Europe
COFACE Families Europe’s mission is to contribute to better policy-making at EU level to make a positive change in the lives of millions of families living in Europe today. To this end, our advocacy is organised in three areas of action:
Mainstreaming: Providing a voice for families in the EU political arena to mainstream the family perspective as far as possible. EU politics cannot disregard this fundamental part of the nature of being human. We are especially active in shaping and implementing key frameworks like the European Pillar of Social Rights, the EU Semester, the EU Disability Strategy, and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
Linking up: We strive to strengthen EU social and employment policies, ensuring links between local grassroots organisations, national family policies, and EU realities. We also facilitate links across EU countries, driving innovation through transnational exchanges between civil society organisations representing families of all types. We do this thanks to the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI).
Monitoring: We monitor the positive and negative impacts of EU policies and legislation beyond the social/family policy fields such as health, digital policy, consumer policy, economic and finance.
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We build our EU advocacy, voice our concerns, bring our expert opinions, on the basis of formal positions developed by COFACE members and adopted in our Administrative Council. These positions include reflections and recommendations on the role of Europe in social and family policy:
–Building Inclusive Societies – First steps to bridging the gaps between family, education and migration policies (2019)
–An EU Deal for childcare (2018)
–Long-term care: the family dimension (2018)
–Digitalisation Principles (2018)
–Families on the Edge (2017)
–The European Charter of Family Carers (refreshed in 2017)
In some cases we build campaigns around these positions, in other cases we host Brussels-based events and round tables to launch a reflection with key EU policy-makers and decision-makers.
We bring these recommendations to the attention of EU institutions (Commission, Parliament, Council), EU advisory bodies (European Economic and Social Committee, Committee of the Regions), EU agencies, NGO alliances (European Expert Group on the transition from institutional to community-based care, European Disability Forum, Social Platform, Alliance for investing in children, Right to Energy Coalition, Violence Against Women Coalition).
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Interested in finding out more about the impact of Europe in your daily life or how we are building a favourable European ecosystem for families, all types without discrimination? We invite you to sign up for our newsletter or contact us for a short Experience Europe training secretariat@coface-eu.org
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COFACE Families Europe is supported by the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) This website is produced with the support of the European Commission but does not necessarily express its views - Copyright © 2016 COFACE Families Europe aisbl - All Rights Reserved