Caritas Europa: Strong families make strong societies – tackle child and family poverty now!
On the occasion of Universal Children’s Day, Caritas Europa calls on European governments to prioritise the fight against child and family poverty as an essential means for contributing to just and strong European societies.
Caritas Europa finds it intolerable that over 27 million children are living at risk of poverty across Europe and that more than one in four children is affected by poverty in the European Union.
“People who work at Canary Wharf have more money than us so they can buy houses and better food”, said 7 year old Jake just a few days ago when talking with a centre coordinator of the Catholic Children’s Society in London. At Caritas we think that Jake’s words are a strong sign in Europe that housing and food are at the core of a little child’s concerns.
Caritas Europa reminds European governments that European institutions have put in place several instruments which, if fully applied, would contribute to tackling child and family poverty efficiently and break the cycle of poverty across generations.
“Family and child poverty in Europe is an immense but disregarded threat to the future cohesion and development of our communities. It must urgently be addressed if we want to ensure integral human development for everyone and a strong European society. Europe can commit to it!”, said Jorge Nuño Mayer, Secretary General of Caritas Europa.
Therefore, Caritas Europa urges:
- All European governments to guarantee child allowances to every child residing on their territory, regardless of the status of their parents.
- All European states to ratify and implement all provisions of the European Social Charter, including those related to fighting child and family poverty, and to accept its monitoring and control instruments.
- All EU Member States to fully implement the European Commission’s Recommendation on Investing in Children of 2013.
- All Members of the European Parliament to sign the Written Declaration on Investing in Children, which calls for social and macroeconomic policies to protect children and their families as a political priority.
