The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has published a special report on child poverty aimed at determining whether the European Commission has made an effective contribution to Member States’ efforts to reduce child poverty.
ECA examined whether the Commission’s legal instruments, the 2013/112/EU Commission Recommendation of 20 February 2013 – Investing in children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage, the European Pillar of Social Rights and the European Semester process, contributed to tackling child poverty. The European Court of Auditors also examined how Member States’ use of EU funds contributed to this goal.
The report found that the Commission’s legal instruments are non-binding and thus limited by nature, but other more powerful tools could be used. It also highlights the lack of available information directly related to child poverty which hinders efforts for accurate evaluation of the Commission’s contribution.
That is why we need to see real impact in reducing child poverty with the upcoming EU Child Guarantee in 2021. Eurodiaconia, as part of the EU Alliance for Investing in Children, strongly echoes the Alliance’s call to the European Commission to take a rights-based integrated approach to tackling child poverty and to incorporate the three Pillars of the Investing in Children Recommendation in its proposal for the European Child Guarantee. Further, incorporating parents’ access to resources (pillar 1) and children’s access to decision making (pillar 3) in the Child Guarantee Council Recommendation are of utmost importance.
For more information on our advocacy efforts, please consult our contribution to the European Commission’s public consultation on the Child Guarantee and the joint statement of the EU Alliance for Investing in Children.
To read the “European Court of Auditors Special Report: Combating Child Poverty – Better Targeting of Commission Support Required”, please visit their website.