Child care services in most European Union (EU) countries are failing to respond to the needs of parents, according to a report released by the European Commission on Friday.
The report finds that most EU countries have missed the targets for child care provision that EU leaders set in 2002 as part of their ambitious Barcelona strategy of growth and jobs.
The Barcelona strategy wanted child care for 90 percent of children between three years and school age and a third of children under three so that young parents, especially mothers, can go to work.
"We are far from reaching our targets on child care facilities and need to step up our efforts. Adequate and accessible child care is crucial to allow parents to work, to strengthen gender equality and to reinforce social inclusion," said Vladimir Spidla, EU commissioner for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities.
He stressed that child care is also a vital ingredient in facing up to the aging of the population. Without proper support services, parents are less likely to have children, he said.
The commission, the executive body of the EU, pledged to spend 500 million euros (690 million U.S. dollars) until 2013 to help EU member states to develop child care facilities.
EU member states with the highest birth rates are also those which have done most to facilitate work-life balance for parents and which have a high rate of female employment, noted the commission.
The report said there is a direct link between child care provision and access for parents to paid employment.
Across the EU, more than 6 million women aged 25-49 say they are forced into not working, or can only work part time, because of their family responsibilities. For more than a quarter of them, lack of child care facilities, or their cost, is the main problem.
Allowing parents to work can also help avoid in-work poverty and reduce poverty in single-parent households, which suffer a much higher poverty rate (32 percent) than that for all households with a child (17 percent), said the report.
Source: Xinhua
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