Activities of Dragoş PÎSLARU related to 2023/2811(RSP)
Institutional motions (1)
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION Children first – strengthening the Child Guarantee, two years on from its adoption
Amendments (63)
Amendment 2 #
Citation 1 a (new)
– having regard to the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted in New York on 16 December 1966,
Amendment 3 #
Citation 1 b (new)
– having regard to UN 2019 Resolution on the Rights of the Child,
Amendment 5 #
Citation 5 a (new)
– having regard to the UN Resolution on the Guidelines for the alternative care of children, adopted in New York on 18 December 2009,
Amendment 6 #
Citation 7 a (new)
– having regard to the Council Recommendation of 8 December 2022 on early childhood education and care: the Barcelona targets for 2030,
Amendment 7 #
Citation 7 b (new)
– having regard to the Eurofound report “Guaranteeing access to services for children in the EU”
Amendment 26 #
Recital A
A. whereas access to basic and quality services, including early childhood education and care (ECEC) and healthcare, as well as to education, housing and nutrition plays an important role in breaking the cycle of intergenerational disadvantage and lifting children out of poverty and social exclusion, as it can help to tackle the complex and multifaceted nature of poverty and vulnerability;
Amendment 29 #
Recital B
B. whereas investing in children’s early years is vital for tackling child poverty and social exclusion, and ensuring nurturing care for their healthy growth, development and wellbeing provides solid foundations early in life, for the benefit of individuals and societies; whereas investing in the youngest generation brings the greatest return and contributes to the growth and prosperity of the society as a whole; whereas, several Member Statcountries have allocated more than the requested 5 % of European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) resources to tackling child poverty and 23 Member States have programmed a total of EUR 8.9 billion in ESF+ support to address the issue; whereas the implementationSF+ and EUR 8.9 billion ESF+ support to address child poverty has been programmed by 23 Member States; whereas some Member States did not allocate any ESF+ resources to the objective of tackling child poverty, others have earmarked less than 5 % of their ESF+ plansrogrammes, and there has been a delayed, in turn delaying the reforms to be undertaken under Child Guarantee national action plans (NAPs) andhe implementation of the ESF+ plans that delayed Child Guarantee NAPs reforms financed through the ESF+;
Amendment 34 #
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas the COVID-19 pandemic inflicted significant health and social long-term impacts over the well-being of children, has led to increased inequality and social exclusion, exacerbating existing challenges, especially for children and families in vulnerable situations, due to the disruption of daily life routines and social contacts, school closures, the reduced capacity of the systems to ensure safeguards against domestic violence, abuse and neglect during lockdown and the disruption of basic social services; whereas the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, and increases in energy prices and the cost of living have resulted in the worst cost-of- living crisis, with more children and young, people pushed into poverty;
Amendment 35 #
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas 758,018 children were in alternative care in 2021 in the 27 EU Member States; whereas children in alternative care were particularly affected during the pandemic when governments in some countries responded to the COVID-19 crisis by reducing or closing residential care services, which meant a hurried and often unprepared return to their biological families often without the underlying conditions for their original placement in care being addressed; whereas poverty in the families may lead to a situation where the parents can no longer provide adequate care for the children and may lead to child family separation and the children’s entry in alternative care; whereas the lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the many factors that lead to child family separation, among them poverty, abuse, neglect, illness and death, and the number of children without or at risk of losing parental care is likely to increase as a result of the long-term socioeconomic impact of the current crises on families’ ability to provide care;
Amendment 36 #
Recital C
C. whereas child poverty remains a keyvital challenge across the EU, given that - with an average of almost 1 in 4 children are still being at risk of poverty, with the share varying widely between countries – or social exclusion (AROPE) and with large country variations ranging from over 40 % in some countries to 11 % in others (20212 Eurostat data) – and trends are worsening in many countries because of the multiple crises across the EU and globallas well as with worsening tendencies in many of them due to the multiple crisis across the EU and globally; whereas the COVID-19 pandemic inflicted significant health and social long-term impacts over the well-being of children, leading to increased inequality and social exclusion, exacerbating existing challenges, especially for children and families in vulnerable situations; whereas the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, and increases in energy prices and the cost of living have resulted in the worst cost-of-living crisis, with more children and young people being left without parental care and pushed into poverty;
Amendment 44 #
Recital D
D. whereas many more children are bound to be vulnerable, not only those living in poverty and social exclusion, but also childrenthose living with disabilities, children with a minority racial or ethnic background, children residing in institutionsfrom single parent families, homeless children, children residing in institutions, children without parental care, migrant and refugee children, and so on; whereas etc., improving their lives in the short -term and establishing successful life paths for them in the long -term requiresneed structural changes and innovative solutions and an inter- sectoral approach at EU, national and local levels;
Amendment 45 #
Recital D
D. whereas many more children are bound to be vulnerable, not only those living in poverty and social exclusion, but also children living with disabilities, children with a minority racial or ethnic background, children residing in institutions, migrant and refugee children, and so on; whereas improving their lives in the short term and establishing successful life paths for them in the long term requires structural changes and innovative solutions on how policies are delivered and an intersectoral approach at EU, national and local levels;
Amendment 52 #
Recital F
F. whereas 20 months on from the original deadline of March 2022, 24 Member States have adopted their Child Guarantee NAPs, with a focus on the major areas identified in the associated Council Recommendation such as guaranteeing effective and free access to high quality ECEC, including continuous learning opportunities in and outside of schools, education and school-based activities and a healthy meal each school day for children in need, effective and free access to quality healthcare, effective access to sufficient and healthy nutrition, effective access to adequate housing and with a specific focus on the needs of certain target groups more at risk of poverty such as homeless children or children experiencing severe housing deprivation, children without parental care, children with disabilities, children with mental health issues, children with a migrant background and especially undocumented children etc.;
Amendment 56 #
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas countries that benefited from technical assistance have developed better quality NAPs, with stakeholder collaboration and targeted measures for effective access of some of the most disadvantaged groups of children to the basic services;
Amendment 59 #
Recital H
H. whereas the NAPs are living documents and should be reviewed and updated regularly, while ensuring that they take an integrated, multidimensional approach, take into account the effects of ongoing crises and upcoming events, including international ones and are deeply interconnected with their national, regional and local contexts;
Amendment 65 #
Recital K
K. whereas consistent institutional commitment and the engagement of different ministries and agencies and of sub-national authorities as well as their proper coordination present challenges in a number of countries; whereas national coordinators are responsible for the implementation process and for coordinating the work of the various ministries in charge of implementation;
Amendment 67 #
Recital L
L. whereas some countries have struggled to develop and implement a monitoring framework for their NAPs and do not collect enough data on child poverty; whereas theincluding a set of indicators to capture progress, the results for the beneficiaries, and a budgeted plan of actions to continuously improve the availability, quality, comparability and governance of the data required to report on the progress of the implementation; whereas there is still insufficient data collection on child poverty and social exclusion and lack of standardised guidelines for data collection hinders the effective monitoring of theECG implementation of the European Child Guarantee;
Amendment 72 #
Recital L a (new)
Amendment 81 #
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Member States to ensure the full implementation of their NAPs and, when reviewing them, to set even more ambitious objectives to tackle child poverty especially for the children in greatest need, such as children displaced by the war in Ukraine, homeless children or living in severe housing deprivation, children with disabilities or mental health problems, children with a migrant or ethnic minority background, in particular from the Roma communities;
Amendment 84 #
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Member States to ensure the full implementation of their NAPs and, when reviewing them, to set even more ambitious objectives to tackle child poverty with specific targeted measures to ensure access to essential services for all children in need from their earliest years;
Amendment 85 #
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the Member States to design a national framework for data collection, monitoring and evaluation for their NAPs, involving order to have evidence- based policy, track quantitative as well as real qualitative progress on the ground, better identify good practices and possible weaknesses of the NAPs, and better detect possible gaps between early childhood and youth policies, highlights the importance of participatory research methods; invites the Member States to create child poverty observatories to gather high-quality, disaggregated and internationally comparable data at national level;
Amendment 87 #
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the Member States to design a national framework for data collection, monitoring and evaluation ofor their NAPs, involving participatory research methods; invites thesetting clear, multi-sectoral, and comparable metrics, defining specific targets, involving participatory research methods and with a view to establishing a common monitoring and evaluation framework at EU level; invites Member States to create child poverty observatories to gather high-quality, disaggregated and internationally comparable data at national level, including on children under three;
Amendment 93 #
Paragraph 4
4. Highlights the need for comprehensive and disaggregated data on child poverty from the Member States, and underlineat both national and Union level in order to better identify policy loopholes and get increased knowledge on intersectional discrimination and underlines the urgent need for all Member States to develop and use better quality indicators in all areas of the Child Guarantee, in order to adequately capture the multidimensional challenges of child poverty and social exclusion in the areas of education, childcare, healthcare, housing and access to adequate nutrition, and to strengthen its impact on the most disadvantaged children; highlights that the indicators for monitoring child poverty selected by the Indicators subgroup of the Commission’s Social Protection Committee must make it possible to establish a closer link between the European Child Guarantee and the Social Scoreboard; underlines the importance of exchanging best practises between Member States, including about techniques to collect data and monitoring policies;
Amendment 95 #
Paragraph 4
4. Highlights the need for comprehensive and disaggregated data on child poverty from the Member States, on child poverty and social exclusion and underlines that the indicators forto monitoring child poverty selected by the Indicators subgroup of the Commission’s Social Protection Committee must make it possible to establish a closer link between the European Child Guarantee and the Social Scoreboardand social exclusion selected by the Social Protection Committee Indicators’ subgroup, must allow making a closer link between the Guarantee and the Social Scoreboard; calls on the Commission to develop common guidelines for the collection and reporting of data on children of all target groups across EU countries;
Amendment 99 #
Paragraph 5
5. Underlines the call made by itEuropean Parliament’s cross-political Working Group on the Child Guarantee, which was established in April 2022, for the Commission and the national authorities to monitor the implementation of the NAPs and set -up a solid, overarching EU-level monitoring and evaluation framework and an associated assessment methodology; together with its assessment methodology and ensure the actual participation of all relevant stakeholders, including local authorities, in the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the NAPs, such as through existing platforms like the EU funding monitoring committees established at national level, which should ensure a meaningful participation of various partners throughout the implementation and evaluation of programmes, in line with the Common Provisions Regulation;
Amendment 104 #
Paragraph 6
6. Reiterates its call for the Commission, in partnership with Eurofound, to create a citizen- friendly EU- wide monitoring tool that facilitates a clear identification of the desired outcomes to increase the visibility and accountability of the Guarantee by allowing to see the state of play in each country and in the EU as a whole;
Amendment 107 #
Paragraph 7
7. Notes that further economic aspects of each NAP must be monitored, particularly on the size and impact of national and EU funding, including funding reaching the beneficiaries as well as possible difficulties for organisations and potential beneficiaries to access such funding;
Amendment 114 #
Paragraph 9
9. Highlights the importance of political support and calls for the Member States to step up their ambition in the implementation of the European Child Guarantee; encourages the Council, and the Member States holding the presidency of the Council, to keep children at the heart of EU’s social agenda while stressing the long-term positive impact of investment in the youngest generations;
Amendment 117 #
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Calls on the Commission to include an assessment of Member States’ commitments and structural reforms in the key areas targeted by the Child Guarantee in the European Semester exercise; asks the Commission to include a clear link to committed resources for these objectives under the ESF+ and other financial instruments;
Amendment 121 #
Paragraph 10
10. Notes that take-up of ECEC remains low among low-income families; calls on the Member States to provide more quality places in childcare facilities and to support professional training for ECEC staff and children living in precarious family situations; calls on the Member States to provide more childcare facilities and more flexible childcare services that can meet the needs of parents and to support professional training for ECEC staff; calls on the Member States to make segregation in school classrooms no longer a reality and to promote inclusion in order to give children an equal start in life, break the cycle of poverty from the early childhood;
Amendment 124 #
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Member States to increase their efforts to ensure that all children enrolled in education receive at least one healthy warm meal each school day and to provide an adequate substitute during school holiday; notes that the share of children AROP unable to afford a nutritious meal every second day decreased from 25.82% in 2008 to 16.04% in 2021 and that many countries recorded a drop in performance during the years of the crisis;
Amendment 130 #
Paragraph 12
12. Highlights that NAPs have identified several unmet needs in the healthcare sector; calls on the Member States to strengthen and adapt their healthcare systems in order to eliminate all discrimination and guarantee all children in need free and equal access to quality services, including dental and psychological services;
Amendment 131 #
Paragraph 12
12. Highlights that NAPs have identified several unmet needs in the healthcare sector; calls on the Member States to set-up, strengthen and adapt their health care systems in order to guarantee all childrenensure free and equal access to quality servicesearly intervention and quality services to all children, including dental and psychological services;
Amendment 135 #
Paragraph 13
13. Highlights that poor housing is still one of the causes of child poverty, given that it is linked with energy poverty and precarious living conditions; invites the Member States, therefore, to assess and revise their social housing policies and housing benefit systems in order to better cater for the needs of vulnerable families; expresses concern that basic water, sanitation and hygiene facilities remain inaccessible for too many children and that the lack of access to basic sanitation services is particularly acute for the most vulnerable and marginalised children; invites the Member States, therefore, to assess and revise their social housing policies and housing benefit systems in order to better cater for the needs of vulnerable families; calls on the Member States to ensure that every child has access to running water, sanitation and personal hygiene facilities both at home and at school. Calls on the Member States to immediately seek permanent housing solutions for homeless children and their families;
Amendment 137 #
Paragraph 13
13. Highlights that poor housing is still one of the causes of child poverty, given that it is linked withand consequences of child, being connected to energy poverty and, precarious living conditions; therefore invites the Members States, therefore, to assess and revise their social housing policies and housing benefit systems in order to better cater for the needs of vulnerable families and calls to prioritise children in need and their families in the provision of social housing and in energy policy planning;
Amendment 140 #
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Highlights the importance of additional resources and support for children with disabilities, developmental delays and/or special needs that go beyond free ECEC, the streamlining of their needs across key services, as well as the early detection of risks and the access to Early Childhood Intervention services;
Amendment 142 #
Paragraph 14
14. Encourages the Member States to register all children and adolescents regardless of their parents’ administrative status (residence status) in order to decrease the practical and administrative barriers to accessing key services or to keep the procedures simple and accessible, by accepting declarations of honour when documents needed for registration cannot be procured;
Amendment 146 #
Paragraph 15
15. Calls on the Member States to promote outreach activities and raise awareness of the European Child Guarantee and the key services that children and families can benefit from; calls for support for cities to establish one stop shops to provide children and families with targeted and integrated support to access information on early detection and Early Childhood Intervention, social security and assistance, as well as specific local measures for social inclusion; calls for establishing the Child Guarantee focal points in existing structures such as the social agencies at regional/local levels, community centres and others relevant institutions to provide children and families with targeted support to access social security and assistance, as well as specific local measures for social inclusion;
Amendment 154 #
Paragraph 16
16. Highlights the importance of integrating services (childcare, healthcare, education and housing) as part of a coordinated approach to reducing child poverty, and of taking a case-by-case management approach for tailored interventions; with integrated and comprehensive services for all children, from early childhood, as well as case management approach for tailored interventions to meet the individual needs of all children and their family to help them exit poverty and foster their inclusion in society, including considering their parents’ work-life balance and parenting support, and access to labour market participation;
Amendment 158 #
Paragraph 16
16. Highlights the importance of integrating quality services (childcare, healthcare, education and housing) as part of a coordinated approach to reducing child poverty, and of taking a case-by-case management approach for tailored interventions;
Amendment 161 #
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Encourages Member States to ensure that public transport is accessible to all children enrolled in pre-school and school, including children with disabilities, children living in rural areas, and all children with a migrant background;
Amendment 165 #
Paragraph 17
17. Calls for the Member States to ensure consistency between the European Child Guarantee and the reinforced Youth Guarantee in order to cover the entire age span from pregnancy to adulthood, particularly when it comes to the role of labour market integration measures, identifying the target groups, available services and skills needs and mobilising partnerships;
Amendment 166 #
Paragraph 17
17. Calls for the Member States to ensure continuity and consistency between the European Child Guarantee and the reinforced Youth Guarantee in order to cover the entire age span from pregnancy to adulthood;
Amendment 167 #
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Calls on the Member States to harness the potential of the ECG to ensure family and community-based environments to all children in the EU, by implementing the reform of child care and protection systems, and strengthening national social protection systems;
Amendment 176 #
Paragraph 19
19. Calls on the Commission to assess the quality of spending on children, in particular to evaluate the effective and consistent use of the EUR 8.9 billion dedicated to the European Child Guarantee, and asks the Commission to propose options for synergies and blending with other sources of funding like ERDF, InvestEU, Next Generation EU and the Recovery and Resilience Facility, AMIF and ReactEU;
Amendment 179 #
Paragraph 20
20. Calls on the Member States to ensure that best use is made of available EU funds and invites them to explore innovative funding schemes, including public-private partnerships; encourages the Member States to work with the European Investment Bank and invest in social infrastructure dedicated to children; encourages Member States to go beyond the pre-determined contributions under EU funding schemes; invites the Member States to provide additional national funds to support new actions set out in Child Guarantee Action Plans.
Amendment 185 #
Paragraph 21
21. Calls on the Commission to work further with the Member States by providing tailor-made technical expertise through the Technical Support Instrument to develop reforms enhancing inclusion and quality of services for children experiencing vulnerabilities and to boost the technical capacity for implementing the Child Guarantee; the support should focus on including the development of the national programmes and sub-granting schemes to reach identified target groups of children, building national monitoring frameworks in line with European standards, and developing guidelines to help improve the quality of national indicators, monitoring and evaluation procedures;
Amendment 189 #
Paragraph 22
22. Calls on the Commission to ensure direct, adequate and easily accessible funding at regional and local level to boost investment in social infrastructure and increase the capacity of local services to pilot new models and solutions to reduce child poverty; calls on the Commission to make sure the interventions/calls will reach all stakeholders including the civil society organisations tackling child poverty; welcomes the Flexible Assistance to Territories (FAST-CARE) model that provides funding to local authorities and civil society organisations and notes that it should become a wider model in the revision of the MFF;
Amendment 191 #
Paragraph 22
22. Calls on the Commission to ensure direct, adequate and easily accessible funding at regional and local level to boost investment in social infrastructure and increase the capacity of local services to pilot new models and innovative solutions to reduce child poverty;
Amendment 192 #
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22a. Calls on the European Commission and the EU Member States to continue investing in family and community based care to ensure the effective transition from institutional care;
Amendment 193 #
Paragraph 22 b (new)
22b. Calls on the Member States to increase investments in targeted policies and services that have a direct and indirect impact on children’s and families’ lives, by guaranteeing high- quality accessible, and affordable essential services, including social services.
Amendment 195 #
Paragraph 23
23. Calls on the Member States to involve all relevant stakeholders at all levels in the revision and implementation of their NAPs in order to build solid partnerships that can strengthen and expand ownership and commitment; highlights the importance of involving civil society and facilitate the meaningful, inclusive and safe participation of children in developing and implementing the monitoring and evaluation framework;
Amendment 204 #
Paragraph 25
25. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to draw up a solid governance framework at EU and national levels ensuring a successful and integrated interplay between the Child Guarantee, national framework and strategies, and the EU social and equality agenda – including the European Semester; highlights the need for multi-level governance, with joint responsibility and coordinated strategies between local, regional, national and EU levels, to prevent and mitigate child poverty;
Amendment 205 #
Paragraph 25
25. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to draw up a solid governance framework at EU and national levels with clear political responsibility and leadership for the implementation of the Child Guarantee; highlights the need for multi-level governance, with joint responsibility and coordinated strategies between local, regional, national and EU levels, to prevent and mitigate child poverty;
Amendment 209 #
Paragraph 26
26. Highlights that national coordinators need to receive adequate leverage and financial and human resources and a strong mandate to effectively coordinate the implementation of the NAPs;
Amendment 211 #
Paragraph 26 a (new)
Amendment 219 #
Paragraph 27 – introductory part
27. Asks the Commission to set-up a European children’s authority with a mandate to establish a permanent system of monitoring, support and cooperation between the Commission, the Member States and relevant stakeholders, EU agencies, institutions and NGOs in order to:
Amendment 220 #
Paragraph 27 – indent 1 a (new)
Amendment 221 #
Paragraph 27 – indent 2
– work together with Eurostat and the European statistical system (including the national statistical offices) towards the harmonised development and collection of quantitative and qualitative data in all areas relevant for the implementation of the objectives of the European Child Guarantee and other related policies on children;
Amendment 222 #
Paragraph 27 – indent 2
– work towards thea harmonised development and collection of quantitative and qualitative data in all areas relevant for the implementation of the objectives of the European Child Guarantee and other related policies on children;
Amendment 224 #
Paragraph 27 – indent 5 a (new)
– evaluate the consistency and continuity of measures developed under the Child Guarantee and the reinforced Youth Guarantee;
Amendment 225 #
Paragraph 27 – indent 7 a (new)
– raise awareness about the existence of the Technical Support Instrument that can provide technical expertise in the implementation of reforms pertaining to child policies;
Amendment 227 #
Paragraph 27 – indent 9 a (new)
– ensure the participation of children, their families and the civil society, including child-led and care leavers organisations, in the development, implementation and monitoring of the NAPs;