A Roadmap for Every Child: The EU Alliance for Investing in Children Responds to the 2026 Social Package

The EU Alliance for Investing in Children, of which MMM is a member, has welcomed the European Commission’s 2026 Social Package as a significant step forward for children’s rights and social inclusion across Europe. In its formal reaction, the Alliance pays particular attention to the Communication “Breaking the Cycle of Child Poverty – Strengthening the European Child Guarantee” (ECG) and what it means for families, parents, and children in vulnerable situations.

A welcome shift — but implementation must follow

The Alliance welcomes the growing recognition that child poverty cannot be tackled through fragmented or short-term measures. What is needed — and what the Social Package begins to reflect — is a joined-up approach: integrated support systems, prevention-focused policies, coordinated governance, and sustained investment in children and the families around them.

Crucially, the Alliance welcomes the explicit recognition that the EU is not on track to meet its 2030 child poverty reduction target. Child poverty costs Europe an estimated 3.4% of GDP annually. The case for acting now — and acting boldly — is both a moral and an economic one.

19.3 million children are at risk of poverty or social exclusion

Families are the foundation

One of the clearest messages the Alliance has consistently advocated for over many years is that children’s rights cannot be realised in isolation from their families. Policies that treat children’s interests as separate from those of their parents have repeatedly proven ineffective. The Alliance therefore strongly welcomes the Communication’s increased focus on family support, community-based services, integrated parenting programmes, and family-centred early intervention.

Poverty must never be a reason for separating children from their families. When families receive the right support at the right time — practical, emotional, and financial — children thrive. This requires robust social protection systems, adequate income support, quality employment opportunities, affordable housing, and accessible childcare working together, rather than operating in silos.

The Alliance also strongly welcomes the planned Commission Recommendation on child and family benefit systems, due in 2027. Benefits must be adequate, rights-based, and non-stigmatising. Monitoring mechanisms must not become punitive or discriminatory. The focus should be on simplifying access and ensuring that support genuinely reaches the families who need it most — not on treating parents as suspects.

Labour market participation is not enough on its own

75% of mothers with young children say care duties keep them out of work

The Alliance is also clear on one point that is often overlooked in policy discussions: getting parents into work is important, but it is not sufficient. Many families experience poverty despite being in employment. Adequate minimum income systems, strong safety nets, and accessible public services are not optional additions — they are essential foundations. The fight against child poverty requires all of these tools to work together.

Mental health — including maternal health — must be central

The Alliance welcomes the stronger focus on child and adolescent mental health in the Communication. However, it calls for a broader approach — one that goes beyond digitalisation and online risks to address family environments, housing insecurity, social exclusion, and the pressures generated by rigid educational systems.

Critically, the Alliance calls for a stronger focus on maternal mental health. The evidence is unambiguous: a mother’s physical and mental health directly shapes her child’s development from pregnancy onwards. Any strategy to improve children’s wellbeing must include support for mothers as a core component.

What must happen next

Welcoming a Communication is only the beginning. The Alliance calls for a clear operational framework that sets out what is expected of Member States, how National Action Plans should be revised and strengthened, how progress will be monitored, and how children, families, civil society and frontline services will be meaningfully involved.

On funding, the Alliance is unequivocal: project-based funding and private contributions cannot replace predictable, publicly ring-fenced investment. It calls for at least 5% ESF+ funding to be earmarked for tackling child poverty in all Member States, stronger allocations where child poverty rates are highest, and a dedicated European Child Guarantee envelope of at least €20 billion under the next Multiannual Financial Framework.

Our commitment

Europe now has a real opportunity to build a coherent, rights-based and preventive social agenda — one that places children and their families at its centre. The Alliance is committed to working with the European Commission, Member States, civil society, and families themselves to make that opportunity count.

Because the measure of this strategy will not be found in its words. It will be found in the lives it changes.

Read the full statement here