The Barcelona objectives, adopted by the European Council in 2002, are still of crucial importance in 2018. Employment targets have not yet been achieved for women and considerable gaps in employment rates remain between women and men. Ample evidence shows that this is mainly due to care responsibilities. The Barcelona objectives remain highly relevant to promote gender equality and form an important part of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, inclusive and sustainable growth with a
50 Eurofound (2015), Early Childhood Care: Accessibility and Quality of Services, available at:
https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/report/2015/social-policies/early-childhood-care-accessibility-and-quality-of-services.
51 A proposal for a Council Recommendation on High Quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Systems and the accompanying staff working document.
23 view to enhancing female labour participation. Childcare is a crucial element for work-life balance of working parents under the European Pillar of Social Rights. Indicators on childcare rates are monitored in the European Semester and included in the social scoreboard. Where relevant, funding from the European Structural and Investment Funds is geared to address shortcomings in the Member States.
The Barcelona target has been generally reached for children under the age of 3 for the EU-28, as 32.9 % of the children under the age of 3 participate in childcare. However, this overall average hides important differences between Member States. While considerable progress has been made in countries like Malta, Romania, Estonia, Italy, Germany and Ireland, the rate of childcare in some of the forerunners influences very much the overall result for the EU. Indeed, 4 Member States exceed 50 %: Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Luxembourg. On the other end of the scale are the worrying rates of less than 10 % in Greece, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The Barcelona target has not yet been reached for children from 3 to mandatory school-going age.
However, the rate is progressing: it has increased from 83 % in 2011 to 86.3 % for the EU on average.
A series of Member States are forerunners and reach a target of more than 95 %, namely Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Spain. Considerable progress was made in Romania, Poland, Malta, Luxembourg, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Latvia and Lithuania. The lowest rates, i.e. less than 65 %, are found in Poland, Romania, Greece and Croatia which still considerably lag behind.
Several factors influence the availability and use of childcare. A first important element is a legal entitlement to childcare, which exists in most Member States, but the age from which this entitlement exists varies very much (starting from the end of maternity leave of the mother, to only at the age of 2.5 or 3, or even before reaching the mandatory school-going age). The existence of a legal entitlement however is not necessarily a full guarantee that Member States provide formal care services.
Besides a legal entitlement, the availability, affordability and high quality of childcare services influence very much the uptake of childcare services by parents. Costs vary widely among Member States and may be prohibitive in some Member States, such as Ireland. Prohibitive costs do not only affect female labour market participation, but also disproportionally affect children from low income families. Also the adaptability of the services to the needs of parents, including distance to the childcare facilities and opening hours adapted to working patterns and needs, play an important role.
High quality care must furthermore include pedagogical goals and values and the professionalism and continous development of the childcare staff. Monitoring and assessment of these elements are crucial; these elements are addressed in the Commission's proposal for a Council Recommendation on High Quality Early Childhood Education and Care Systems. .
The Commission will continue its monitoring of the situation with regard to childcare in the European Semester, particularly for those Member States lagging behind. It will continue to identify the specific problems with regard to availability, affordability and high quality care in each of the Member States.
It will further continue to promote the use of European funding to assist Member States to tackle some of the challenges.
In addition, now that the first of the Barcelona targets has been generally reached and good progress is being made on the second target and that the Education Target 2020 has generally been reached, time may have come to consider a review of these targets following consultation with Member States. Such a review, if undertaken, would contribute to the European Union's efforts to foster smart, inclusive and sustainable growth; in particular it would contribute to reaching the Europe 2020 target of a 75% employment rate and the creation of competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy based on a
24 high level of national education and training. This requires addressing the employment impact of parenthood on women, the need for work-life balance for working parents, strengthening the existing childcare facilities and increasing the availability of affordable and high quality services overall.
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