Protection of children on the EU Cypriot Presidency’s agenda

Representatives of the EU Cypriot Presidency presented their six-months programme in the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. Vice-Chair Lívia Járóka asked the ministers about their plans to address child poverty. After the meeting she participated on a working lunch with the Cypriot Minister of Justice and Public Order and the Minister of Labour and Social Insurance where they discussed the implementation of the European Roma Strategy and the supervision of national strategies.

Loucas Louca, Minister of Justice and Public Order, and Sotiroula Charalambous, Minister of Labour and Social Insurance presented the six-month working programme of the Cypriot Presidency in the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. EPP Group MEP Lívia Járóka welcomed that the Polish-Danish-Cypriot trio programme had specified the protection of children and the promotion of the social agenda as one of its top priorities and asked the ministers what specific measures the presidency was planning to this end. In her reply, the minster of labour confirmed that they were planning to devote a section on its own to the protection of child-rights and the fight against child poverty among the upcoming presidency conclusions. She furthermore notified the committee that the Cypriot government was planning to put the issue on the agenda of several ministerial meetings in the Council as well.

Later in the afternoon Lívia Járóka joined the ministers for a working lunch to discuss the implementation of the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies and the EU-levelsupervision of national action plans.