On May 4, the European Parliament and the EU Alliance for Investing in Children released a joint manifesto on child poverty and social exclusion in the EU. In the manifesto – subscribed by Eurodiaconia as part of the EU Alliance for Investing in Children – we call on the Member States to be ambitious in the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, to adopt the Child Guarantee Council Recommendation as a priority, and to ensure that the Child Guarantee starts being implemented six months from the adoption of the Recommendation.

Moreover, among other points, the manifesto calls on EU Member States to:

Develop comprehensive Child Guarantee Action Plans that will be regularly reviewed to tackle child poverty and break the intergenerational cycle of disadvantage. Likewise, Member States should outline the groups of children to be prioritised taking into consideration their specific vulnerabilities and include a monitoring and evaluation framework to measure the progress of the Child Guarantee implementation.

Set ambitious national targets to halve child poverty by 2030 and make sure that all children are counted. While the European Commission has set an EU poverty target to lift at least 5 million children out of poverty by 2030, this is not aligned with the UN Sustainable Development target that aims to halve poverty in all its forms by 2030. EU Member States should ensure that at least 9 million children are lifted out of poverty by 2030.

This manifesto comes right ahead of the Porto Social Summit -taking place on the 7 & 8 May- where Member States are expected to endorse the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, to commit to strengthening the social aspect of the recovery, and to give a new impetus to the social dimension of the European Union.

Read the full manifesto here. You can also read more about the EU Alliance for Investing in Children on their website.