Not only policy makers, professionals working with children and politicians, but children and young people themselves were actively involved in this event, which was held under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen of the Belgians.

“Doers should start speaking, speakers should start doing” – This is the message of the declaration from the conference. Drafted by a team of young people with input from the conference participants, it demands European governments, Members of the European Parliament and individuals to invest in children through 4 specific ways:

• Involve children and young people in decision making; making it a requirement in all EU countries and those wanting to join the EU;
• Monitor and report on how public money is spent on children, and allow children to engage in budget planning;
• Develop rights training with children and offer every child a children’s rights passport to inform them of their rights;
• Integrate refugee children and those affected by migration; ensure they receive equal protection and access to their right to grow up in a safe environment, ideally with their own family.

The declaration was presented to leaders and public officials who then responded:

Elke Sleurs, Belgium State Secretary for Combating Poverty, for Equal Opportunities, for Disabled People, for Science Policy: “We must realize that we’re not talking about ‘children in poverty’, but rather ‘families with children in poverty’. We therefore have to break the cycle of poverty… We do this by drawing up a national child poverty plan, for which all existing services and all political levels are mobilised.”

Marianne Thyssen, European Commissioner Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion: “Investing in children as early as possible is one of the best and most valuable long-term investments we can make in Europe. This is particularly true for the 25 million children living at risk of poverty, and the thousands of refugee children or children in institutional care in the European Union. The Commission has made €10 billion available to spend on children.”

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