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European Union
THE EU SYSTEM IN BRIEF
The European Union (EU) is a political and economic community composed of 27 member States gathering almost 500 million citizens. It was established in 1993 by the Treaty of Maastricht, adding new areas of policy to the former European Community. The EU has developed a single market through a standardized system of laws which apply in all member States, guaranteeing the freedom of movement of people, goods, services and capital. It maintains sustainable policies related to diverse issues such as common trade, agricultural and fishing activities, and regional development. Sixteen member States have adopted a common currency, the Euro. In foreign policy affairs the EU has been mainly in charge of representing its members in different intergovernmental bodies.
EU organisation is a hybrid of intergovernmentalism and supranationalism. In some areas it must stay in line with the agreements signed by the member States. However it also has supranational bodies that are entitled to take decisions without the agreement of members. The most important institutions and bodies of the EU are the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, the European Council, the European Court of Justice and the European Central Bank. The Parliament is actually the only democratic EU body with members directly elected by European citizens every five years.
The Treaty of Lisbon that was signed in December 2007 and entered into force on 1 December 2009 aimed at amending the existing treaties, in order to update the political and legal structure of the Union.
It has been based on 4 main principles:
- A Europe of rights and values: gives a binding legal force to the European Charter of fundamental rights signed in 2000
- Europe as an actor on the global stage: provides EU with a single representative for external relations through the creation of the new High Representative for the Union in Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
- A more democratic and transparent Europe: with a strengthened role for the European Parliament; creation of the right to Citizen's Initiative enabling citizens to call on the Commission to bring forward new policy proposals
- A more efficient Europe: with simplified working methods and voting rules and the creation of the function of President of the European Council elected for two and a half years.
EU AND THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
GENERAL PRESENTATION
Child rights form part of the Human Rights system that the EU and the Member States are bound to respect under international and European instruments and commitments. The EU explicitly recognised child rights in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, specifically in Article 24 that states that:
" 1. Children shall have the right to such protection and care as is necessary for their well-being. They may express their views freeely. Such views shall be taken into consideration on matters that concern them in accordance with their age and maturity.
2. In all actions relating to children, whether taken by public authorities or private institutions, the child's best interests must be a primary consideration.
3. Every child shall have the right to maintain on a regular basis a personal relationship or regular contact with both his or her parents, unless that is contrary to his or her interests."
Child rights are fully part of the Human Rights which all candidate countries have to respect and consider as an unquestionable element of the European common set of values referred to in Article 6 of the EU Treaty of Lisbon. It is indeed written therein that: "The EU recognises the rights, freedoms and principles set out in the Charter ofFundamental Rights of the European Union [...]l have the same legal value as the Treaties".
Throughout the accession process the European Commission has closely monitored the progress made by all the candidate countries in that respect and published the results of it in its opinions and annual reports. Monitoring continues also with regard to the potential candidate countries in South-East Europe.
The Commission identified child rights as one of its main priorities in its Communication on Strategic Objectives 2005-2009. That priority was reflected by the issuing on 4 July 2006, of a Commission Communication entitled "Towards an EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child". The Communication marks the Commission's launch of a long-term strategy aiming first at ensuring that EU action actively promotes and safeguards child rights, and secondly at supporting the efforts of EU Member States in that field.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EU STRATEGY ON CHILD RIGHTS
One of the six objectives of the Communication was the creation of structures and processes of formal EC/EU consultation on policies and actions with regard to child rights. One of the main actions within this objective was the creation of an EU Forum on the Rights of the Child, bringing together actors involved in children's rights in the EU and globally.
Several other initiatives have been set up since then to implement effectively the new EU strategy for children. Child rights have thus been put at the core of or incorporated into several official texts such as:
- the 2008 Directive on asylum seekers
- the 2008 Directive on third country nationals or stateless persons
- the updated Guidelines on children in armed conflicts (2008)
- the 2009 Directive on international protection
- " A special place for children", a Commission Communication
- Decisions on sexual exploitation, trafficking or disabled persons.
In addition the Commission has already planned a new strategy for 2010-2014. This is currently being developed through a wide public consultation organised from June 11 to August 20, 2010. The collected replies will help EU creating a strategy that will further promote the rights of the child. The consultation focuses on the areas of Freedom, Security and Justice, as did the "Stockholm Program", a European Forum on child rights that took the form of meetings with experts and consultations with children in 2009. It will address issues such as child-friendly justice, violence against children, poverty among children and child participation. The EU Commission will then issue a summary report of the contributions to the consultation. It will be used for the elaboration of a new communication on child rights designed for 2011-2014.
In parallel to that public consultation, the Commission is also to carry out a study that will be published in October 2010 and which main aim is to gather information from children themselves (through reflection groups especially).
OTHER TOOLS AND FIELDS OF ACTION
The EU asylum policy contains specific provisions protecting the rights of children, and unaccompanied minors in particular. The framework programme on solidarity and management of migration flows (2007-2013) in the area of Justice, Freedom and Security, also addresses in most of its instruments (the European Refugee Fund, the European Fund for Integration of Third-country Nationals and the Return Fund) the vulnerable situation of unaccompanied minors, directly or indirectly,.
The Commission is tackling the potential hazardous effects of new technologies on children. In this connection, it has set up a EUR 45 million programme (Safer Internet Plus 2005-2008) that placed the protection of children from web-based sexual exploitation as one of its main objectives. It was followed by the "New Safer Internet Programme" set up for 2009-2013 with a 55 million euro budget.
Concerning violence against children, the EU has set up the DAPHNE programmes since 2000 which mainly aim at supporting the projects of organisations that work on the topic at a local, national and regional scale. DAPHNE I was launched in 2001 and was replaced by DAPHNE II in 2003. DAPHNE III was then created for 2007-2013 with an overall budget of 1114.4 million euros.
The European Financial Coalition against distribution of child abuse images on the Internet officially started its works in July 2009. The coalition is a public-private informal group including police authorities, financial operators, internet service providers, NGOs and other partners in the fight against child pornography. The European Commission decided in March 2009 to provide financial support of up to 427.000 EUR of funding for the activities of the Coalition.
