Eurodiaconia welcomes the much-anticipated European Care Strategy, published by the European Commission, together with two proposals for Council Recommendations on Long-Term Care (LTC) and on the revision of the Barcelona targets on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). This initiative is a crucial step towards addressing the challenges the care sector has been facing over the last years, and we are glad to see some of our network’s recommendations taken on board.
The Care Strategy recognises the main challenges in the care sector – availability, affordability, accessibility, quality, workforce, funding and governance challenge – and points in the right direction regarding the needed actions.
While we regret that the Care Strategy in itself is not putting forward many concrete actions, we welcome that the Council Recommendation on LTC includes more concrete measures. We strongly agree with the recommendation for Member States to nominate long-term care national coordinators, equipped with adequate resources and mandate who will effectively coordinate and monitor the implementation of the recommendation. Furthermore, the effective involvement of all relevant stakeholders is key in improving the provision of care services across the EU.
Read our full response here.