Eradicating extreme child poverty in Europe: an international obligation and a moral duty

Recommendation 2234 (2022)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 31 May 2022 (see Doc. 15524, report of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development, rapporteur: Mr Pierre-Alain Fridez).

1. The Parliamentary Assembly refers to its Resolution 2442 (2022) “Eradicating extreme child poverty in Europe: an international obligation and a moral duty”. Child poverty is far from being eradicated in Europe. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has started to increase again after decades of improvement in the situation. The Assembly proposes to use the momentum from the Covid-19 pandemic to rekindle the original global goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030.

2. The Assembly congratulates the Committee of Ministers on continuing its efforts and retaining the fight against extreme child poverty among the objectives of the new Council of Europe Strategy for the Rights of the Child (2022-2027) and invites it to monitor the development and implementation of national strategies for preventing and combating child poverty.

3. The Assembly supports the action taken by the European Union regarding the implementation of the European Child Guarantee. It calls on the Committee of Ministers to support this initiative by:

3.1 taking into account the urgency of addressing extreme child poverty in order to eradicate it by 2030, in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 1.2;

3.2 contributing as far as possible to the European Union’s Europe-wide work, including by supporting the establishment of a network of national co-ordinators and in the context of joint co-operation projects;

3.3 encouraging Council of Europe member States to make children’s best interests and well-being the focus of public policies to combat extreme poverty by 2030;

3.4 supporting efforts to ensure that children’s voices are heard when introducing policies to combat extreme poverty.

4. The Assembly reiterates its call to the Committee of Ministers to advocate the opening of negotiations as soon as possible on the European Union’s accession to the European Social Charter (revised) (ETS No. 163) in order to enhance the consistency of European socio-economic rights standards.