European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR): what effects on children’s rights law and policy?

In the last two decades, European Union’s countries have been put under significant pressure by the 2007-2008 financial crisis and the more recent Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, social standards have generally worsened - thereby disseminating wide-spreading resentment among citizens. In this framework, the work examines the role of the Union in the improvement of Member States’ social conditions through its social policy. In particular, it analyses the impact of the 2017 European Pillar of Social Rights and its Action Plan on children’s rights and policy. To do so, section 2 provides an overview of the evolution of the European social policy; section 3 analyses the legal nature, powers and limits of both the Pillar and the Plan; section 4 presents the specific case of children law and policy, and assesses its evolution in the last four years in a multi-level perspective taking into account the example of Italy. Conclusions follow in section 5. Overall, the EU social policy appears to be a controversial field, with MS and several social partners showing reluctance to a major role for the Union in their public affairs. Nevertheless, although a European Social Unions still seems a long way off, there is currently a progressive change of attitude and a more open approach towards a multi-level sharing of competences in the field of social policy.