Children and Youth

Europe-wide Child Guarantee to Combat Child Poverty

A Europe-wide child guarantee aims to combat child poverty through action in five areas: Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), education, health care, nutrition, and housing. The idea of a child guarantee goes back to a proposal of the European Parliament. In a first phase (2018/19) a feasibility study was carried out by a consortium on behalf of the EU Commission. A special focus was placed on groups in particularly vulnerable situations, such as children living in precarious family situations, children residing in institutions, recent migrants or refugees as well as children with disabilities. In the second phase, which has been running since March 2020, the implementation of the results so far to all children is to be examined. The Observatory is accompanying the process of developing a child guarantee in Europe.

Child Poverty and Social Exclusion

The topic of child poverty ranges high on the political agenda of many European states. However, despite sometimes far-reaching efforts on part of the state, children are affected by poverty more often than the general population. The financial support for children and families varies between European states regarding the amount of the benefit. Often universal benefits stand next to targeted benefits. Besides the question what children and their families need in addition to financial benefits, another important question is how to generate an easy access to any form of benefits for children and their families. Against the background of the processes initiated at EU-level and national level, the Observatory aims at promoting the Europe-wide exchange on measures and experiences in tackling child poverty and social exklusion.

Preventing Extremism

Why do young people radicalize themselves and how can we prevent them from doing so? As Islamist extremism has raised sharply, both – politics and social sciences – pay more and more attention to these questions. A European Expert Meeting addressed this topic. The event focused on different European perspectives on what role discrimination can play during the radicalisation process and how a successful anti-discrimination policy can contribute to preventing radicalisation.