Child Well-Being in the EU and Enlargement to the East [antikvár]

Abstract The accession of up to 13 new members in the next decade is the most important development now facing the European Union. This paper analyses measurable differences in the well-being of children between current club members, the EU Member States, and the 10 Central and Eastem European apphcants seeking admission. Two themes are used as a framework for the paper. First, the importance of economic, social and cultural rights in the human rights dimension of the 'Copenhagen criteria' laid down for EU accession. Second, the need for a wider approach to measuring differences in living standards and 'economic and social cohesion' within the Union than that currently taken by the European Commission, hi both cases the necessity for considering the position of children is emphasised. The empirical sections of the paper then consider in turn three dimensions of well-being of European children in Member States and the applicant countries: their economic welfare, their health, and their education. Keywords: children, European Union, enlargement Introduction The European Union (EU) is expanding - over the next decade as many as thirteen new members may be admitted, ten of them transition countries in Central and Eastem Europe (CEE). In this paper we consider measurable differences in the well-being of children between current club members, the EU Member States, and the ten CEE apphcants seeking admission.' Discussion of the suitability of applicants to join any club provides an opportunity to look in a mirror and consider the state of the existing membership. We therefore emphasise the differences among the current members as well as contrasting them as a group with the applicants. And we consider whether applicants have a comparative advantage over members in any dimension of well-being - a possibility that is completely overlooked in both media and academic focus on the relative economic strengths of the two groups of countries. To anticipate one result: Slovenia has an under-5 mortahty rate that is below the EU average. We first discuss (a) criteria for EU membership, emphasising the human rights dimension, and (b) the approach currently taken by the European Commission to measuring differences in hving standards within the Union. In both cases we emphasise the need for a much broader view than is typically taken, and one that includes a comprehensive picture of the well-being of I .if.!' ' The CEE applicants are the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Estonia, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania. (The first five were originally treated as being at the front of the queue.) The three other official applicants are Cyprus, Malta and, since December 1999, Turkey.