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European Federation for Family Employment & Home Care- Fédération européenne des emplois de la famille

EFFE

The European Federation for Family Employment and Home Care promotes and professionalizes the domestic care sector.

Lobbying Activity

EFFE demands earmarked funding for European Care Strategy

31 Oct 2025
Topic — The consultation addresses the European Union’s long-term budget and investment priorities post-2027.
Message — EFFE requests the next EU budget earmark specific funding for social and care policies. They demand the European Care Strategy be explicitly referenced in regulations to ensure policy visibility. They also seek new indicators to track care quality and support for informal caregivers.123
Why — This would ensure that care services remain a priority despite shifts in budget management.4
Impact — Care recipients face diminished services if social funding decreases relative to previous budget cycles.5
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Home care federation demands earmarked funding for EU care strategy

31 Oct 2025
Topic — This consultation addresses the performance and reporting framework of the post-2027 EU budget.
Message — EFFE calls for dedicated funding for social and care policies within the next seven-year budget. They want the European Care Strategy referenced in regulations. They also want specific indicators to track service quality and informal carers.123
Why — Earmarked funding would protect the care sector from budget cuts during the budget's nationalization.4
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Response to Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness

31 Oct 2025

The European Federation for Family Employment & Home Care (EFFE) welcomes the European Commissions initiative to develop a Future Intergenerational Strategy promoting fairness, solidarity, and cohesion between generations. EFFE stresses that intergenerational justice cannot be achieved without recognising the essential role of domestic and home care the Personal and Household Services (PHS) sector in supporting people across all stages of life. Care is the invisible infrastructure of European societies. From childcare and support to working parents, to long-term care for older persons and people with disabilities, domestic and home care services sustain autonomy, health, and inclusion. They also enable millions of Europeans, particularly women, to participate in the labour market, while creating over 10 million jobs across the EU. Yet, this essential sector remains undervalued, under-regulated, and too often undeclared. EFFE calls for the Intergenerational Strategy to place care at its core. Ensuring accessible, affordable and high-quality home-based services is vital to allow citizens to live and age in dignity, prevent isolation, and reduce territorial inequalities. The sector must be recognised as a pillar of social cohesion and economic resilience that benefits all generations. However, structural challenges persist. Territorial disparities restrict access to care, especially in rural and ageing regions. Working conditions remain poor, with low wages and limited social protection. In many Member States, a large share of domestic and home care work remains undeclared, leaving workers without rights or protection and causing major losses in public revenue and social security systems. Families face high costs and complex administrative burdens, while women continue to shoulder the majority of unpaid care, resulting in persistent gender gaps in income, pensions and well-being. EFFE calls for a comprehensive EU approach built on six priorities: 1. Formal recognition of domestic and home care within the Intergenerational Strategy and the European Pillar of Social Rights; 2. Accessibility and affordability, through vouchers, social incentives, tax credits, and regional funding mechanisms; 3. Improved working conditions and professionalisation, including training, social dialogue, and skill recognition; 4. Formalisation of employment via simplified administrative tools and fiscal incentives; 5. Reduction of gender and intergenerational care gaps by investing in formal care and recognising informal carers; 6. Coherence with EU social and economic policies, including the Care Strategy, Gender Equality Strategy, and European Semester. Investing in domestic and home care is not a cost but a social and economic return. It reduces poverty, strengthens labour participation, and supports ageing in place while ensuring dignity and fairness across generations. EFFE urges the European Commission to make care the foundation of intergenerational solidarity. Supporting user-employers, empowering care workers, and guaranteeing universal access to quality home care will allow Europe to build a sustainable, inclusive, and fair society for all generations.
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Home care federation pushes for formal recognition in poverty strategy

24 Oct 2025
Topic — The consultation seeks views on an EU strategy to reduce poverty by 2030.
Message — EFFE calls for formal recognition of household services and the use of social vouchers. They also demand better wages and collective agreements to improve working conditions.12
Why — Formalizing the sector would reduce undeclared work and increase social protections for domestic workers.3
Impact — Women lose economic opportunities when a lack of formal care leads to unpaid domestic roles.4
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Meeting with Chiara Gemma (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

2 Oct 2025 · Informal work and caregiver

Meeting with Sirpa Pietikäinen (Member of the European Parliament)

4 Sept 2025 · Family employment and home care

EFFE Urges Formal Recognition for Domestic and Home Care Services

2 Sept 2025
Topic — The consultation focuses on implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights.
Message — The federation demands formal recognition of personal and household services within the EU's social policy framework. They seek to combat undeclared work through tailored policy tools and structured social dialogue.12
Why — Formal recognition would help individual employers manage their responsibilities and reduce informality.34
Impact — Profit-oriented companies would face scrutiny for extracting profit at the expense of care quality.5
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Response to Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030

8 Aug 2025

We welcome the European Commissions commitment to renewing the Gender Equality Strategy and its focus on work-life balance, freedom of choice in care pathways, quality employment, and closing the gender pay and pension gaps. Yet, a crucial dimension remains largely absent from both policy and public debate: the indispensable role of domestic and home care workers, 91% of whom are women. Particularly overlooked are those directly employed by families, whose work enables many women to remain active in the labour market by alleviating their unpaid care and household responsibilities. This reality is especially pressing in an ageing Europe, where women often employ other women to meet their own work-life balance and care needs within the home. Childcare, long-term care, care for people with disability, household activitiesIndeed, across the EU, millions of women rely on the support of domestic and care workersoften migrant, older, or low-income women. They are key enablers of womens labour force participation, allowing women with care responsibilities to return to the labour market from which many have been excluded. These work arrangements, typically undeclared and under-regulated, are often characterised by poor working conditions, limited access to rights and protections, and absence of social recognition. At the same time, women in the need of care, who become user-employers, directly creating a job in their own home, frequently lack political recognition or financial support. We strongly support the Strategys objectives to redistribute care more equally between men and women, increase access to affordable long-term and childcare, and promote investment in quality care jobs. However, these goals must be grounded in the realities of how care is delivered in Europe todayoften in the private home, through direct employment relationships that fall outside traditional care systems. Failure to recognise this model risks leaving behind both workers and user employers: reinforcing undeclared work, undermining labour standards, and perpetuating the gender employment and pay gaps the Strategy seeks to close. Key Recommendations: 1. Acknowledge and include all models of employment in the domestic and home care work in the Gender Equality Strategy, including direct employment by families, recognising that it is predominantly women who both provide and manage this care. 2. Support formalisation and quality jobs by offering declarative tools and incentives to regularise domestic work relationships. This includes making it easier for households to become compliant employers through simplified administrative procedures, tax credits, and legal clarity. 3. Address the working conditions of domestic and home care workers, who often face atypical work schedules, low pay, and limited social protection. Investment in the care economy must extend to private household settings, not just institutional or public care services. 4. Recognise household or users-employersoften womenas a legitimate part of the care system and provide them with resources to navigate their responsibilities in a fair and lawful way. They are key enablers of womens labour force participation and deserve to be visible in care and labour policy frameworks. 5. Tackle the undervaluation of feminised work by improving the pay, status, and visibility of jobs in the domestic and home care sector, which are often seen as low-skilled despite their high social value. 6. Ensure that measures addressing occupational segregation, training, and upskilling include domestic and home care workers, who are often excluded from vocational pathways and professional development opportunities. The EU cannot achieve gender equality without acknowledging the essential, feminised labour that occurs in peoples homes. A sustainable and fair care model must support both the women who provide care and the women who manage itformally or informally.
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Meeting with Eva Schultz (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu) and UNI Europa and

21 May 2025 · Meeting on personal and household services

Meeting with Cecilia Strada (Member of the European Parliament) and Tuscan Organisation of Universities and Research for Europe

14 May 2025 · Working conditions in the caregiving sector

Meeting with Rudi Kennes (Member of the European Parliament) and European Federation for Services to Individuals

12 Dec 2024 · Labour rights of domestic workers

Home care federation urges EU Talent Pool access for households

31 Jan 2024
Topic — An EU-wide platform designed to match non-EU skilled workers with European employers.
Message — The federation requests that individual households, not just companies, be allowed to use the platform to hire domestic workers. They advocate for specialized skill categories for caregiving and the recognition of foreign qualifications. Additionally, they call for language support and integration services to assist migrant workers.123
Why — Access to the platform would help families overcome recruitment shortages and professionalize domestic work.4
Impact — The informal economy loses its influence as the proposal discourages undeclared and unregulated recruitment.5
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Meeting with Ana Carla Pereira (Cabinet of Commissioner Nicolas Schmit)

26 Apr 2022 · care strategy and domestic workers

Response to Proposal for a Council Recommendation on long-term care

28 Mar 2022

The EU is set to grow older over the coming decades, and that already-strained social care services need reform to ensure accessibility, affordability, and quality of care. Whilst people care needs will increase, the nature of their expectations will be radically different from those of yesterday according to the French Fondation du Domicile. Baby boomers, including women, have indeed experienced emancipation and freedom of choice to lead their personal lives and cannot belittled as objects of care. They want to grow old at home and preserve their individual space for privacy and choice, therefore it is necessary to respect their decision-making autonomy regarding the support they need. They represent a new voice of civil society, that must be included in the forthcoming European Care strategy . Policies in favour of providing people with an efficient care pathway must include an equal, affordable, qualified access to personal and household services (PHS), which key role on both social and care related issues has been underlined by the Covid-19 pandemic. They are defined as “jobs and services carried out to support households,” which includes care activities (childcare, assistance to the elderly, dependent or disabled – excluding healthcare) and non-care activities (cleaning, laundry, meal preparation, gardening, small house repairs and private lessons) alike. The PHS sector accounts for 9.5 million workers, which represents almost 5% of total employment in the EU. It is an integral part of care systems in all EU member states. However, a lack of recognition and support for the PHS sector from Member States results in precarious working conditions and a high proportion of undeclared workers: there are over 3 million undeclared workers engaged in domestic and care work in the EU. This has negative effects both for workers, who do not benefit from social protection, and for the sustainability of social security systems, with a significant loss of income for states already facing a shrinking workforce. The direct employment model, we represent, concerns 30% of all PHS employment in Europe. It has significantly reduced informal care in many EU countries. Well-structured it allows EU citizens a genuine choice between residential and home care. Moreover, informal carers currently carry a high burden of care work in the EU, with 80% of care provided by relatives. This disproportionally impacts women, which affects their ability to participate in the labour market: 18% of women in the EU are unable to work because of the informal care they provide. Allowing them to outsource some of their family and domestic responsibilities will help reduce the gender employment gap and tackle gender stereotypes. The European Federation for Family Employment (EFFE) is an umbrella organisation of associations active in the PHS sector. Specifically, we strive for the recognition and the development of the direct employment model, which is characterised by a contractual work relationship between two private individuals, without resorting to intermediaries, and with a non-profit purpose. We welcome Tthe opportunity to contribute to this roadmap, because the European Care Strategy represents a strong opportunity to recognise the essential contribution of formal PHS workers to our care systems. It, includsing all forms of declared employment forms, while fostering women participation to the labour market. Supporting the development and professionalisation of the PHS sector through fiscal incentives, skills and training programmes, and a concerted effort to systematically collect data on the sector is therefore essential to enhance the sustainability and quality of our care systems. Please also see attached two supporting documents : - EFFE’s position paper on Long-term care - Contribution de la Fepem à la Stratégie européenne en matière d’accueil et de soins : valorisation de bonnes pratique en modèle d’emploi direct entre particuliers
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Meeting with Santina Bertulessi (Cabinet of Commissioner Nicolas Schmit)

26 Jan 2022 · Social priorities under the French Presidency

Meeting with Ana Carla Pereira (Cabinet of Commissioner Nicolas Schmit)

20 Apr 2021 · Long-term care (LTC)

Response to Micro-credentials

19 Mar 2021

The European Federation for Family Employment and Home Care (EFFE) is one of the main actors of the personal and household services (PHS) sector at EU level. According to the EU definition, PHS refer to a large range of social and health related activities which contribute to the well-being at home of families and individuals: child-care, long term care for the elderly and for persons with disabilities, housekeeping, educational support, home repairs, gardening. PHS workers are often not included in traditional learning pathways. Whilst they are located at the limit of the informal economy, they do not benefit from a good access to training schemes and often suffer from a lack of professionalisation. PHS workers are often middle-aged and low-qualified women , who deal with a large range of care and non-care activities, and yet, most of them do not benefit from any guidance and support to identify existing VNFIL opportunities. In other words, more than 8 million declared employees, i.e. 4% of total employment in the European Union, still struggle to increase their rights and salaries . It reduces the attractiveness of an essential sector, which social dimension has been highlighted by the health crisis across Europe, whether by caring for the children of parents whose professional activity is essential or by keeping dependent people at home. Within this context, micro-credentials can be a powerful driver for the professionalisation of the PHS sector and other with similar characteristics. Some Member States have already implemented tailored learning pathways for PHS workers, through the development of micro-credentials, which segment qualification and aims at fostering the access to certification. The attached document describes EFFE's positioning.
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Meeting with Santina Bertulessi (Cabinet of Commissioner Nicolas Schmit)

8 Mar 2021 · European Pillar of Social Rights

Meeting with Maria Luisa Cabral (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen)

26 Jan 2021 · Action Plan on the Implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and Personal and Household Services (PHS) sector

Response to Green Paper on Ageing

14 Dec 2020

On January 14, 2020, the European Commission presented first reflections on building a strong social Europe for just transitions . Among other initiatives, the communication announced a report on demographic changes and a Green Paper on ageing, which aims at launching a wide debate on long-term impacts on care. Please find attached EFFE's contribution.
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Meeting with Mariya Gabriel (Commissioner) and European Trade Union Committee for Education

4 Dec 2020 · Important developments and upcoming trends in the education sector

Meeting with Astrid Dentler (Cabinet of Vice-President Dubravka Šuica) and European Federation for Services to Individuals

25 Nov 2020 · - Personal and household services - Ageing - Work-life balance - Care drain

Response to Gender equality in the EU

13 Feb 2020

Although the European Union has included gender equality among its fundamental values since its creation, many efforts need to be made to fully achieve it. Despite the progress made in recent years, child and elderly care are still largely provided by women in European households, even though many disparities exist between Member States. As a result, inequalities between women and men remain strong, especially regarding employment opportunities. Since they are often interrupted by maternity or family responsibilities, women's careers do not evolve at the same pace as those of men. A limited access to employment, a greater job insecurity and a difficult access to leading positions are direct consequences identified on the labour market. Home employment provides and efficient response to the reconciliation of work and family life by giving European families the possibility to entrust declared and paid domestic workers with daily and care tasks. If well-structured and supported, it also provides realistic solutions to women's overwork situations and avoids their partial or total disengagement from the labour market. Considering demographic trends and the growing need for skilled workers in the coming years, home employment will enable the creation of many valuable, local and high-quality jobs. In order to promote gender equality in all Member States, the European Commission should therefore encourage them to support this sector in order to bring domestic workers out of the shadow. It should take into consideration the millions of domestic workers across Europe, who regularly suffer from poor working conditions. A better structuration of the sector would definitely give them access to declared jobs. Furthermore, they would benefit from social rights, namely social protection and access to professionalisation, just as other European workers. EFFE highlights the need to better structure and promote home employment at the European level. EFFE is also committed to supporting European decision-makers in their definition of social policies that are just, inclusive, fair and that fully meet citizens’ needs.
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Meeting with Mariya Gabriel (Commissioner)

22 Jan 2019 · EFFE White paper on family employment and home care, Digital Skills, HLEG on Digital Transformation of EU Labour Markets

Meeting with Ruth Paserman (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)

7 Nov 2018 · Emploi familial à domicile

Meeting with Manuel Mateo Goyet (Cabinet of Commissioner Mariya Gabriel)

29 Oct 2018 · Digital skills

Meeting with Kasia Jurczak (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)

20 Feb 2018 · Family employment

Meeting with Marlene Madsen (Cabinet of Vice-President Jyrki Katainen)

9 Nov 2016 · Social European Society

Meeting with Monika Ladmanova (Cabinet of Commissioner Věra Jourová)

27 Oct 2016 · Corporate social responsibility, employment and education and culture

Meeting with Hanna Hinrikus (Cabinet of Vice-President Andrus Ansip), Vivian Loonela (Cabinet of Vice-President Andrus Ansip) and FairValue Corporate & Public Affairs

29 Sept 2016 · development of digital competences and digitally-supported professional skills for care workers