Navigation menu list for sections above the current page

Home

NSPCC inform

UK nations

Europe

Parliamentary briefings

What about us?

Children's rights in the European Union: next steps

Executive summary

Challenges facing Children in the EU
There are approximately 94 million children and young people aged 0-18 living in the European Union (EU) and more than any other group, children will be affected by decisions being taken now that have long-term implications. Children have their own specific rights, as set out in the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and deserve attention as citizens of Europe today, not only as the workers of tomorrow.

Yet too often children's interests are ignored, and their voices go unheard in the public arena. This is unsurprising, given that they cannot vote, they have little or no access to the media, and limited access to the courts. Nor are they members of powerful lobbying groups. Without access to these processes that are integral to the exercise of democratic rights, children and their opinions remain hidden from view and they are, in consequence, denied effective recognition as citizens [1].

Since A children's policy for 21st century Europe: first steps was published by the European Children's Network (EURONET) in 1999, the EU has experienced dramatic economic and political change, including the introduction of the single currency, enlargement to 25 Member States, and the rejection of the EU Constitutional Treaty by voters in France and the Netherlands. Social changes are also accelerating. For instance, the EU is facing demographic shifts on an unprecedented scale as a result of common trends such as increasing life expectancy, a declining population of working age, and falling birth rates.

Factors such as these are likely to have a huge direct and indirect impact on children living in the EU. For example, although enlargement has provided signifi cant new opportunities, many children in the new Member States will still experience high levels of poverty, discrimination and exploitation. The uncertain political climate may also undermine efforts to strengthen the response of the EU institutions to children's rights. And demographic change brings risks of a steady decline in children's services within Member States.

The circumstances of children in the EU
These challenges must be seen within the context of the difficult circumstances many children currently experience in the EU. For example:

• Many children suffer violence within the family, in the community, in residential care and in other settings. In 2003 UNICEF reported that two children die from abuse and neglect every week in Germany and the United Kingdom, and three a week in France [2].
• Although efforts to remove children from residential care have increased in recent years (e.g. in Romania), high numbers of children continue to be placed in institutions across the EU. Despite wide agreement that institutionalisation at a young age can be damaging, 23,000 under threes live in residential care settings across Europe [3]. Meanwhile, alternatives such as fostering and adoption remain inadequately resourced.
• Some children are trafficked into and between EU states to be exploited for sexual and other purposes (e.g. begging, crime). Although the EU is taking this abhorrent form of abuse more seriously, it continues to grow, fuelled by new media and the internet.
• The rights of children who seek asylum are often violated, with many placed in detention or denied access to appropriate food, housing, education, and health care.
• Some groups of children suffer discrimination, often on multiple grounds. For instance, Roma children frequently experience exclusion from education, and their access to healthcare may be poor. Many disabled children regularly experience prejudice or lack of awareness, and are routinely excluded from participating in decisions that affect them.

More broadly, despite the EU being one of the wealthiest regions in the world, children across the region continue to live in poverty, with around one in ten living in a jobless household. Child poverty and social exclusion have increased significantly in some EU countries during the past twenty years, with younger children facing a higher risk of relative poverty than any other group. Child poverty is also linked to other issues of concern, including health inequality, educational disadvantage, homelessness, institutionalisation, and violence.

Developing a more coherent EU approach
The commitment of Member States and EU institutions to implementing children's policy has undoubtedly strengthened in recent years. At EU level, existing legal bases have been used to develop policies and programmes, notably in relation to child protection, child poverty and social exclusion, and discrimination against children. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights has been adopted, Article 24 of which specifically addresses children's rights. And although the future of the proposed EU Constitutional Treaty is uncertain, the text adopted by EU Heads of State also contains several clear references to children.

However, this report demonstrates that the existing approach of EU legislation, policy and structures remains insufficient to meet the range of issues children face. Commissioned by EURONET, the report lays out a clear vision for children's rights policy at European level, underpinned by the UNCRC.

Although the primary responsibility for addressing many issues facing children rests with the Member States at national level, there is an EU and transnational dimension to them all. Euronet therefore believes that a coherent European children's policy must be developed. This would have numerous advantages. It would encourage the EU to recognise and implement the core principles of the UNCRC - in particular Articles 2 (non-discrimination), 3 (the best interests of the child), and 12 (the child's right to be heard in decision-making) - and enable the impact of EU policy on children to be assessed systematically. A comprehensive policy would also encourage greater exchange of good practice between EU Member States and ensure that more resources were invested in support for children. It would also improve data-collection and analysis of the impact of economic and social change on children within the EU. Finally this policy would help to strengthen the role of children's NGOs within the "civil dialogue" at EU level, and ensure that the voices of children are heard in EU policy-making.

About the report
The report is divided into two parts. Part 1 explores key challenges facing children in the EU today. It also describes the EU's current approach to children, and identifies a number of weaknesses, including limited legal bases in the EU treaties, relative invisibility of children's interests, lack of overall policy leadership and co-ordination, minimal resources from the EU budget, and lack of information on children at EU level. Part 2 examines in detail specific policy areas affecting children in the EU.

Here we summarise some of the main recommendations from the report. More detailed recommendations on structural issues (e.g. strengthening political support, building institutional structures, investing in children, and monitoring children's circumstances) are set out in Part 1. Recommendations in relation to particular policy themes can be found in Part 2. The list below is illustrative of issues covered in the forthcoming chapters and is not exhaustive or placed in order of importance.

Part 1: Examples of core recommendations

• Inserting a clear legal base in the EU Treaties
  In any new revision of the EU treaties or the EU Constitutional Treaty, the Council of Ministers should take a lead in ensuring that children's rights are included, as set out in Article 3 of the EU Constitutional Treaty, and other relevant articles relevant to children [4]. Any initiatives of this kind should be undertaken in cooperation with children's civil society organisations
  .
  
• Developing an EU children's rights policy
  An ambitious and visionary EU  "Children's Strategy" should be set out by the European Commission, setting real and achievable targets. The Strategy must be developed in consultation (including with children and young people), relate to all the rights in the UNCRC, be adequately resourced, and widely disseminated.
  
  
• Providing leadership on children's rights
  An EU Commissioner or high level representative with responsibility for children should be appointed to provide overall leadership at EU level, supported by a Children's Rights Unit to implement the Children's Strategy and coordinate action across the Commission and between EU institutions, respecting the role of Member States under subsidiarity.

Part 2: Examples of policy recommendations

• Tackling violence against children
  In line with Article 19 of the UNCRC, EU Member States should work together to ban all forms of physical punishment of children. Alongside appropriate legal reform, the emphasis should be on ending social acceptance of violence to children, and developing education strategies to strengthen positive non-violent approaches.
  
  The European Commission should develop a clear legal definition of child traffi cking, which would apply to the legislative and policy framework of the EU and all the Member States. This should reflect the special vulnerability and specific rights of child victims, and cover all forms of exploitation experienced by trafficked children.
  
  
• Eradicating child poverty
  Tackling child poverty and social exclusion should be given high political priority at EU and Member State levels. The European Commission should strengthen references in the EU's Common Objectives to child poverty and social exclusion and seek to ensure more strategic and integrated approaches by Member States.
  
  
  
• Institutional care only as a last resort
  In line with the principles of the UNCRC, Member States must ensure that institutional care is only used as a last resort, and for very short periods of time; when used, such care must be of high quality.
  
  The enlargement process has provided significant leverage for de-institutionalisation reform in countries applying for EU membership. This approach should be applied systematically in the EU's relations with other formal (and potential) candidates for EU membership and countries with Association Agreements.
  
  
  
• An end to the detention of asylum and refugee children
  The detention of children on account of their immigration status by EU Member States should be forbidden, in line with the UNCRC (Articles 3.1 and 37).
  
  Specific guidelines should be developed by the European Commission to assist Member States in assessing children's asylum claims and respecting their rights at all stages of the procedure.
  
  
  
• Tackling discrimination
  The European Commission should encourage all Member States to address Roma, gypsy and traveller children as a target group within National Action Plans on Social Inclusion. The EU institutions should also explore, with Member States, ways in which EU education policies and programmes can address racial segregation in education and the exclusion of Roma, gypsy and traveller children.
  The EU and Member States should adopt comprehensive legislation to combat discrimination against disabled people (including children) in all areas of EU policy, building upon the draft disability specific directive developed by the European Disability Forum.
  
  
  
• Developing children's participation
  The European Commission should develop practical proposals to ensure that children are given a voice in relevant EU meetings, consultations, and processes, both with other children and with adults. This will involve the development of focal points within the Commission to listen to and discuss children's views.

Conclusion
An EU children's rights policy must be developed if the rights and interests of children are to be acknowledged and addressed fully within the EU. While the improved commitment we have seen since 1999 is welcome, children's policy cannot continue to be dealt with in an ad hoc way, addressing only the "extreme" forms of abuse or discrimination. The EU must adopt a holistic and integrated approach if we are achieve our vision of a society where no child is forgotten or invisible. Only then can the EU become a champion for children on the world stage.

Footnotes
1. LANSDOWN G., Challenging Discrimination Against Children in the EU, Euronet, Brussels, 2000.

2. UNICEF, A league table of child maltreatment deaths in rich nations, Innocenti Report Card No 5, September 2003, UNICEF, Florence, 2003.

3. BROWNE, K. and al., Mapping the number and characteristics of children under three in institutions across Europe at risk of harm, University of Birmingham/World Health Organisation, 2005.

4. See Euronet, Analysis of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, Brussels, 2005.

Help for children & young people

ChildLine

0800 1111

Help for adults concerned about a child

Help and advice

0808 800 5000