be deployed in 2021. Recent figures for 2022 (income year 2021) point to a decrease in child poverty (from 33.4% in 2021 to 32.2% in 2022). Additionally, the new child benefits introduced in 2022 and 2023 have the potential to reduce child poverty in the country, though their impact is yet to be captured.
2. The European Child Guarantee Council Recommendation (1) aims to offset the negative impacts that poverty may have on children by guaranteeing effective and free access to set of key services for all children at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan sets a target to reduce the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million, including at least five million children by 2030. The implementation of the European Child Guarantee will contribute to achieving this target.
3. As of 1 June 2023, five Member States have not submitted to the Commission their action plans to implement the European Child Guarantee. However, the Member States have budgeted funds for combatting child poverty in their national European Social Fund Plus programmes. Across 23 Member States, a total of EUR 6.1 billion of EU financing, or EUR 8.9 billion if national contributions are added, have been allocated to this objective.
1 ∙ ⸱ OJ L 223 of 22.6.2021, p. 14. | | ( | | )