Debate: Children's Rights
Date: WEDNESDAY, 10 MARCH 2021
Speaker: Dubravka Šuica
Language: EN

I have already engaged the honourable Members on this, and I thank you for all your contributions. Together with national authorities, we work to counter the negative consequences of the pandemic on children. This year my hope is that children everywhere will be able to return to school safely. Hopes require actions, therefore, on 24 March, the Commission will adopt its first–ever comprehensive European Union strategy on the rights of the child. We want to achieve a child rights-based culture in our policy making. To answer your first question: Member States are key partners. The strategy will contain concrete recommendations for action at Member State level. Member States’ representatives have been extensively consulted in our expert group. We are working with the current and future presidencies to facilitate Member States’ endorsement of the strategy. We will also launch an European Union network for children’s rights to facilitate mutual learning between Member States, and to track the progress of action at national and European Union level. In response to your second question on vulnerable children and non–discrimination, I must emphasise that children’s rights are universal. Every child, regardless of background, gender, social, economic and residence status, should enjoy the same rights, the same life, free of discrimination. This will be the guiding principle of the strategy; targeted actions are envisaged under the thematic sections to address specific needs. Regarding your question on the meaningful participation of children, I want to be very clear: not only is this a strategy for children, it is also a strategy developed with children. Children are engaged citizens. More than 10 000 children were consulted in the preparation of the strategy and the Child Guarantee. This is unprecedented. We will also include children and young people in the deliberations of the Conference on the Future of Europe. To answer your fourth question, the overall objective of the strategy will be to achieve the mainstreaming of child rights in all European Union policies. For example, the digital decade communication includes child-specific principles. We are working on implementing the Commission’s strategy to fight online child sexual abuse, the protection of children in our migration policy, and supporting child victims and children with cancer under the Europe’s Beating Cancer plan, illustrate the necessity of this mainstreaming approach. The strategy will be adopted together with the proposal for a Council recommendation on the European Union Child Guarantee, which will tackle social exclusion, poverty and inequalities. You have asked about the funding. I’m particularly pleased with the agreement reached on the European Social Fund Plus. At least five per cent of allocated money is earmarked for tackling child poverty under the Child Guarantee. Increased investment in children means that Member States must be encouraged to allocate European Union funding for the implementation of the objectives and measures of the strategy. To answer, your fifth question, the strategy will be fully anchored in the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights, in the European Union Convention on the Rights of the Child and it will also contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. The global dimension of child rights and protection will be addressed in a dedicated section. And your last question touches on the pandemic. Every single thematic area of the strategy has been affected by the consequences of this pandemic, so we will leave no stone unturned in our bid to understand the full effects on children’s health, development and well–being. Thank you for listening, and I’m also ready to listen to your views now.