European Parliament Employment Committee calls for "a special policy for street children" in its draft Social Inclusion report

On 9th of September, the European Parliament Employment Committee voted on the Draft Report on "Promoting social inclusion and combating poverty, including child poverty, in the EU", taking into account the FEMM Committee's Opinion adopted on this topic on 26.06.08.

EFSC had been previously involved, in close co-operation with MEP Christa Prets, in the elaboration of street children-related amendments to the FEMM Opinion, with the aim of prioritising the issue of street children in EU social inclusion policies.

These amendments have now been largely incorporated in the draft report, which calls for a holistic and rights-based approach to combat child poverty, and in the field of child poverty it deals extensively with the issue of income support, access to housing, healthcare, education and social services, as well as on child participation.

The report calls in particular for a "special policy for street children, particularly as regards their specific needs in the field of education and the development of social skills" (par. 20.d). It highlights the importance of reuniting street children with their families, taking carefully into consideration the best interests of the child (par.20.h); it calls for a EU-wide effort to combat child trafficking and prostitution aiming at breaking the vicious circle of poverty, vulnerability, and social exclusion (20.i). The report also asks for an extensive data collection effort at EU level, aiming in particular at covering the data gap of those most vulnerable groups of children for which data are virtually non-existent (par. 24).

The Employment Committee of the European Parliament furthermore calls on the Council to agree on the EU-wide commitment set out in the EP report "Towards an EU strategy on the rights of the child", to ensure that there are no street children in the EU by 2015 (par. 20.h).

The draft report is a significant step forward in the protection of the rights of street children; it will be presented and voted in plenary on the 9th of October 2008. If adopted and effectively implemented, it could both bring about concrete measures for the improvement of the situation of street children and set a clearer accountability structure in the protection of the most vulnerable children in our society.

The sustainable implementation of the report for the actual improvement of the living conditions of street children requires that the existing cooperation between the European Parliament and EFSC is continued and further deepened, by further involving other NGOs active in the field. It is EFSC's commitment to make sure that the priorities of locally-active NGOs working in the field for the protection of street children are constantly represented at European level, and that the commitments undertaken at EU level are reflected at national level.

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