European Union
International Network
European Union
Presentation
The European Union (with almost 500 million citizens), is a political and economic community of twenty-seven member States. It was established in 1993 by the Treaty of Maastricht, adding new areas of policy to the existing 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 a common trade policy, agricultural and fisheries policies, and a regional development policy. Fifteen member States have adopted a common currency, the Euro. It has developed a role in foreign policy, representing its members in different intergovernmental bodies as well as in justice and home affairs, including the abolition of passport control between many member states under the Schengen Agreement.
EU operation is a hybrid of intergovernmentalism and supranationalism. In certain areas it depends upon agreement between the member States. However, it also has supranational bodies, able to make decisions without the agreement of members. Important institutions and bodies of the EU include 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. EU citizens elect the European Parliament every five years.
The Treaty of Lisbon signed in December 2007 is intended to amend the existing treaties to update the political and legal structure of the Union.
EU and the Rights of the Child
Children's 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, in particular the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its two Optional Protocols, the Millennium Development Goals and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The EU explicitly recognized children's rights in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, specifically in Article 24. The Commission identified children's rights as one of its main priorities in its Communication on Strategic Objectives 2005- 2009.
This 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 to ensure that EU action actively promotes and safeguards children's rights and to support the efforts of EU Member States in this field. 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 children's rights. Among the main actions within this objective was to create an EU Forum on the Rights of the Child, bringing together actors involved in children's rights in the EU and globally. The first meeting of the Forum was held in Berlin on 4 June 2007 and the second one in Brussels in March 2008.
The December 2005 Commission Communication on the new framework of work in the areas of social inclusion and social protection policies within the EU mentions child poverty amongst the most important policy priorities on which Member States should focus their efforts.
In Spring 2006, the European Council asked Member States to take the necessary measures to rapidly and significantly reduce child poverty, giving all children equal opportunities. One year later, European Council reiterated this message and a number of activities are currently being developed in respect of preventing poverty and social exclusion of children within the EU.
The EU asylum policy contains specific provisions protecting the rights of children, and in particular unaccompanied minors. Also, the framework programme dealing with solidarity and management of migration flows (2007-2013) in the area of Justice, Freedom and Security, addresses in most of its instruments (the European Refugee Fund, the European Fund for Integration of Third-country Nationals and the Return Fund) directly or indirectly, the vulnerable situation of unaccompanied minors.
The Commission is tackling the potential hazards to children posed by new technologies. In this connection, it has set up a EUR 45 million programme (Safer Internet Plus 2005-2008), with the protection of children from web-based sexual exploitation as one of its objectives. On 22 May 2007 the Commission issued a communication "Towards a general policy on the fight against cyber crime" which includes provisions to protect children from hazards on the Internet and in electronic media in general. The Commission decision of 15 February 2007 concerning harmonised telephone numbers for services of social value created a special European telephone number for reporting missing children.
Progress has also been made in terms of young people's active participation in society. As a follow-up to the White Paper "A new impetus for European youth" (2001), in July 2006 the Commission adopted a communication on promoting young people's active European Citizenship. The communication puts in place a genuine dialogue between policy makers and young people structured from the local to the European level through regular meetings and events. A concrete example of this dialogue with young people is the European Youth Week, organised for the third time in June 2007.
Children's rights form part of the human rights issues which have to be respected by candidate countries as an integral element of the common European values referred to in Article 6 of the EU Treaty. The European Commission has throughout the accession process closely monitored the progress of all the candidate countries in that respect and published the results in its opinions and annual reports. Monitoring continues also with regard to the potential candidate countries in South-East Europe.
Under the auspices of the German Presidency (2007), the Council Working Party on Human Rights (COHOM) initiated work on a set of new EU Human Rights Guidelines on Children's Rights. It was felt that specific guidelines would intensify the political action of the EU in the promotion of children's rights.
The EU has intensified action to implement the 2003 EU Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC). The Guidelines commit the EU to addressing the short, medium and long-term impact of armed conflict on children, including through monitoring and reporting by EU Heads of Mission, EU Military Commanders and Special Representatives, demarches, political dialogue, multilateral cooperation and crisis management operations.
The EU has intensified action to implement the 2003 EU Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC). The Guidelines commit the EU to addressing the short, medium and long-term impact of armed conflict on children, including through monitoring and reporting by EU Heads of Mission, EU Military Commanders and Special Representatives, demarches, political dialogue, multilateral cooperation and crisis management operations.
