Eurochild: Jobs alone won’t tackle child poverty – Eurochild reacts to Country Specific Recommendations

The European Commission’s “fewer but targeted” Country-Specific Recommendations (CSRs) announced last week have missed the opportunity to tackle child poverty and improve the situation of children in Europe, especially 26.5 million children in the European Union (EU) who are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

With the latest CSRs, the European Commission has returned to the old “jobs and growth paradigm” and put into question its promise of a “social AAA rating” for Europe. Eurochild is concerned that this will send the wrong signal to governments across Europe.

The economic crisis has exacerbated rates of child poverty and social exclusion, youth unemployment while reducing services or the quality of services offered to those in need. This year’s recommendations, which are aimed to help governments solve socio-economic problems, instead of targeting these challenges, have focused almost exclusively on the labour market.

“Over-reliance on labour market to tackle poverty and marginalisation, especially among children is dangerous. Trickle down theories have failed in the past and it is unrealistic for the Commission to depend on them now. It is equally crucial to invest in high quality education from an early age, family and community support, with specific attention to disadvantaged children,” said Jana Hainsworth, Secretary-General of Eurochild.

A brief analysis – child poverty, ending institutional care, Roma children

Compared to the last two years when there were six (2013) or seven (2014) specific recommendations addressing child poverty, this year there are two (Ireland, Spain). The continued reference to disadvantaged children, including Roma children is welcomed. However, the CSRs has neglected hundreds of thousands of children stuck in institutional care where their physical, cognitive and emotional development is severely damaged. While in the past member states have received CSRs on transferring investment from institutions to alternative care, most recently Romania in 2013; this year there are none. The CSRs are inconsistent in referring to quality of services. Eurochild’s Irish member Start Strong has highlighted the lack of reference to quality in the CSR to Ireland on childcare in a letter to the Commission.

“Getting Europe back on track will require rebalanced efforts towards both social and fiscal responsibilities. This means, providing national targets on child poverty and recommendations to end institutional care and invest in quality services for all children,” concluded Jana Hainsworth.

Eurochild will launch a detailed assessment report in autumn 2015 with its members, highlighting where governments and EU institutions must focus their efforts in the next European Semester.

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