EN    EN EN 
 
EN    EN  COMMISSION OF THE E UROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 3.10.2008 
SEC(2008) 2597 
  
COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT 
 
accompanying document to the  
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO  THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE 
COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC  AND SOCIAL CO MMITTEE AND THE 
COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 
 
Implementation of the Barcelona objectives 
concerning childcare facilities for pre-school-age children 
{COM(2008) 638} 
 
EN 2   EN 1. T HE BARCELONA TARGETS AND AVAILABILITY OF CHILDCARE SERVICES AT THE 
EU- LEVEL  
The first part of this statistical annex focuses on the Barcelona targets and 
availability of childcare se rvices across the EU Member States. Tables 1 and Graphs 
1 and 2 provide harmonised figures on the si tuation in each count ry with regard to 
the Barcelona targets. This introductory text gives detail s of how the indicators were 
defined and the corresponding data collected and how they should be interpreted.  
a) Barcelona targets and the indicators developed 
The importance of ensuring suitable childcare  provision as an essential step towards 
achieving equal opportunities in employment  between women and men is recognised 
explicitly in the European  Employment Strategy, notably in the Guidelines for the 
employment policies of the Member Stat es (Guideline 18 – promote a lifecycle 
approach to work, notably by means of “be tter reconciliation of work and private life 
and the provision of accessible and affordab le childcare facilities”). In 2002, at the 
Barcelona summit, Memb er States adopted th e following targets:  
Member States should remove disincentives to female labour force participation and 
strive, taking into account the demand for child care serv ices and in line with the 
national patterns of childcare provis ion, to provide childcare by 2010 to: 
• at least 90% of children between 3 ye ars old and the mandatory school age and  
• at least 33% of children under 3 years of age.  
In collaboration with the Member States (Employment Committee), since 2002 the 
European Commission has developed a me thodology to collect data to measure 
progress towards these targets on a basis of  a harmonised EU basis. The following 
indicators were agreed in 2004 by the Empl oyment Committee and the EU Survey on 
Income and Living conditions (EU-SILC) was chosen to be the European statistical 
source for measuring them :  
Children cared for (by formal arrangements other than by the family) up to 30 hours 
a usual week / 30 hours or more a usual w eek as a proportion of all children in the 
same age group. Breakdown by:  
• Children aged under 3 (0-2 years);  
• Children aged between 3 years and the mandatory school age; 
• Children aged between mandatory school  age and 12 years in compulsory 
primary (or secondary) education.  
The third age group (school-goi ng children) is not covered by the Barcelona targets. 
This statistical annex is  therefore limited to the first two age groups. 
b) Definition of formal arrangements 
The Employment Committee has also define d which childcare services are to be 
considered “formal arrangements” and, as such, to be counted towards the Barcelona targets. “Formal arrangements” means EU-S ILC reply categories 1 to 4 (pre-school 
or equivalent, compulsory education, centr e-based services outsi de school hours, a 
collective crèche or another day-care centre, including fami ly day-care, professional 
certified childminders). Therefore, formal  arrangements include all kinds of care 
 
EN 3   EN organised and/or controlled by a structure  (whether public or pr ivate). Care provided 
by childminders without any structure betw een the carer and the parents (direct 
arrangements) has been excluded from the defi nition of “formal care” in order to take 
count only childcare recognised as fulfilling certain quality criter ia. As regards the 3 
to compulsory schooling age group, it has to  be noted that pre-school arrangements 
(that concern a large proportion of children)  are included under the heading of formal 
arrangements.  
c) Interpretation of coverage rates 
The coverage rates indicated below are calculated as the number of children cared 
for by formal arrangements as a proporti on of all children of the same age group . 
They measure the actual use of existing ch ildcare provision in the EU for the two age 
groups and not directly the provision by Member States for instance in terms of 
number of childcare places.  
When interpreting the coverage rate's st atistics provided below, account has to be 
taken of the fact that the use of childcare facilities does not directly answer the question of whether demand is fully met.  The actual demand for childcare can be 
influenced by the level of unemployment, the use of informal arrangements inside 
the family or the possibilities offered by the maternity/parental leave system. In 
addition, some children do not use child care since the parent is on maternity/parental 
leave for a younger child. Therefore, for so me countries, a rela tively low coverage 
rate might indicate not a shortage but an alterna tive way of looking after young 
children for instance under the form of exte nded parental leave options. However, for 
most countries, the influence of parental leave systems on the coverage ra te is quite 
limited, notably due to the limited peri od during which the leave replaces a 
significant share of the parent ’s income (less than six months in most countries).  
d) Number of hours 
From the EU-SILC data, it is possible to calculate coverage rates by formal care 
arrangements. However, these coverage ra tes can differ, depending on the number of 
hours per week during which children are ca red for. The indicators adopted by the 
Employment Committee are broken down into  two main categories: 1 to 29 hours 
and 30 hours and more. It is important to dr aw this distinction, since care provided 
for less than 30 hours per week does not necessarily enable the parents to work full-time. Moreover, care provided only five hours per week should not be put on the 
same footing as care provided full-time (for instance, 40 hours per week). The 
figures in the tables and graphs below ar e therefore broken down by number of hours 
in order to have a detail ed view on the situation.  
 
EN 4   EN Table 1: Provision of childcare in European countries in 2006. 
Children cared for (by formal arrangements other than by the family) up to 30 hours / 
30 hours or more per usual week as a proporti on of all children in the same age group 
0-2 years  
(Up to 3 years) 3 years – mandatory 
school age 
Member 
State 
 1 – 29 
hours 
 30 hours 
or more  
Total  1 – 29 
hours 
 30 hours 
or more  
Total  Admission 
age to 
mandatory 
school 
(pre-primary 
included  
EU-25 14  12 26 44  40 84 - 
BE 17  23 40 36  62 98 6 
BG  : : :  :  : : 7 
CZ 1  1 2 28  39 67 6 
DK 7  66 73 16  80 96 7 
DE 11  7 18 66  27 93 6 
EE 6  12 18 7  78 85 7 
IE 13  5 18 80  13 93 6 
EL 2  8 10 41  20 61 6 
ES 20  19 39 47  44 91 6 
FR 14  17 31 52  42 94 6 
IT 10  16 26 24  66 90 6 
CY 7  18 25 50  37 87 6 
LV 2  14 16 4  56 60 5 
LT 0  4 4 9  47 56 7 
LU 14  17 31 42  16 58 4 
HU 2  6 8 21  58 79 6 
MT 5  3 8 32  25 57 5 
NL 41  4 45 82  7 89 5 
AT 3  1 4 55  16 71 6 
PL 0  2 2 7  21 28 6 
PT 1  32 33 9  66 75 6 
RO : : :  :  : : 7 
SI 3  26 29 15  66 81 6 
 
EN 5   EN SK 1  4 5 10  63 73 6 
FI 5  21 26 21  56 77 7 
SE 17  27 44 34  58 92 7 
UK 28  5 33 65  24 89 5 
 
Source: Eurostat – EU-SILC 2006 - Provisiona l data for BE, DE, EL, FR, IE, LT, LU, LV, MT, NL, PL, PT, SE, SK and UK  
Notes: Child age is calculated at the date  of the interview, except for IE and FI where age is calculated at 31 December 2005. Some 
countries, like BE, did not collect data for children 12 years old on the date of the interview; CY, LV, PT and SK: no informat ion collected 
for children born between 31 December 2005 and the date of the inte rview; salary replacement for parental leave in SK: 55%; FR:  care 
provided by 'assistantes maternelles'  directly paid by the parents, w ithout any organised structure between  them, is not included but will be 
in the future (reference year 2007) in order to give a better vi ew of the total number of children covered by formal childcare structures. 
Table 1 shows the proportion of all children in the two age groups defined in the Barcelona 
targets cared for under formal arrangements in 2006. These coverage rates are also broken 
down by the number of hours per week for which care is provided.  
For instance, on average 26% of the children un der 3 in the EU are cared for under formal 
arrangements (the target is 33%). In addition, 14% of the ch ildren under 3 use such formal 
arrangements for less than 30 hou rs a week. In the other age group (children aged between 3 
and the compulsory schooling age), 84% of the children in the EU are cared for under formal 
arrangements (the target is 90%). Some 44% of the children in this age group use such 
arrangements for less than 30 hours a week.  
These figures are provided for all the Member States (except BG and RO for which they will 
be available from the reference year 2007) and show the wide differences existing in the 
coverage rate across EU Member States , including in the number of hours children are 
cared for.  
 
EN 6   EN  
Graph 1 : Proportion of children up to 3 years cared for by formal arrangements, up to 30 
hours / 30 hours or more per usual week 
01020304050607080
DK NL SE BE ES PT UK FR LU SI FI IT EU-
25CY EE DE IE LV EL HU MT SK LT AT PL CZ%
30 hours and more less than 30 hours
 
Source: Eurostat, EU-SILC 2006, Provisional data 
Graph 2 : Proportion of children (3 years to mandatory schooling age) cared for by formal 
arrangements, up to 30 hours / 30 hours or more per usual week 
0102030405060708090100
BE DK FR DE IE SE ES IT UK NL CY EE EU-
25SI HU FI PT SK AT CZ EL LV LU MT LT PL%
30 hours and more less than 30 hours
 
Source: Eurostat, EU-SILC 2006, Provisional data 
Graph 1 shows the proportion of all children under 3 ca red for under formal 
arrangements in 2006 . The coverage rates are broken down by the number of hours during 
which care is provided (more or less than 30 hours per week). This graph shows the wide 
differences in the coverage rate across EU Me mber States. The distribution of children by 
number of hours also varies to a large extent across countries.  
Graph 2 provides the same data for the other ag e group defined in the Barcelona targets (from 
3 to mandatory schooling age).  
2. OTHER STATISTICAL INFORMATION ON EMPLOYMENT AND CHILD CARE SERVICES  
Graph 3 shows the impact of parenthood on the em ployment rate of women and men that is to 
say the difference (in percentage points) betw een the average employment rate of persons 
 
EN 7   EN aged 25 to 49 with at least one child under 12 minus the average employment rate of persons 
without any children under 12. The impact of parenthood on employment is negative for women, both as an EU average (-12.4 points) a nd in almost every country, whereas it is 
positive for men (+7.3 points on average). There are big differences between EU Member 
States and there is a link between the availab ility of childcare serv ices and the impact of 
parenthood on the employment rates.  
Graph 3 : Employment impact of parenthood for women and men (aged 25-49) in 2007 
difference in percentage points in employment rates with presence of a child under 12 and without the 
presence of any children 
-35-30-25-20-15-10-5051015
CZ HU SK IE MT EE UK DE A T LU EU
27LV FI BG ES PL FR IT EL NL RO LT BE CY PT SIpercentage pointsmen women
 
Source: Eurostat, EU-LFS 2007, Provisiona l data. SE, DK: no data available.  
The indicator is calculated as the average employment rate for persons with at least one child under 12 minus the average emplo yment rate of 
persons without any children under 12.  
 
EN 8   EN Graph 4 shows public spending on childcare and ear ly education services as a percentage of 
GDP in 2003. These are OECD estimates (S ource: Social Expenditure Database) and 
therefore do not cover all EU Member States . This graph shows the differences across EU 
Member States in the share of GDP allocated to childcare and early education services.  
Graph 4 : Public spending on childcare and early education services, 
per cent of GDP, 2003 (OECD)
0.00.20.40.60.81.01.21.41.61.82.0
IS DK FI SE FR NO LU HU PT BE AT UK SK IT CZ ES NL PL EL DE IE%
Childcare-care Pre-primary education
 
Source: OECD (2007), Social Expenditure database 1980-2003 
 
EN 9   EN Graph 5 shows the estimated net childcare costs for a dual-earner family, as a percentage of 
net family income, in 2004. Net childcare cost s are calculated as childcare fees (for two 
children aged 2 and 3) minus tax reductions, ch ildcare benefits/rebates  and other benefits. 
These data were calculated by the OECD and th erefore do not cover all EU Member States. 
This graph shows the differences across EU Member States in the net costs of childcare services for parents. 
 
Graph 5 : Net childcare costs for a dual-earner family (w ith full-time earnings of 167% of 
the average w age) in % of family net income, 2004 (OECD) 
05101520253035
BE PT PL EL LU SE HU FI CZ DK SK DE FR NL AT IE UK%
 
Source: OECD (2007), Babies and Bosses , calculations based on OECD (2007), Benefits and Wages . 
The average wage is understood as the earnings  of an average worker (see OECD (2007), Taxing wages, 2005-06)  
Net childcare costs are calculated as childcar e fees minus tax reductions, childcare bene fits/rebates and other benefits. For d etailed 
definitions, see OECD (2007), Babies and Bosses and OECD (2007), Benefits and Wages .  
 
EN 10   EN Table 2: Qualifications of certified ch ildcare workers and main place of work 
 Main type of staff Initial traini ng requirements Age Main place of work  Continuous traini ng Child/staff ratio 
 
Austria Erzieherinnen, 
Kindergartenpädagoginnen  Five-year vocational secondary 0-5 Krippen and Hort, Kindergarten Funding by provinces; 3-5 days 
per year 8.7 
Belgium  Kinderverzorgster/Puéricultri
ce Three-year post-16 vocational 
secondary 0-3  Kinderdagverblijf/ Crèches (or 
assistant in école maternelle )  7.0  
Czech 
Republic Detska sestra  Four-year secondary nursing school 0-3 Crèche Voluntary – offered by regional 
centres  
Denmark  Paedagog  Three- to five-year vocational, or 
tertiary education (depending on 
prior experience) 0-5 Educational, social care, 
special needs 
institutions (including day care) Funding decentralised to 
municipalities  3.3 (0-2 years), 
7.2 (3-5 years) 
Finland  Sosionomi (social 
pedagogues), 
Lähihoitaja (practical nurses) Three-year secondary vocational 0-6 Päiväkoti (children’s day care 
centre), 
Avoin päiväkoti Municipalities have to provide 3-
10 days of 
annual training 4.0 (0-3 years), 
7.0 (3+ years) 
France  Puéricultrices 
Éducateurs de jeunes 
enfants  Nurse/mid-wife + one-year 
specialisation 27-month post-Bac in 
training centre 0-3 
0-6 Crèches/ assistant in école 
maternelle  5.0 (0-2 years), 
8.0 (2-3 years) 
Germany  Kinderpflegerinnen  Two-year secondary vocational 
training 0-6 Kindergarten    
Hungary  Gondozó  (childcare worker) Three-year post-secondary 
vocational training or specialist 
certificate 0-3 Bölcsöde (for children < three)  6.0 
Ireland  Childcarer/child minder Wi de variation 0-6 Childcare centres  3.0 (> 1), 
6.0 (2-3 years) 
Italy  Educatrice  Secondary vocational diploma 0-3 Asili nido  Municipality or director/inspector 
decides 7  
Netherlands  Leidster kinder-centra  Two-year post-18 training 0-4 Kinderopvang  Funding decentralised to 
municipalities  4 (1 year), 
5 (2 years), 
6 (3 years)  
Portugal  Educadora de infância  Four-year university or polytechnic 0-6 Crèches, ATL Offered by regi onal teacher 
centres and universities to all 
teachers 11 
Sweden  Barnskötare  Two-year post-16 secondary 0-7 Oppen Förskola, Fritidshem  Funding decentralised to 
municipalities 5.5 
United 
Kingdom Trained nursery teacher, 
Nursery nurse Two-year post-16 secondary 3-
11, 
0-5 Nurseries (or pre-school 
assistant) Limited for day-care workers 3 (> 2 years), 
4 (2-3 years), 
8 (3-5 years) 
Source: OECD, Babies and Bosses - 2007 
 
EN 11   EN Table 3: Qualifications of pre- school teachers, main place of  work and child/teacher ratio 
 Main type of staff Initial tr aining requirements Age  Main pl ace of work Continuous training Child/teacher 
ratio (% male) 
Austria Erzieherinnen, 
Kindergartenpädagoginnen Five-year vocational secondary 0-5 Krippen and Hort, 
Kindergarten Provincial funding: 3-5 days per year 17.0 (0.8%)  
Belgium Kleuteronderwijzer(es)/ 
Institutrice de maternelle Three-year pedagogical – 
tertiary 2.5-6 Kleuterschool/École 
maternelle Funding decentralised to schools 16.1 (1.6%)  
Czech 
Republic Ucitel materske skoly  Four-year secondary 
pedagogical or three-year 
tertiary 3-6 Materská skola   13.4 (0.3%) 
Denmark  Paedagog  Three- to five-yea r vocational or 
tertiary education 
(depending on prior experience) 0-10 Educational, social care, 
special needs institutions 
(including day care) Funding decentralised to municipalities 6.6 (16% 
– 2001 data)  
Finland  Lastentarhanopettaja 
(kindergarten teachers) 3-4-5-year university or 3- to 5-
year polytechnic 0-7 6-vuotiaiden esiopetus 
(pre-school class 
as well as kindergarten) Funding decentralised to municipalities 12.5 (3.1%) 
France  Professeurs d’école  Four-year university education + 
vocational training 2-6 École maternelle  19.3 (19%) 
Germany  Erzieherinnen  Three-year secondary 
vocational training 
+ one year internship 0-6 Kindergarten   13.9 (1.7%) 
Greece      12.5 (0.6%) 
Hungary  Pedagogue  Three-year tertiary degree 0-7 Óvoda (kindergarten 
for children 3-7)  10.7 (0.2%) 
Ireland  Teacher  Three-year tertia ry degree 4-12 Schools  13.9 (7.7%) 
Italy  Insegnante di scuola 
materna  Four-year tertiary degree 3-6 Scuola materna  Municipality or director/inspector 
decides 12.4 (0.4%) 
Luxembourg      (1.7%) 
Netherlands  Leraar basisonderwijs  Three-year vocational higher 
education 4-12 Bassischool  Funding decentralised to municipalities   
Portugal  Educadora de infância  Four-year university or 
polytechnic 0-6 Jardim de infância  Offered by regional teacher centres 
and universities to all teachers 15.4 (1.8%) 
Spain      14.1 (8.7%) 
Sweden  Förskollärare, 
Fritidspedagog  Three-year university 0-7 Förskoleclass, Förskola  Funding decentralised to municipalities 11.2 
United 
Kingdom Public school teacher, 
Head Start teacher Four-year university, CDA = 
one-year voc. tertiary 3-5  Most authorities require a certain 
number of hours per year 14.5 (8.4%) 
Source: OECD, Babies and Bosses – 2007