Today, the AGF held two online expert discussions on the “European Child Guarantee”. A total of 26 experts from various associations, science and practice took part in the two discussions on the topics of “education / care” and “housing” of the Child Guarantee.
The European Child Guarantee is the EU’s response to the high number of children in poverty who are affected by social exclusion and lack of opportunities to participate in society. After a long development process, the European Commission published a concrete proposal on this, which served as the basis for the expert discussion. The initiative aims to give children in need the right to access the basic resources they need for their well-being and development. The target group-oriented Child Guarantee is embedded in the universal European Children’s Rights Strategy, which was published on 24 March.
The European Commission classifies children in precarious family situations as a vulnerable group. However, the Child Guarantee also acknowledges other forms of child disadvantage that can impede social inclusion and participation. These include homelessness, disability, migrant background, ethnic discrimination and institutionalisation.
The Child Guarantee promotes access rights for children in need several areas, including improved access to child care and education as well as to adequate housing. These two areas were the focus of the two online experts meetings today. In both meetings the experts discussed the questions of whether the Child Guarantee measures are generally effective in achieving the goals and which specific measures are required in Germany to complement them.
The results of the expert discussions will be incorporated into two papers with recommendations of the AGF on the implementation of the Child Guarantee in Germany. The process of developing a National Action Plan for the implementation of the Child Guarantee in Germany was recently started by the Federal Government. The aim of the papers is to feed recommendations from a family perspective into this process.
The AGF already has published positions on the areas of “nutrition” and “health”, which can be downloades here: