Website: Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE)

Families and children are directly affected by countless decisions taken at European level, not just economic and social ones, but in many other key areas, too, like consumer and environmental protection, education, disability, housing, health, rural development and many more besides.

So great is the impact of European policies on families and children, that the need for a European policy for families and children is overwhelming. That policy could be said to be the family and child dimension of the economic, social and cultural policies framed at European level.

COFACE acts in three connected ways to promote such a policy:

as a voice for family organizations, it is the contact for the European authorities in all areas where the rights and interests of families and children are involved;

by keeping the national organizations briefed on EU developments and promoting more European-mindedness;

by setting up exchanges of ideas and experiences and mutual self-help between family organizations in the different countries.

COFACE's activities have helped shape European policy in areas like protecting consumer interests, social protection, tackling social exclusion and discrimination, programmes for assistance to people with disabilities, health promotion and education. As a result, family and child policy is gradually spreading across all areas of EU activity. COFACE means to keep working to see that this continues.

It has also extended its reach to countries that are applying to join the European Union through ongoing contacts with the Central and Eastern European countries that are associated with the EU. This is a development provided for by COFACE's founding Articles.

COFACE aims to step up co-operation with the European institutions, and calls on them:

to give European family and child policy a conclusive legal basis in the Treaty on Union;

to be consulted in all areas where the family and child dimension of European policies is involved;

to hold a Council of Ministers with responsibility for family and child policy every year.

• Primary Source

Website: European Commission: DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities: European Alliance for Families http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/families/european-alliance-for-families_en.html

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