The idea of a European guarantee for children has been called for on numerous occasions by the European Parliament and appears to be making headway in Brussels.
In answer to a parliamentary question from Vilija Blinkevičiūtė (S&D, Lithuania), the European Commission indicated on 24 August that it was currently working “to implement the first phase of the European Parliament’s preparatory action on a guarantee for children”.
According to this MEP, a call for tenders was launched on 21 March to carry out a comprehensive and detailed feasibility study on a children’s guarantee for 4 groups of vulnerable children, whose situation is particularly worrying and urgent.
The contract is expected to be signed over the next few weeks and the contractor selected will begin work after the summer. A final report will have to be submitted 18 months later.
The second phase of the preparatory action, which is still due to be the subject of a call for tenders, will examine the feasibility and added value of a children’s guarantee extended to larger groups of children.
In a non-legislative resolution in 2016 on the reconciliation of private and professional life, the European Parliament called for a guarantee on the model of the “youth guarantee”, which would allow every child to access free health care, free schooling, nursery school free of charge and decent accommodation and appropriate nutrition (see EUROPE 11623).
There are currently 20 million children living below the poverty threshold in the European Union and more than one out of four children is living in extreme deprivation. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)