Strengthening the child guarantee

Key points

The EESC:

• stresses that child poverty is a fundamental rights violation with lasting consequences for children’s development and broader social cohesion;
• welcomes the Communication on Strengthening the Child Guarantee and highlights that the European Child Guarantee must remain a child-centred, rights-based instrument;
• welcomes the focus on quality parental employment as a principal pathway out of poverty, and recommends incorporating quality employment targets;
• endorses the enhancement of labour market activation through improved childcare access;
• recommends that Member States align national legislative frameworks governing parental leave and the entitlement to affordable, accessible and high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) to close the childcare gap;
• welcomes efforts to turn ECEC into a universal entitlement, by investing, where needed, in working conditions and career pathways;
• recommends that access to early childhood education go hand in hand with timely developmental screening and immediate access to early intervention services, to close health and learning gaps early in life;
• welcomes the Commission’s planned initiative enhancing the efficiency of child-related benefit systems, and calls for comprehensive mapping of child benefit models across Europe;
• regrets the Communication’s lack of financial commitments and advocates mandatory child poverty support equivalent to at least 5% of ESF+, or 10% for Member States with above-average AROPE rates, with ring-fenced resources directly accessible to local authorities and grassroots civil society;
• urges Member States to eliminate the legal and administrative hurdles that block exceptionally vulnerable groups – including Roma children, children with a migrant background, undocumented children and unaccompanied minors - from accessing essential services, and calls for dedicated outreach mechanisms and robust anti-discrimination safeguards;
• recommends the mandatory implementation of age-appropriate design standards for technology companies, and advocates for evidence-based European guidelines restricting unsupervised smartphone use in educational settings;
• recommends that Member States collect disaggregated data by family composition, migrant or ethnic background, disability and the caregiver’s gender;
• calls on the Commission to establish a cross-sectoral transition framework between the European Child Guarantee and the Youth Guarantee, which preserve the Child Guarantee’s distinct child-centred, rights-based focus;
• emphasises the crucial role of local authorities and civil society organisations.