Meeting of EU ministers for Family Affairs

Date: 4.2.2009 — 5.2.2009
Venue: Prague - Czech Republic
Category: Informal Ministerial Meetings
Theme: Employment, Soc. Pol., Health and Cons. Affairs

A very fruitful debate which took place during the meeting has shown that the Member States consider a debate on childcare to be very desirable.

Meeting of Ministers for Family Affairs, held by the Czech Presidency in the context of implementation of horizontal support for families, which is a priority in EU policies, addressed the “Barcelona Objectives” which favour collective care facilities for small children.

The meeting of Ministers indicated that, despite the different perspectives of the individual Member States, a consensus has been reached that it is necessary to consider the best interest of the child, quality of care, freedom of families as well as demand when trying to reach the defined objectives. The launching of the discussion of the outlined topics of childcare and family policy was generally accepted in a very positive manner. The meeting has thus met the objective specified by the Czech Presidency.