The European Platform for Investing in Children (EPIC) provides a short overview of the 2019 country-specific recommendations in the field of child and family policy.

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Recommendations focus on childcare, social assistance, reducing inequality and education

The country-specific recommendations (CSRs), released annually by the European Commission, set policy objectives for each Member State for the next year.

The recommendations follow priorities identified at the EU-level by the Annual Growth Survey, which are adapted for the national level and focus on tangible actions for Member States over the next 12 to 18 months. The CSRs cover a wide range of policy topics, including child and family policies.

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is currently a high priority topic on the EU agenda, following the adoption of the Council Recommendation on High Quality ECEC Systems in May 2019. Several Member States received recommendations on ECEC. Member States were advised to make childcare more affordable (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ireland, Slovakia), of a higher quality (Austria, Ireland, Slovakia), and more generally accessible (Czech Republic, Poland).

In addition, the European Commission recommended that four countries improve access to high quality and affordable early childhood education and care in order to support women’s participation in the national labour market (Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland).

Recognising inequality across the EU, the CSRs also include several suggestions for improving access to education, training and employment for disadvantaged groups, including migrants and people with disabilities (Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia).

In addition, four countries received recommendations to increase efforts to improve the integration and inclusion of Roma people (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia).

The European Commission also issued recommendations regarding social assistance to eleven countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, Finland, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Portugal, Romania). Suggestions included improving access to and quality of various employment and social services and extending or refining income support and taxation systems.

Recommendations regarding education also included suggestions about how countries might improve educational outcomes, the quality of education and training services, and the inclusiveness of provision (Cyprus, Estonia, Spain, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia).

A complete list of the 2019 CSRs can be found on the European Commission website.

EPIC disseminates policies and practices in the field of child and family policy

The European Platform for Investing in Children (EPIC) collects and disseminates innovative and evidence-based practices that have a positive impact on children and families in EU Member States to enable cross-regional learning.

A series of EPIC policy memos and policy briefs provide short, accessible introductions for policymakers and practitioners about key topics in children’s wellbeing.