For a Child Union: a community that cares

Workshop, Friday 25 June 2021, 16.00 - 17.30 CET

Children are our future! As the European Union begins its journey towards a just and sustainable recovery, we need investment in our children and families. We are all aware that the situation of children has particularly worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic and tackling children and families’ inequality and poverty is a priority of the socialist and progressive agenda, within the European Institutions, in Member States, and in particular at local and regional level. We believe that free, public and inclusive early childhood care and education, will not only benefit children but our society as a whole.

The Socialists and Democrats have been those achieving a European Child Guarantee, and now, with the Next Generation EU, we want to prioritise the development of an investments ecosystem for European children, including universal and equal access to quality and inclusive early childhood education and care.

On Friday 25 June at 16:00 - 17:30, during the high-level conference “For Europe. With Courage.” hosted by the Party of European Socialists in Berlin, the S&D Group in the European Parliament, the PES Group in the European Committee of the Regions and the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) will organise a workshop “For a Child Union: a community that cares”, gathering European, national, regional and local ideas and experiences.

FEPS has been working on this important issue for a long time. Find more information about FEPS project “Towards a Child Union” and discover academic publications, opinion articles, events, podcasts and much more.

More info & Programme

Further readings:

• “Carinthia is a child-friendly region I Good practice by Governor Peter Kaiser” , PES Group in the European Committee of the Regions, June 2021
• “Gostyń is a child-friendly city I Good practice by mayor Jerzy Kulak”, PES Group in the European Committee of the Regions, June 2021
• “The new ESF+ with its Child Guarantee must be the cornerstone for social recovery in Europe, say S&Ds”, S&D Group in the European Parliament, June 2021
• “Child Guarantee: with one in five children living in poverty, it is time for socialist initiative to become reality”, S&D Group in the European Parliament, June 2021
• “Towards a Child Union - Reducing Inequalities in the EU through investment in children's early years”, by Christian Morabito and Michel Vandenbroeck, Foundation for European Progressive Studies, July 2020
• “Call for a Child Union”, Foundation for European Progressive Studies and PES Group in the European Committee of the Regions, November 2020
• For the establishment of a Child Union, by Brando Benifei, The Progressive Post, November 2020
• Time for an EU Child guarantee: effective, inclusive and free, by Christian Morabito, The Progressive Post, March 2021
• For an Effective EU Child Guarantee, #45 FEPS Talks: Podcast conversation between Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, former President of Malta and current President of Eurochild and Laszlo Andor, FEPS Secretary General