1. What do you do (in terms of children’s services)?
My name is Julien Van Geertsom. I’m the leading functionary from the federal organization for social integration. What we are doing is coordinating services, coordinating policy that fights poverty, and working together at the local level on the minimum income schemes in Belgium.
2. Were you aware of the European Recommendation before the meeting?
Yes we were, because when Belgium had the European Presidency one of our priorities was the fight against child poverty and one of our specific demands was to have a European Commission Recommendation on child poverty, and the fight against child poverty and for child wellbeing.
We organized a big conference, and we also provided the basic three pillar scheme; adequate resources; access to services; and, of course, participation. Afterwards, we worked with the Commission to prepare this and we were very glad that finally in the Social Investment Package, the Recommendation on Investing in Children was taken up.
Indeed we were quite involved in the initial stages, and we think that fighting against child poverty prevents prevalence of poverty in the future, and helps to eliminate and eradicate poverty through breaking the cycle of inheritance and deprivation.
3. Do you think it is important to have this Recommendation and why?
Indeed, I think it’s very important because we have put the fight against child poverty on the European policy agenda. We succeeded not only in the Belgian Presidency but also together with other countries and associations such as EAPN, ESN and EuroChild, to bring attention to Child Poverty in the Europe 2020 strategy and within the European platform against poverty and social exclusion.
4. Do you think it is a good idea that organisations like ESN organise these types of meetings that bring together colleagues from various government levels?
Yes, I think it’s very important because if you say you need a Recommendation and then you say the Recommendation is important, then you have to implement it. In Belgium we try to do it by developing a national plan against child poverty. So, in this kind of conference we can exchange experiences, so that we can enrich our policies and our plans. I think this is the added value of ESN.
5. How do you think these meetings may contribute to implementation of the Recommendation?
By exchanging experiences and it is always important that you look at another country and take another view on it – so you discover black spots and things that the country was not thinking about. You learn a lot [in these meetings], and as always you learn much more from your peers than from others.
6. What have you learned that you think you will be able to apply when going back to your services or may help you think services through differently?
It is a bit early to say as we are only on the first day. But I think that one of the things I see already is that all countries have more in common than we think. There are real differences but there are also very common problems and this means that common policy can be developed, and can be effective also.
7. How do you foresee yourself applying the Recommendation in your country in terms of developing quality services for children?
As I said already we have developed a first national plan to fight child poverty, and now we are developing a second national plan. What’s important is that as we are a country with a complex structure, all levels of government are working together so that we can create more synergy between what the regional, local and federal competencies to have more impact on questions of child wellbeing and child poverty.