How will you end child poverty in the EU? Ska Keller responds

In an interview with Euronews, European Greens’ candidate, Ska Keller spoke about child poverty and children’s participation

Poverty affects 1 in 4 children in the European Union. Eurochild’s Reka Tunyogi posed a question to Ska Keller, European Greens’ top candidate for the European elections, asking what she was planning to do about breaking the cycle of disadvantage, how to invest in children and children’s participation in decision-making.

German MEP Keller responded to the massive issue of child poverty and spoke of the need to set aside resources: “Poverty is indeed a massive problem, and this is something that you have to be aware of, because a lot of people might think that it is not so much an issue. But it is a huge problem. Especially child poverty… If children live in poverty, that’s a bad omen for the rest of their lives! So what we are proposing is to set aside a part of the European Social Fund [Plus], money we are distributing… to tackle child poverty, and to put it into programmes.”

MEP Keller also spoke about children’s participation: “children’s participation in decision-making is absolutely crucial. Often it only goes as far as listening to young people, but then not actually taking their thoughts and making it a reality”, Ska Keller responded on the programme “Raw Politics” on Euronews on 25 April.

Eurochild is pleased to see that 2021-2027 funding regulations for the ESF+ have recognised both child poverty and the transition from institutional to family- and community-based care as a cross-cutting issue. We welcome the fact that the European Parliament took this commitment a step further by introducing the Child Guarantee scheme under which 5% of ESF+ (a dedicated budget of 5,9 billion euro) will be allocated to tackle child poverty and social exclusion across the EU. 

Learn more about the European Child Guarantee and what it will help achieve.

Watch the full interview here.