PES Employment Ministers and opposition spokespersons agreed a declaration on Childcare

15 March 2007

To mark the 5th anniversary of the EU’s childcare targets – agreed at the Barcelona Summit on March 15-16 2002 -  PES Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Ministers and opposition spokespersons agreed a declaration encouraging all governments to work towards meeting the targets (childcare by 2010 for at least 90 per cent of children between 3 years old and the mandatory school age and at least 33% of children under 3 years of age).

Those agreeing the declaration included Ministers José Vieira da Silva (Portugal), Emilia Maslarova (Bulgaria), Tuula Haatainen (Finland), State Secretary Gabor Csizmar (Hungary), and opposition spokespersons Grazyna Ciemniak (Poland), Adriana Ticau (Romania) and Hristos Haidos (Greece).

The declaration states
“We reiterate our commitment to working towards those targets – for the benefit of our children, for removing the disincentive to female labour force participation, for community integration, for giving a helping hand to the family. 

We believe there is a need to inject a sense of urgency into Europe’s efforts to achieve the Barcelona childcare targets.

We regret that the European Union as a whole is a long way from meeting those targets.

We congratulate those Governments that have achieved the Barcelona targets, we applaud those Governments that have made serious efforts to increase childcare provision and we give every encouragement to other Governments to take the necessary steps. 

Europe’s aim should be to go beyond the Barcelona targets. We believe that childcare should be universal service - available to all who want it.

(...) We urge the European Commission to monitor the implementation of the Barcelona childcare targets, to report regularly on progress, to encourage the sharing of best practices in the financing and organisation of childcare, and come forward with proposals for achieving the targets.”

PES member parties unanimously adopted 10 principles for a New Social Europe at their Congress in Porto last December, with universal childcare as one of the principles. The provision of universal high quality educational childcare for babies and children is also a key demand of the recently published “The Social Europe” Report by Jacques Delors and Poul Nyrup Rasmussen.


Read the complete declaration   


FOR MORE INFORMATION: Julian Scola, Press Officer
Party of European Socialists, Rue du Trône, 98, B-1050 Brussels
Mobile +32 486 117 394,