Child Guarantee

For Caritas Europa it is essential that all children can make the best possible start in life.

Deprived children and their families face more challenges to access services, such as early childhood education and care services and affordable housing. This was clearly identified in the new Caritas CARES! report on obstacles to accessing affordable services of good quality and addressing their specific needs, which is available as of 19 February 2020.

The EU has committed to supporting the eradication of child poverty by developing a Child Guarantee, which would ensure that children in the most vulnerable situations have access to key social rights. On the occasion of the Conference on the Child Guarantee of 17 February 2020, and together with the partners of the Investing in Children Alliance, we are calling on the European Commission to present its proposal for a Child Guarantee without any delay and on the EU Member States to adopt within 2020 a Council Recommendation on the Child Guarantee. The priority is to prevent severe delays in the implementation of the Operational Programmes and the risk that EU funding is used in an ad-hoc manner rather than for sustainable and strategic investments.