One of the action clusters presented in the Urban Poverty Partnership’s Action Plan is aimed at fighting child poverty. It consists of two successive actions.

What bottleneck do the Actions address?

Children and young people make up the age group with the highest poverty levels. This situation remains unchanged due to the lack of political and financial investment at EU level and other levels of government, as well as inefficient employment strategies that fail to tackle child poverty EU-wide.

In February 2013, the European Commission presented its Recommendation on Investing in Children, Breaking the cycle of disadvantage (IC-BCD Recommendation), the most recent instrument adopted in the context of the Social Investment Package, comprised of an integrated and child-rights-based set of policy measures. However, it has not led to significant reforms with direct impacts at the local level.

How do the Actions aim to solve the bottleneck?

The Partnership presents two consecutive actions aiming to fight child poverty. In order to realise concrete investments that benefit children in Europe, the Partnership introduces the Child Guaranteeinitiative which acts as a tool to implement pillars 2 and 3 of the IC-BCD Recommendation. The Action also includes measures to make better use of current EU instruments.

Complementary to the abovementioned Action, the Partnership advocates to strengthen the legislative body at EU level to promote the effective implementation of children’s rights in all EU Member States byintroducing a directive to break the cycle of disadvantage.

Have steps for implementation already been taken?

In March 2018, the European Commission released a tender for a feasibility studyon a Child Guarantee for Vulnerable Children. On 21 June 2018, Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council configuration (EPSCO) adopted draft conclusions on integrated early childhood development policies.

What is the further planning?

Potentials for cooperation will be explored with the contractor of the feasibility study on the Child Guarantee later in 2018.

Who are the Action Leaders?

The leader of both actions focusing on Child Poverty is the Belgian PPS Social Integration.

Related activities:

• Learn more about the European Commission’s Recommendation “Investing in Children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage” here.
• Read more about the Child Guarantee Initiative on the Eurochild website and in a working paper and read the draft Council conclusions on Integrated Early Childhood Development Policies here. The European Commission’s tender for the Child Guarantee feasibility study can be found here.
• Read the final Action Plan of the Partnership here and its latest meeting in June 2018 here.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in this Action description are solely those of the Urban Poverty Partnership members as stated in the Action Plan and not those of any individual party or entity with which they may be associated.

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