Eurodiaconia joins the EU Alliance for Investing in Children’s statement on protecting children and their families during and after the COVID19 crisis. 

The joint statement extensively outlines the threats posed to children by the unprecedented health and economic challenges and notes that it is more important than ever to put children at the heart of the EU’s crisis de-escalation measures and recovery strategy. The document calls for a number of short- and long-term measures including an overarching social and sustainable Europe 2030 Strategy, an ambitious EU long term budget and a holistic Council Recommendation on the Child Guarantee which are needed to support the EU’s most vulnerable, including children and their parents in the long run. It also recommends that both national and EU funding is directed towards support schemes and that civil society organisations running support programmes are also given financial assistance.

The European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen has stated that for the EU to recover from the COVID19 crisis a powerful new budget should be adopted which invests money in a smart and sustainable manner.

Therefore, the EU Alliance for Investing in Children strongly recommends to:

✓ the European Commission to update its proposal for ESF+ with a substantial increase of resources, in line with the European Parliament’s proposal, including an earmarking of 5% for the establishment of a European Child Guarantee

✓ EU Member States to agree on an increase of the resources proposed for the ESF+, in line with the European Parliament’s proposal, including dedicated funding for the implementation of the Child Guarantee Council Recommendation.

To read the full text of the statement, please visit EU Alliance for Investing in Children’s website.