WRITTEN QUESTION E-3102/02

by Roberta Angelilli (UEN) to the Commission

(29 October 2002)

Subject: Public day nurseries in Rome

The European Council's discussions in Seville on 21 June 2002 and the recommendation it adopted concerning the broad economic policy guidelines for the Member States and the Community showed that the employment market in Italy still exhibited many shortcomings from an EU perspective, above all with regard to the promotion of women's employment.

One of the factors working against women's employment is the lack of public childcare facilities, and in particular of local day nurseries.

In Rome, for example, the number of childcare facilities is not sufficient to meet demand, which means that few places are available for children and there are therefore long waiting lists. Until now, Rome City Council has failed to effectively address the seriousness of the situation in the city, and childcare facilities are still unavailable for around 5 000 children.

Could the Commission therefore state:

1. whether there are examples of good practice in this area;

2. whether there are any papers or studies concerning this area;

3. its general opinion on this situation.

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(27 November 2002)

1. For examples of best practice, the Commission would refer the Honourable Member to a report entitled Care in Europe which includes an analysis of the strategies of all Member States on childcare. The Commission is sending this report direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat.

Another report Gender equality in the European Union: Examples of good practices (1996-2000) can be found on the Commission's website: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/equ_opp/documents_en.html.

2. There are several studies and reports on the subject.

As far as the Union is concerned, the Joints Employment Reports (JERs) represent a good source of information as they have data directly from the National Action Plans (NAPs). The JERs include a summary of the Member States' commitments to provide childcare services.

One of the main problems is that national data is very difficult, if not impossible, to compare. For this reason, the Commission is currently working on feasibility of having comparable data at Union level. There is an interesting Eurostat study in this field: Feasibility study on the availability of comparable child care statistics in the European Union, which you can find in: http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/Public/datashop/print-catalogue/EN?catalogue=Eurostat&collection=12-Working%20papers%20and%20studies

Member States were asked to provide in their NAPs some agreed indicators on childcare facilities, which provided important information on the subject. The Commission is working on the improvement of these indicators and data

3. At the Barcelona European Council, 15 and 16 March 2002, Member States agreed national targets for childcare provision. Childcare should be provided to at least 90 % of children between three years old and the mandatory school age and at least 33 % of children under three years by 2010.

According to the information available from the 2001 and 2002 NAPs, there has been a certain positive evolution over the last two years in the provision of childcare facilities. According to the 2001 NAPs, in response to the 2001 guidelines, some countries set quantitative targets both in absolute and in percentage terms for increasing the provision of childcare facilities. The information provided in the 2002 NAPs shows that the childcare provision has continued to improve, though it is still far from the Barcelona targets.

As far as Italy is concerned, it is recognised that the lack of childcare and other dependents facilities hinders female labour supply. For this reason, the Council issued a specific recommendation asking Italy to set targets for the care supply. The Italian NAP for 2002 has quantified the employment target for women also recognising the importance of conciliation policies, but it did not yet present quantified targets.