L'Europe de l'Enfance

History and context
During the year 2000 the Member States of the European Union (EU) realised the need to promote comparison of the condition of children and adolescents and of the pertinent policies followed in the Member States.

These subjects do not fall under the EU competence, so the EU Member States felt the need to create a place for exchange and comparison and decided to create:

1.a European Childhood Day (to be celebrated around the 20 th November)
2.a Permanent Childhood and Adolescence Intergovernmental Group named L'Europe de l'Enfance.

Reasons leading up to the creation of the L'Europe de l'Enfance :

• to better understand the living conditions of children in Europe, the policies and the best practices followed
• to develop comparative studies
• to develop common investigating and operational methods of approach in order to fight a
  growing number of transnational phenomena with a negative impact on children

(unaccompanied foreign migrant children, paedophilia, sex tourism, illegal and dangerous information on the Internet …)

Aim : L'Europe de l'Enfance works for the introduction of mainstreaming of children's policies and the rights of the child in all EU policies .

Membership : the Ministers of the EU countries and/or high-level government officials with responsibility for childhood policies.

Meetings : L'Europe de l'Enfance meets once every semester on the invitation of the country holding the EU Presidency on an informal basis ( outside the formal EU framework )

L'Europe de l'Enfance Declarations

The European Network of National Observatories on Childhood

Reasons leading to the creation:
L'Europe de l'Enfance needs a technical – scientific instrument to develop studies, exchange and comparison on childhood and adolescence.

Historical development
In 2001, during the Swedish Presidency of the EU, the Belgian Observatory is assigned the feasibility study on a European Network of Centres and Observatories on Childhood
The Belgian Observatory works in collaboration with the Italian National Centre.

The project is discussed in:

• Brussels , 5 October 2001 at the L'Europe de l'Enfance meeting (Belgian Presidency)
• Brussels , 26-27 October 2001 at the technical seminar on aims, objectives, membership of the European Network
• February 2002 at the Troïka meeting (Belgium, Spain, Denmark)
• Madrid , 11 April 2002 at the L'Europe de l'Enfance meeting (Spanish Presidency)
• Madrid , 26 June 2002 at a preliminary meeting of the European Network

Decisions on:

• membership requirements
• relation with the Intergovernmental group
• setting up of a Secretariat in charge of the technical promotion of decisions made by the European Network of Observatories. The Italian National Childhood and Adolescence Documentation and Analysis Centre is assigned the functions of the Network's Secretariat.

• Florence , 27 September 2002 at a preliminary meeting of the European Network

Decisions on:

• powers and procedures
• setting up of a working group on financing issues (meeting in Brussels, 11 December 2002: decision to employ a person for fundraising at the EU and other international organizations)

The Network is officially launched in Florence, 24 January 2003 first official Assembly of the Network Members

Decisions:

• Name : European Network of National Observatories on Childhood
• Acronym : ChildONEurope
• Logo :
• Approval of Agenda of the activities and costs of the Secretariat for the year 2003
• Setting up of a working group on indicators and data to be inserted in the web page devoted to the Network in the Members web sites.
• Decision on the relation with other intergovernmental and non governmental organisations

Aims

• exchange of knowledge and information on laws, policies, programmes, statistics, studies, research, best practices regarding childhood and adolescence;
• exchange of knowledge on methodology and indicators in order to obtain comparability of information;
• comparative analysis on specific subjects