INFLUENCING EU POLICY & ACTION
4. EU BUDGET We believe that investment in children is the only sustainable way of securing social and economic progress in the long term. In 2013, Eurochild welcomed the adoption of the EU budget 20142020 and called on all EU institutions and Member States to protect and defend the minimal budget allocated for children in future annual budget processes and the 2016 mid-term review. Because legal and policy commitments to children must be backed by adequate resources, we called on the EU to ensure that: 1. Investment of EU resources goes to promoting social inclusion and combating poverty, in particular child poverty. 2. Sufficient levels of funding go to the promotion of fundamental rights and citizenship, including children’s rights and child protection. 3. Development aid is at least 90% and that children are a priority in programming cycles. Eurochild, together with six other organisations, sent a joint letter to the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy on the EU Commission’s proposal for a new European Fund for Most Deprived Persons. In the letter, we called the European Council to allow Member States to use the Fund for responding to different types of deprivation, ensure a budget for the new programme separated from the European Social Fund, and guarantee the highest possible amount for the budget for the new programme.1
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In June, Eurochild and seven European networks, together with UNICEF, urged the Ministers at the EPSCO Council to promote measures focused on reducing child poverty and social exclusion. We highlighted that EU’s Structural Funds should be used strategically by Member States to inject much needed resources to reform policies and boost child and family services and integrated strategies. “In the current economic, financial and social hardship disproportionately affecting children and their families, every cent the EU can dedicate to investing in children is rebuilding trust in the European Union.” Jana Hainsworth, Secretary General, Eurochild
1. Eurochild signed a joint letter with Caritas Europa, Eurodiaconia, EAPN, FEANTSA, FEBA, and the Red Cross EU Office [http://bit.ly/TIKRUS]
8 - Eurochild 2013 Annual Report