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With the support of the Jean Monnet Programme of the European Union
INVITATION FOR ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE QUALITY OF CHILDHOOD IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
hosted by
MEP Rovana Plumb
MEP Adrian Severin,
MEP Corina Cretu,
MEP Evelyn Regner
MEP Karin Kadenbach
MEP Lívia Járóka
MEP Gerald Häfner
This session will be hosted and chaired by MEP Gerald Häfner
Working Group on the Quality of Childhood at the European Parliament
Twenty-fifth session: ‘The proposed research agenda for the European Commission re families and family policies' with Professor Dr. Uwe Uhlendorff of the Technical University Dortmund, Germany and leader of FAMILYPLATFORM.
Time: Wednesday November 17, 2009 from 13.00 until 15.00 hours (be present at 12.30 hours for those who need a badge).
Location: European Parliament, Rue Wiertzstraat 60, Brussels, Entrance Spinelli, Room A5E1.
This program was developed in cooperation with the Alliance for Childhood European Network Group, whose members are:
ARGE-Erziehungsberatung, Austria Dr. Martina LeiboviciExperiential Education Project, Belgium Professor Dr. Ferre Laevers
Flemish Institute for Family Sciences, Belgium Professor Dr. Hans van Crombrugge
Saharan & North African Toy and Play Cultures,
Belgium Dr. Jean-Pierre Rossie
The Kempler Institute, Denmark Claes Solborg Pedersen
Le Furet, France Marie-Nicole Rubio
Legambiente, Italy Vanessa Pallucchi
Ministry of Justice/Council for Child Protection (NL) Jeroen Petri
Janusz Korczak International Society Theo Cappon
Verein mit Kindern Wachsen, Germany Lienhard Valentin and Sabine Heggemann
University of Cordoba, Spain Prof. Rosario Ortega Ruiz Rosario Del Rey
Fundación Marcelino Botín, Spain Fátima Sánchez Santiago
International Association for Steiner / Waldorf
Early Childhood Education (Sweden) Clara Aerts
The Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey Nurdan Sahin and Suat Özçagdas
Mother Child Education Foundation, Turkey Batuhan Aydagül
European Council for Steiner
Waldorf Education, Brussels Christopher Clouder
Secretariat of the Group, Brussels Michiel Matthes
The European Commission decided to build up a European Research Agenda for Families and Family Policies
In 2008 the European Commission assessed that there are three broad communities that have to do with families and family policies:
· Stakeholder representatives such as family associations
· The research community
· Policy makers and social partners.
These three communities all do their best to improve the situation for families. To this end they work hard in their own field and from their own point of view, ….. but at the same time it was assessed, that they do not work together, or only to a certain extent, and use insufficiently the results of each others' work.
FAMILYPLATFORM won the tender and executes the Project
To address this situation the European Commission issued a tender for a Project in this area. The aim of the Project:
· to build a research agenda for EU and Member States with scientists and stakeholders, including policy makers.
· to draft a 'EU-Research Road Map' 2011-2013 with indicative distribution of Societal Challenges and Topics for the future Work Programme
It was the team of the Technical University Dortmund headed by Professor Dr. Uwe Uhlendorff, together with a consortium of eleven other institutes and organisations, that was selected. The consortium is called FAMILYPLATFORM. Its members are:
· Technical University of Dortmund, Germany
· State Institute for Family Research, University of Bamberg, Germany
· Family Research Centre, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
· Austrian Institute for Family Studies, University of Vienna, Austria
· Demographic Research Institute, Hungarian Central Statistical Office, Hungary
· Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal
· Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy
· Institute of International and Social Studies, Tallinn University, Finland
· Department of Media and Communication, London School of Economics, UK
· Confederation of Family Organisations in the EU, Brussels
· Forum delle Associazioni Familiari, Italy
· Mouvement Mondial des Mères, Europe.
FAMILYPLATFORM started to work in the autumn of 2009 and it is presenting its Final Report to the European Commission in March 2011.
There are four key stages to the project.
· The first is to chart and review the major trends of comparative family research in the EU.
· The second is to critically review existing research on the family.
· The third is to build on the understanding of existing issues affecting families and predict future conditions and challenges facing them.
· And the fourth is to bring the results and findings of the previous three stages together, and to propose key scientific research questions about families to be tackled with future EU research funding.
For the proposed Research Agenda the following societal challenges were identified:
1. How could policies support family transitions in the life course?
Transitions (to parenthood, children entering school, children
leaving home, caring for elderly…) have become
· More problematic
· More frequent
· More strongly connected to individual decisions
· Shaped by the demands and the problems of economic systems
The research issues in this context are:
o family planning, namely perspectives regarding transition into motherhood/fatherhood and their expectations
o greater understanding of family formation, transitions and trajectories, including the decision-making processes and reasons underlying or delaying family transitions (such as the transition to parenthood, to conjugal life or to divorce)
o process of transition to parenthood in conditions of poverty
2. Doing Families in a Complex Society
· How to support families to manage their all day life?
Challenges: parenting, education, gender concepts, variety of family forms …
Research Issues:
o interactions between people within the family regarding everyday life
o understand the daily and biographical shaping of common life as a family
3. Care Arrangements: How could social care be provided in future Europe?
· Quality and balance between public and private care arrangements.
· social innovative forms.
· recognition of unpaid care.
· quality of social services.
4. Social innovations regarding a better work-life balance
· Suggestions for policies to ease the “rush hours” in the lifecycle of families eg: 'Time Care Insurance' or a 'time credit' account of several years designed for individuals to take care of other people (young and old), to be invested over the course of family life.
5. Poverty and segregation
· How to tackle poverty and social inequality? How to enhance family friendly environments?
· deeper understanding of social inequalities between families.
· understand more about the role of families in reproducing social inequality across the generations.
· understanding of the linkages between policies and inequalities between and within families.
6. Intergenerational solidarity and communities: How to encourage social networks?
· Intergenerational solidarity and community support seem to be one of the backbones of support for families
· Importance of urban planning
· Local alliances for families (public–private-partnership)
· Housing, environment and community development: need for thorough and comprehensive urban planning that includes:
o Analysis of how close families live, work and go to school
o Housing and neighborhood planning
o Public spaces (i.e. playgrounds)
o Public and private transportation
o Neighborhood networks
o Proximity of care institutions, etc
7. Family Life Arrangements and well-being of children
Research Issues:
o Conflicts between the best interests of children and those of their parents.
o Mental disorders of children and youth.
o Growing mobility and immigration. How does it impact the children and adolescents’ wellbeing?
o The perspective of children on leave arrangements
o The involvement of grandparents in everyday childcare.
o Custody arrangements after divorce from the perspective of children.
o “What is child well-being ?”
We have asked Professor Dr. Uwe Uhlendorff to focus his presentation on the final outcome of the study, i.e. the proposed research agenda.
Working Group on the Quality of Childhood
Personally we have been involved for some time in the activities in this area and we are deeply concerned about the quality of childhood in the member states of the European Union. For this reason we work together in the Working Group on the Quality of Childhood at the European Parliament. Together with the Alliance for Childhood European Network Group we hold a number of sessions, the 25th of which will take place on 17 November 2010.
Objectives of these meetings:
· To gain a better understanding of the Quality of Childhood in the EU member states; this time we will focus on ‘The proposed research agenda for the European Commission re families and family policies'.
· To think about the role that the European Parliament could play to improve the situation.
· To get to grips with the principles and approaches that could lead to a betterment for children.
· To form an effective Working Group and to get a sense of how to move on.
We take pleasure in inviting you for the 25th session on 17 November 2010. We believe that we as members of the European Parliament working together with likeminded public interest advocacy groups and committed individuals can and should play an important role in this area.
Yours sincerely,
Rovana Plumb
Adrian Severin
Corina Cretu
Evelyn Regner
Lívia Járóka
Gerald Häfner
Members of the European Parliament
Program Outline for 17 November 2010
Time / Subject / Speaker / facilitator13.00 / Opening / MEP Mr Gerald Häfner
13.10 / Update from the side of the Alliance for Childhood / Christopher Clouder, Director of the European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education
13.15 / The proposed research agenda for the European Commission re families and family policies / Professor Dr. Uwe Uhlendorff of the Technical University Dortmund
14.00 -15.00 / Discussion / MEP Mr Gerald Häfner
Secretariat for this session:
Michiel Matthes
Tel: +32.2.7622557
E-mail:
This program is organised with the support of the following organisations:
The sessions held by the Working Group on the Quality of Childhood at the European Parliament in the period 2006-2010:
5 December 2006 / 1. ‘The Toxic Childhood Syndrome and the Quality of Childhood’ with Christopher Clouder (UK) and Professor Hans van Crombrugge (Belgium). Host: MEP Karin Resetarits.9 January 2007 / 2. ‘Really Improving the Education in the European Union requires Systemic Changes’ with professor Luc Stevens (Netherlands) and Professor Ferre Laevers (Belgium). Host: MEP Karin Resetarits.
6 March 2007 / 3. ‘The Quality of Child-Adult Relationships in Families and School’ with Jesper Juul (Denmark). Host: MEP Karin Resetarits.
15 May 2007 / 4. ‘The Child: his/her Networks and Neighbourhood’ with René Diekstra. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits.
September 20
2007 / 5. ‘How can we improve in the European Union the Early Childhood Educational Systems’ with John Bennett, the author of the OECD Study Starting Strong. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits.
November 6
2007 / 6. ‘How to let children and adolescents acquire key competences for the world of the 21st century? with Dr. Martina Leibovici-Mühlberger from Austria and Geseke Lundgren from Sweden. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits
January 8,
2008 / 7. ‘Attachment, what it is, why it is important and what we can do about it to help young children acquire a secure attachment? with Sir Richard Bowlby. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits.
March 4, 2008 / 8. ‘A vision on children and childhood in the European Union’ by Michiel Matthes. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits.
May 14, 2008 / 9. Professor René Diekstra about ‘The Changing Face of Adolescence. Accounting for changes in adolescent development and their effects on education and social policies’. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits.
July 1, 2008 / 10. Professor Steen Hildebrandt (University of Aarhus, Denmark) about the ‘Multiple intelligences in the knowledge-based society’. Host: MEP Rovana Plumb.
September 16, 2008 / 11. Presentation of the report of the Fundación Marcelino Botín entitled ‘Social and Emotional Education, An International Analysis’ by Mr Christopher Clouder and Fátima Sánchez Santiago. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits.
November 12, 2008 / 12. Professor Boris Cyrulnik from France: what measures can we take to improve the quality of childhood in the European Union? Host: MEP Rovana Plumb.
November 17, 2008 / 13. Organisation of a Symposium in Bucharest, Romania at the request of MEP Mrs Rovana Plumb: ‘A European Policy Agenda for the Quality of Childhood with special emphasis on the case of the children of Romanian migrant workers’.
January 27, 2009 / 14. Professor Michel Vandenbroeck (University of Ghent, Belgium) about Diversity and Equity in Early Childhood Services. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits.
March 3, 2009 / 15. ‘Taking stock of what has been achieved with the Working Group since December 2006 and looking forward’ with Michiel Matthes, Secretary-General of the Alliance for Childhood European Network. Host: MEP Karin Resetarits.
April 28, 2009 / 16. Professor Peter Moss (University of London) about young children and their services: developing a European approach. Host: MEP Rovana Plumb.
September 8, 2009 / 17. Continuing to work on improving the Quality of Childhood in the European Union during the present economic downturn with Professor Emeritus Richard Wilkinson, co-author of the book ‘The Spirit Level, Why More Equal Societies Almost Always do Better’. Host: MEP Rovana Plumb.
November 17, 2009 / 18. The Technical University of Dortmund won the tender issued by the European Commission to execute a Research Project to identify the key research questions regarding families and family policies. The leader of this project, Professor Dr. Uwe Uhlendorff gave a briefing on this Project and spoke about ‘Developing a European Research Agenda for Families and Family Policies’. Host: MEP Lívia Járóka.
December 8, 2009 / 19. Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain, and the policy requirements in this respect with Sue Gerhardt, author of the book with the similar title. Host: MEP Evelyn Regner.
January 12, 2010 / 20. The PISA Study and lessons learned regarding the Quality of Childhood with Andreas Schleicher, Head of the Indicators and Analysis Division of the OECD Directorate for Education. Host: MEP Evelyn Regner.
March 2, 2010 / 21. ‘Improving the Quality of Childhood in the European Union: the Case of Roma Children' with Ivan Ivanov, Executive Director of the European Roma Information Office (ERIO) and Bernard Rorke, Director of the Roma Initiative Programs of the Open Society Institute (OSI). Host: MEP Gerald Häfner.
April 13, 2010 / 22. Improving the Quality of Childhood in the European Union: the Aspect of Parental Leave Policies by Professor Peter Moss of the Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London. Host: MEP Gerald Häfner.