The Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) adopted the European Child Guarantee to combat social exclusion. The objective of the European Child Guarantee is to prevent and combat social exclusion by guaranteeing the access of children in need – persons under the age of 18 years who are at risk of poverty or social exclusion – to a set of key services:
The Child Guarantee is complementary to and consistent with a number of other EU initiatives. It represents a concrete deliverable of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and will contribute to achieving its headline target of reducing the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
It complements the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, which pools all existing and future initiatives on children’s rights under one coherent policy framework, and makes concrete recommendations for both the internal and external EU action.
Nicolas Schmit, Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, said: “I congratulate the Portuguese Presidency and all the Member States on reaching an agreement in record time on the European Child Guarantee, which will make essential services free or affordable to children in need. A child’s background should not dictate the course of the rest of their lives. That’s where we have to step in as policy-makers, to open up doors so that nothing is beyond their reach.”
In 2019, almost 18 million children in the EU (22.2% of the child population) lived in households at risk of poverty or social exclusion. This leads to an intergenerational cycle of disadvantage, with profound and long‐term effects on children. The European Child Guarantee aims to break this cycle and promote equal opportunities by guaranteeing access to a set of key services for children in need (under 18 year olds at risk of poverty or social exclusion).
Under the European Child Guarantee, it is recommended to Member States to provide free and effective access for children in need to:
These services should be free of charge and readily available to children in need.
The Commission also recommends that Member States provide children in need with effective access to healthy nutrition and adequate housing: For example, children should receive healthy meals also outside of school days, and homeless children and their families should have access to adequate accommodation.
When identifying children in need and designing their national measures, Member States should take into account the specific needs of children from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as those experiencing homelessness, disabilities, those with precarious family situations, a migrant background, a minority racial or ethnic background or those in alternative care.
EU funding to support these actions is available under the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), which finances projects that promote social inclusion, fight poverty and invest in people, as well as the European Regional Development Fund, InvestEU, and the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
President von der Leyen announced the European Child Guarantee in her Political Guidelines for 2019-2024. The European Child Guarantee complements the second pillar of the Strategy on the Rights of the Child. It is also a key deliverable of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, adopted on 4 March 2021, and answers directly to Principle 11 of the Pillar: Childcare and support to children.
The Action Plan proposes a target for the EU to reduce by at least 15 million the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by 2030, including at least 5 million children.
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