The COVID19 pandemic is foreseen to bring severe socio-economic challenges that will affect EU children and families across the European Union. Those who need most support – such as access to adequate healthcare and education – are not receiving it and will struggle most to deal with the catastrophic economic consequences of the pandemic.
As a member of the EU Alliance for Investing in Children, the European Public Health Alliance has joined calls for the EU Institutions to prioritise children and families in their COVID19 response both in the short term and the long run.
In the short term, we call for measures to ensure that children, especially those from disadvantaged families and backgrounds are given particular attention in the design of immediate response measures to the COVID19 crisis; and to direct national budgets and unspent EU financial resources from the 2014-2020 EU funding period to support children and families in vulnerable situations.
In the months ahead, we ask the European Institutions to adopt a comprehensive, social and sustainable Europe 2030 Strategy that will set a target to halve poverty and child poverty by 2030; and to ensure the proposed Child Guarantee takes an integrated approach and includes access to sufficient financial resources, children’s access to services, and their participation in shaping the policies which will affect their lives.
