OpenLobby.EU
Explore

European Parents' Association

EPA

EPA gathers the parents associations in Europe which together represent more than 150 million parents.

Lobbying Activity

Response to European Child Guarantee

6 Oct 2020

This feedback is given on behalf of the European Parents' Association together with Make Mothers Matter and supported by the Learning for Well-being Foundation. All three organizations welcome the initiative to establish a Child Guarantee against child poverty but would like to extend the scope and point out some elements that are missing or not being taken into accoount sufficiently. The feedback has been prepared by Arja Krauchenberg (EPA) and Johanna Schima (MMM) and revised by Shanti George for L4WB Foundation. The European Parents' Association has been the only EU-level organisation representing parents as a stakeholder group in education since its foundation in 1985. Through our 35+ member organisations we have a nearly full coverage of Europe as we have working contact with almost all EU-member states, while we have members from some non-EU countries (e.g. Serbia, Ukraine, etc.) as well. The main objectives of EPA, reaching out to 150 million European parents: - to promote and advocate for the active involvement of parents as primary educators at all stages of the education of their children, - to support parents' associations and individual parents for stakeholder involvement in different European countries by offering opportunities for training, cooperation and exchanging information, - to foster the exchange of good practices among its members - to support the highest possible quality of education for all children in Europe especially by active involvement in EU-level policy development and assessment - to disseminate relevant European information among its members. Make Mothers Matter is an organisation created in 1949 at the UNESCO in Paris to support mothers all over the world. MMM acts through advocacy, network and communication and the poles of action are health, peace and education. We believe in the power of mothers to make the world a better place. We advocate for their recognition and support as changemakers. We amplify their voice at the highest level: the EU, UNESCO and the UN where we have a general consultative status. Learning for Well-being Foundation was established in 2004 and envisions inclusive and supportive societies where everyone realizes their unique potential throughout their life. The Learning for Well-being Foundation is a private operating foundation, registered in the Netherlands as a not-for-profit organization. Our team and associates are dispersed across Europe, Middle-East and the United States, with our office and activity focal point in Brussels. Please find our contribution in the attached file.
Read full response

Response to A NEW START TO SUPPORT WORK-LIFE BALANCE FOR PARENTS AND CARERS

18 Jun 2017

It was timely that the EC has restarted dealing with the issue of parental leave after dropping the Maternity Leave Directive that bore the full support of parents' associations around Europe. However the new initiative has failed to listen to the voice of 150 million parents - represented by the European Parents' Association - raised in 2015 in a reconciliation package that is available here: http://euparents.eu/balancing-work-and-family-life/ In the ECEC policy paper (available here as it cannot be attached http://euparents.eu/best-interest-young-child/) the European Parents' Association published in April 2017, based on the overwhelming support never experienced before of national parents' associations from 31 countries 27 EU countries among them, parents have reinforced their demand for free choice. If economic research shows that European economies can only support 8 months of leave, no restrictions should be introduced with regards to who can take the leave. This would also be in line with the WHO recommendations that advise mothers to breastfeed only until the baby reaches the age of 6 month (while maintaining breastfeeding until at least the end of the first year), that is not possible if the mother cannot be on maternal leave for a minimum of 6 months. While parents around Europe acknowledge the importance of bonding with the father, we cannot support an initiative that does not consider the health of the child. In addition to that, we believe leave policies as well as ECEC policies should be based on the right to choose and the right to opt out. Families where the mother (or one of the mothers in same sex families) decide to stay at home for the longest possible period and the other parent decides to work, the family must not be punished for their decision, especially as the minimum of 6 months, but rather 1 year of maternity leave is for the best interest of the child and the child's health. Reading the report on the public consultation it is clear that the EC has not taken it into consideration the representativeness of NGOs contributing to the public consultation and translated the results to basic statistics. It is important to mention here that parents, the people affected by the initiative who raised their voice against discrimination and restriction of rights disguised as 'equal access to the labour market'.
Read full response