15/02/2006 Joint meeting of the Intergroup on Family and Protection of Childhood and the Fourth World European Committee Intergroup.The meeting of the Intergroup on Family and Protection of Childhood which focused on the topic of "families and poverty" took place in Strasbourg, on Wednesday the 15th of February under the chairmanship of Mrs Panayotopoulos - Cassiotou (EPP-ED) and Mr Mendez de Vigo (EPP-ED). The meeting fostered interventions by Mr Johannes Berchtold from the Austrian Ministry of Social Security, Generations and Consumer Protection, Mrs Maryse Huet from DG Employment and Social Affairs (European Commission) and Mrs Maria Teresa Lopez of the Foundation "Accion Familiar".
Mrs Lopez presented the major changes which have occurred in the social and demographical behaviours of families, which are characterized by more instable family compositions, reduced birth rates and a high number of children born outside marriage. In her intervention, she insisted on the policies that the Member States should develop to prevent poverty and stressed that by supporting families, one supports employment, social solidarity, the redistribution of wealth among generations, a sustainable economic development and greater social cohesion.
In his contribution, Mr Berchtold insisted on the necessity to preserve intergenerational solidarity and to reduce the poverty of families through the adoption of specific measures including, among others, the creation of synergies between the political, economic and social sectors, and a greater security and flexibility in employment and working hours. Mr Berchtold also reminded the essential role of families in terms of socialization and solidarity and insisted on the necessity to give a greater importance to fathers in the family environment. Finally, he informed the assembly of the activities of the new partnership " Alliance Family and Employment" which gathers the participation of Austria, France, Germany, Hungary and Italy and enables the exchange of good practices and the development of collaborations with NGOs.
Mrs Huet indicated that the action of the European Commission which supports the action of the Member States, aims in particular, at improving the situation of families and children with economic difficulties by increasing the participation in the labour market, specially for women, a better conciliation of family and professional life, the modernization of social security schemes, the improvement of education and access to decent housing and to quality social and health services. Mrs Huet also stressed that the European Commission is currently preparing a "Charter on the Rights of the Child" as well as a Communication based on the results of the consultations on the Green Book on Demography.
Mrs Zaborska, Chairwoman of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, mentioned some elements of her report on the topic of "women and poverty", adopted by the EP. She referred to the importance of families as "teachers" of social values, to the role of women in the preservation of the economic and social cohesion of families as well as to the need to create partnerships with the least disadvantaged citizens. Finally, Mrs Bauer presented the situation of families in the new Member States with a particular focus on children whose level of poverty is higher that the EU average and who often live in disastrous conditions.
The meeting ended with interventions of NGO representatives who insisted on the importance to increase the participation of parents in the labour market, on the necessity to provide for a minimum income to help guarantee the standard of living of children and to improve the assistance for families by appropriate services.
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INTERGROUP ON FAMILY AND PROTECTION OF CHILDHOOD
President: Marie PANAYOTOPOULOS-CASSIOTOU (GR,PPE)
Vice-Presidents: José RIBEIRO E CASTRO (P, PPE), Nathalie GRIESBECK (F, ALDE), Kathy SINNOTT (IE, IND), Sylwester CHRUSZCZ (PL, IND), Konrad SZYMANSKI (PL, UEN)
MINUTES
MEETING
OF
THE INTERGROUP ON FAMILY AND PROTECTION OF CHILDHOOD
"families and poverty"
Wednesday 15 February 2006
14.30-15.30
Room SDM S3
1. List of participants
MEPs:
Edit BAUER (PPE), Inigo MENDEZ DE VIGO (PPE), Marie PANAYOTOPOULOS-CASSIOTOU (PPE), Kathy SINNOTT
(IND/DEM), Mieczyslaw JANOWSKI (UEN), Ljudmila NOVAK (PPE), Wojciech ROSZKOWSKI (UEN),
Assistants:
Anna ADAMSKA (Ass. Urzula Krupa), Davide DAMIANI (ass. Patrizia Toia), Martina ENGEL OTTO (Ass. Dr Chatzimarkakis), Harry GWITYN ( ass. Jean Lambert) Maria HAJEIL (Ass. Janowski), Andrew Lewis ( ass. Richard Corbett), Corinne MULLER (stagiaire, Erna Hennicot-Schoepges), K. SZARAZ (Ass. Edit Bauer), Tobias TEUSCHER (Ass. Anna Zaborska), Annemie TOTH ( ass. Laszlo Surjan), Kirsty WALTON ( ass. Richard Corbett),
Others:
Henri BAUEN (COFACE), Françoise BLIN ( Mouvement Mondial des Mères), Marie-Claude DELAHAYE ( fonctionnaire PPE), David FIELDSEND (Directeur Care for Europe), Maryse HUET (Commission Européenne), Thomas KLOIBER (FAFCE), Maria-Teresa LOPEZ ( Accion Familiar), Christian MOUTIER ( Caisse Nationale des Allocations familiales), , Ricardo SILVA (ATD Quart Monde), Jenny SCHULER (Représentante FAFCE), Alain SOURY LAVERGNE ( Union des Familles en Europe),Vladimir TCHERNEGA ( Conseil de l'Europe), Anne Marie THES ( Institut des politiques familiales), J.M TRIACCA (Groupe PSE), Dolores VELARDE (Institute for Family Policies), Tove VIDEBACK, Brian WALLER (Home Start International), Anne-Marie de WARREN
(Mouvement Mondial des Mères) Anne WILLIAMS ( EUROCHILD)
2. Welcome by Mrs Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, President of the Intergroup on Family and Protection of Childhood
• The idea of this joint meeting on child protection was to consider questions of poverty. Poverty is multifaceted. It is not only a matter of income it also has to do with fundamental human rights, discrimination, exclusion and limited choices as well.
• In the Byzantine Empire, the emperors referred frequently to dealing with poverty. Even in authoritarian states, poverty represented a danger to peace and social cohesion.
• In our times the phenomenon still exists. The first joint report on social inclusion of 2001 confirms that poverty and social exclusion remain great challenges for the EU. It recognises that 18% of Europe's population that is to say 60 million people are threatened with poverty. About half of them live in a situation of long-term poverty. The report underlines that single parent families, unemployed, children, young people and the elderly are particularly vulnerable.
• There are substantial differences on child poverty between the Member States of the EU. In Denmark and Finland less than 3% of children live under the poverty threshold whereas in Italy the percentage is over 16%
• The European demography is reducing at a time where Europe aims to become the world's greatest economic power. There is a risk for our children to live in poverty and this risk is increasing.
• This meeting is a first step in taking decisions and organizing the next steps.
3. Intervention by Mr Mendez de Vigo, Chairman of the ATD Fourth World Intergroup,
• When we talk about poverty there is a necessity to achieve synergies including in the European Parliament.
• Intergroups play a very important role in the European Parliament: first of all we can get to know each other, deal with issues and see how we can contribute to progress in Europe which will benefit citizens.
• A study on poverty is currently being prepared by the Foundation Accion Familiar which is represented here by Mrs Maria Teresa Lopez.
4. Intervention by Mrs Maria Teresa Lopez, Foundation Accion Familiar
• There are more and more people in Europe living in poverty. There are differences among countries and among families. People's family background is important in determining their chances of living in poverty as are the number of children in a family.
• When a family lives in poverty, there are multiplying effects which can mean that the weakest members of society (children, the elderly etc) enter into a vicious circle of which they cannot escape without assistance.
• There are major changes in behaviours and demography in Europe: drop in marriage and number of children born; social roles in parenting and working; society is more materialistic and individualistic. Young people have decided to have fewer children than previous generations. The family unit is less stable and there are more single parent families. This is a risk area for poverty. Some European countries witness great growth in births outside marriage. This is a major shift in the European concept of the family. The number of homes in Europe has increased over the last few years but these home units are smaller.
• The relationship between families and poverty:
Families act as a safety blanket not only for its members but for society as well. If families have to abandon some of their basic functions it will be very difficult for the Welfare State to support everyone.
• Eurostat figures show great differences in poverty risk factors according to the composition of the family unit. Single parent families are at high risk. These families are usually headed by women. The increased poverty risk can be explained by the fact that the woman is the only bread winner and is also responsible for looking after the children. There are also high poverty risk factors for women over 65. There is even a greater risk if they live alone outside family units. Another high risk area is when two adults live together and have two or more children.
• The fact that women now go to work has not resolved the problem of discrimination and in many cases it has lead to poverty. It is necessary for women to have a quality of pay and to be able to stay in the labour market and look simultaneously after their families.
• There are still significant differences between men and women when it comes to family situations. There is no counterpart to the woman taking on all the work and responsibility. Nothing has been done to address that. The role of the parliaments is important to promote a shared responsibility of family duties between men and women.
• In addition to the fact that people are getting older in Europe, the family stability is decreasing and this is reflected in poverty rates. Ageing very often goes hand in hand with increased dependency. In the space of a few years we will have many more dependent people and smaller and smaller family units will take on the burden of all this carrying.
• The role of family policies in addressing poverty: there are many causes of poverty and therefore a single policy is not going to be enough. The best policies for prevention involve support to families: support to families helps:
- the informal solidarity network
- redistribute income between people and generations
- create employment and wealth.
- equal treatment of all family members and protection of their rights.
• A lot has been done in the EU to achieve equality but a lot more needs to be done. There are new forms of inequality amongst women: it makes a huge difference whether you have children or not.
• What kind of family policy should we have to try to combat poverty? family oriented policies which are properly designed:
- families generate external income which can reduce costs particularly in the fields of education and thus benefit social security schemes
- balance for women in order to help them conciliate family and professional life.
- The success of European policies which are designed to increase employment will depend on the reconciliation of family and professional life. If reconciliation is improved, then female employment will be the key driver of economic growth in many countries and this is useful to combat poverty.
• There should be a broad approach of family policy: need to work on solidarity between generations, fight against poverty and social exclusion etc. The member states should review these objectives in light of the economic and social reality. It's important to have good practice and recognize the value of children and older people in society.
• The future of the EU, its population, its economic growth, social stability and its well being require the development of a European strategy for the family and children in the framework of which the problems and necessities will be analyzed and lead to the adoption of recommendations for Member States.
5. Intervention by Mr Johannes Berchtold, Austrian Federal Ministry of Social Security, Generations and Consumer Protection.
• The Austrian Presidency has organised 3 conferences on the topic of poverty: the informal meetings of the ministers for social affairs last January, an expert EU-Conference organised in Vienna on the topic "Demographic Challenges - Family needs partnership" and the 5th meeting of persons affected by poverty which will be held in Brussels in the month of May.
• The informal meeting of the ministers for social affairs delivered a clear message: poverty and specially poverty that affects children must be abolished.
• During the Vienna Conference, family policy was referred to as the driving force of a social reform in Europe. Family policy is a national competence but it does have an impact on social security and we will have demographic problems if we don't undertake family policy reforms.
• The Conference concluded on
- the necessity to establish family partnerships (intra familiar) and non family partnerships (extra familiar) ( economy, science, the media, politics etc)
- intergenerational solidarity
- recognition of the family as an essential part of the human capital.
- more flexible conditions for couples for a conciliation between family life and working life
- greater participation of men in family life
• Synergies should be developed between the political, economic and social sectors as a prerequisite for an effective family policy.
• In Austria, the child care allowance is one of the elements of the assistance put in place since 2002. The subvention is dissociated from the professional activity of parents and therefore the number of beneficiaries is increased: housewives, students, those with low salary jobs.
• In addition, a new partnership entitled "Family and Profession Alliance " has been put in place: it consists of a coordination instance for the families which should enable to gather representatives of different sectors: political, social, media etc. The goal of this coordination instance is to coordinate the measures which should be taken to facilitate the life of families and education of children.
• The Unit of Men's Affairs of the Ministry of Generations organized the First Fathers´ Conference: this Conference had three main topics: “Fatherhood and male identity”, “Relation father-mother-child” and “Fatherhood and compatibility between family and profession”. Without the commitment of fathers it is impossible to attain the objectives which have been set. The current policy on social affairs makes it necessary to complete the gender policy with a paternity and male policy.
6. Mrs Maryse Huet, DG Employment and Social Affairs, European Commission
• Although the EU doesn't have a competence for matters related to family and childhood, the promotion of inclusion and the adaptation to demographic change required her intervention in this field
• The fight against poverty and social exclusion remains a great challenge for the EU and its Member States: 15% of the population lives under the poverty threshold and some types of families such as single parent families and large families are particularly vulnerable.
• At the Lisbon Council, the Member States considered that the fight against exclusion and poverty was one of the principal elements for the modernisation of the European social model. They also decided to base their policies in this field on an Open Method of Coordination which associates the common objectives, the national action plans and a programme of action which is presented by the European Commission.
• In the national action plans, poverty is combated by:
- an increase in the participation in the labour market and access to quality employment, as is affirmed by the Lisbon Strategy in order to avoid the development of the phenomenon of poor workers.
- modernisation of social security schemes
- improvement of education and lifelong learning
- elimination of child poverty
- decent housing
- improvement of access to good quality services
- abolition of discriminations and better insertion of disabled persons, minorities and migrants.
• As for poor children: in 2004, the European Commission financed a comparative study on effective policies to fight child poverty. This analysis showed that the crucial points were: the access of parents to employment, a better redistribution of wealth in form of subventions which should be universal and of high quality, services of high quality, education and insertion of children specially for migrant families, decent housing and access to health and social security services
• The assessment of the national action plans indicates that the results are still insufficient compared to the objectives pursued.
• The European Commission under the framework of the social inclusion report, proposes a reinforcement of the Open Method of Coordination: the target should be placed on the fight against child and family poverty, social exclusion of young people, a greater interaction with the Lisbon Strategy in order to benefit the disadvantaged groups; mobilisation of all interested parties and strengthening of the links with the Governments.
• The European Commission has developed a program of action which aims to support the action of Member States: in 2004 the evaluation of the programme enabled the exchange points of view on the policies to prevent exclusion of families ( Italy ) and an evaluation of the migration policy ( France).
• The Commission also established transnational exchange programmes which helped develop exchanges between countries on best policies to fight poverty of families and children: 10% of all exchange actions concerned families and poor children
• Finally, the Commission finances networks such as the EUROCHILD network.
• The European Commission is currently preparing a communication on the rights of the child which will be available in the month of June. This Communication will give an overview of the actions undertaken by the EU and will contribute to the application of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• Following the study on the demographic impact initiated by the European Parliament, the Commission has adopted measures to adapt to demographic change. Demographic change is representative of the quality of life of European citizens: the increase in life expectancy is an important improvement but this demographic evolution conveys modifications which can have negative impacts on economy and social life.
• The Commission has prepared a Green paper on demographic change for which she received over 240 contributions. The proposals received will be used to prepare future actions
• In June, the Commission will present a Communication on a work programme for 2006-2010. This Communication will be associated with a consultation of the social partners and a mobilisation of all the interested parties in the framework of a European forum which will be organised next autumn.
• The Communication will focus on : the full use of human potential with a special investment in education of children, youth insertion, improvement of women's employment and integration of immigrants.
• The participation in the labour market is a key factor in the fight against poverty.
• The Commission wishes to help young people to have a family by facilitating their access to housing, secure income and by improving the conciliation between family and professional life.
• The family is an important value for European citizens even though their vision of the family has changed and families differ from one country to another.
• The policy undertaken by the EU will enable Europeans to concretise their desire for children while guaranteeing the promotion of social inclusion and gender equality.
7. Intervention of Mrs Zaborska, Chairwoman of the Committee on Women's rights and Gender equality
• Mrs Zaborska indicated that she was the draftsperson of a report on " women and poverty"
• Statistics should take into account the reality of life of the poorest families in the 25 Member States
• A crucial question is to know the number of children which will be able to grow in their families until their majority, considering that financial and social difficulties often lead to the removal of a child from his home and his placement in a social institution.
8. Intervention of Mrs Bauer, Member of the European Parliament
• Mrs Bauer presented the situation of families in the new Member States.
• In Slovakia, one can find the biggest rate of child poverty: 30%
• Taking these facts into account, it is very difficult to fulfil the Lisbon criteria. What should be done when on the one hand unemployment increases and on the other hand the EU's objective is to make the European economy the most competitive knowledge based economy in the world.
• There is a significant problem of absence of data on child poverty within the Member States of the EU. Most of the existing statistics only concern children of 0 to 15 years old.
• As for poverty, poverty in the new Member States is higher than in the other countries. The threshold of poverty for the new countries is 54% smaller than the EU average.
• Europe should have a coherent policy to fight child poverty.
9. Intervention of Mrs Engel-Otto, consultant
• Child poverty in Germany has increased of 7.5 to 10.2%. Financial support to families is higher in comparison to other countries but is not very effective because the money doesn't reach the children as it is often used by parents to finance alcohol or tobacco abuse or even cell phone bills.
• However, childcare facilities for children under the age of 3 are hardly available and that is a problem for the employment of women since it increases their financial difficulties. There are available childcare places for only 2% of children under the age of 3.
• In Germany, kindergarten is not mandatory. Therefore, many children disappear from society until the age of 6, time when they have to go to school. In the meantime these children can be subject to abuse without anyone noticing. These children are marginalised and find it difficult later on to integrate to society.
• It seems essential to improve the situation by giving priority to family support and better childcare facilities.
• It is insufficient to define poverty as an absence of financial resources. Poverty is much more an absence of culture, or language, of health and attention.
10. Débat:
M. Moutier (CNAF): France grants about 5% of its GDP to direct or indirect aids to the families. 63% of subventions (monthly allowances granted to families), 28% of fiscal aid, 9% on minimum social standards.
Aids to the families enable 600000 families to escape poverty each month out of a total of 10 million families.
M. Waller ( Home-Start International): a research entitled " learning from families" was launched in Europe during the last two years. Families in Greece, UK, and Ireland were interviewed. No matter the nationality or the social background all the families encounter the same difficulties. Families feel discriminated against. The access to public services is difficult for them. Families feel excluded by the agencies. They indicated that they would like to be more involved in policy making:
- agencies should change their mentalities: they should concern 100% of the citizens.
- there should be an easier access to services with a bunch of new services for families: tutorials or vocational training in order to raise confidence and responsibility of people.
Mr. Soury-Lavergne (Union des familles en Europe): At the end of 2005,
a study was prepared on poor children. Three conclusions were drawn:
- the number of poor children in France is under-estimated ( official statistics speak about 1 million children whereas in reality there are 2 million poor children)
- there are more poor children in families with two parents than in single parent families: 500000 poor children in single parent families whereas there are 1 million 600 thousand poor children in families with two parents.
- large families are a direct source of impoverishment since all social minima and subventions don't take into account the number of children.
11. Date and topic of next meeting
The next meeting of the Intergroup will take place on Wednesday the 5th of April.
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