A Rare Opportunity: Using the European Child Guarantee as an Incubator of Innovation

There is no doubt that we must invest in our children. A key reason for this consists in cross-partisan ideas of social justice. Children cannot control the context in which they are raised and have limited means of standing up for their own interests. For those growing up in poverty, this has long-term repercussions. Social inequality at an early stage of life undermines opportunities and hence the promise of merit-based social mobility. 

Beyond questions of justice, socio-economic disadvantages during the early years carry political risks. The stability of our free and democratic order hinges on the legitimacy attributed to it by the public. If citizens perceive access to opportunities as unjust, systemic stability is under pressure. More generally, inequality contributes to the erosion of democracy. In Germany, young men in particular are overrepresented both among early school leavers and AfD supporters. While any causality claims would require further research, this development is generally troubling from a pro-democratic perspective. 

Finally, decent support for children is in Germany’s economic interest. After all, social woes early in life can lead to economic precarity and financial dependency down the line. Therefore, appropriate access to education in particular is an important investment in the future. At a time where a decreasing number of workers must finance more and more pensioners, policies are needed that enhance young people’s labour market opportunities.  

If investing in children’s welfare is a cross-partisan concern, why does social precarity among the youngest persist? A common response is that young people are underrepresented in elections. Children cannot vote and parents are an increasingly small group with heterogenous interests. This alone, however, is no sufficient explanation. After all, children’s rights are also a concern to those not immediately affected. Few people consider child poverty just or irrelevant and children score highly on attributed “deservingness” measures according to research. Children are not being overlooked but knowingly neglected.  

As Germany’s failed plans for a Basic Child Allowance exemplify, a key reason consists in practical hurdles along the policy cycle. Political ideas must react to salient problems, move up on the political agenda, be translated into concrete policies, and finally be implemented and evaluated. What is more, limited resources, political risks and resistance, time limitations, and competing interests all must be navigated.  

In order to speed up this lengthy process, states can learn from one another with respect to promising policies. Germany itself, for instance, sought inspiration from Sweden and the EU regarding parental policy in the past. Similarly, the country may now learn from its peers as a shortcut in the realm of child policy – assuming enough cases for comparison are available. 

Against this background, a rare opportunity is currently presenting itself: the European Child Guarantee. Passed by the EU institutions in 2021, all Member States have committed themselves to delivering on this Recommendation. Hence, 27 comparable states are now pursuing the same goal, that is “to prevent and combat social exclusion by guaranteeing effective access of children in need to a set of key services”. Specifically, the aim to provide “inclusive and truly universal access” to (a) free early childhood education and care, (b) free subsequent education, (c) free healthcare, (d) healthy nutrition, and (e) adequate housing.  

Crucially, the Child Guarantee is more than merely a suggestion – it creates a vast space of innovation in which 27 states develop political ideas and put them to the test. The explicit goal is “to facilitate mutual learning, share experiences, exchange good practices and follow up on the actions taken”. Four years after being passed, the Child Guarantee has now reached a point at which concreate policies should become discernible. Hence, it is the ideal time to embrace policy learning – at least in theory.