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This briefing provides a pre-legislative synthesis of the positions of national, regional and local governmental organisations on the European Commission's forthcoming European care strategy and related proposals. It forms part of an EPRS series offering a summary of the pre-legislative state-of-play and advance consultation on a range of key Commission priorities during its 5-year term in office. It seeks to present the current state of affairs, examine how existing policy is working on the ground ...

Following research findings on the positive impact of early childhood education, EU education ministers set a participation target for 2030 at 96 % of all children three years and over. This will depend on having enough places that are accessible and affordable. At the same time, the quality of the provision is just as important to reap the potential benefits. This infographic looks at the current participation of young children in early childhood education and what Member States are doing to improve ...

European Union cooperation in the field of education and training has developed in a number of areas that now have well-established roots. The best-known example is possibly the Bologna Process that led to the establishment of the European higher education area. The Copenhagen Declaration lent impetus to a process of cooperation in vocational education and training. This was accompanied by two strategic framework agreements for European cooperation in education and training (ET2010 and ET2020). The ...

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services for children – from birth to compulsory primary school age – form an essential part of policies for work-life balance and for better social cohesion. A policy mix of flexible labour market arrangements, generous leave policies and quality ECEC services allows choices for parents, and at the same time supports the healthy development of their children. Member States are increasingly establishing well-functioning, efficient systems. Investing in early-years ...

This study examines policy developments throughout Europe on the issue of early childhood education and care (ECEC). Recent EU policy developments are developed to offer a structure and context for policy developments on the national level. Bundling together existing data from diverse sources and conducting additional in-depth country studies, this study proposes constitutive pillars for quality ECEC. In addition, based on an in-depth investigation of good-practices throughout the EU, this document ...

This report summarises the presentations and discussions at the Workshop on “Newborn Infants”, held at the European Parliament in Brussels, on Wednesday 24 April 2013. The aim of the workshop was to discuss the challenges related to neonatal mortality and morbidity as well as preterm births, which continue to pose serious concerns for public health and healthcare in Europe. Half a million babies are born prematurely in the EU every year and these infants are at higher risk of developing health problems ...

The main aim of this study is to provide an overview of childcare policies for children aged 0 to 6 years in the 25 member states and a deeper understanding of the crucial issues at stake in family policy and child care. First, the study provides a collection of systematically comparable data on childcare and family policies in the 25 EU member states. Second, it provides a deeper analysis of six national cases representative of different models of childcare and social policy in general. Finally, ...