Safer Internet Day 2018 – Better internet starts with empowerment

6 February marks Safer Internet Day. There is no better occasion to call the attention of parents, policy makers, providers and other actors working for internet safety that parents are key to educate their children to become responsible digital citizens, they need empowerment and education for that, and that safety will not be achieved by restrictive legislative measures instead.

This year’s topic "Create, connect and share respect: A better internet starts with you" is a great starting point for awareness raising. In Europe there is a loud group of stakeholders that are trying to lull parents into a false feeling of safety stating that it is possible to create a special safe internet highway for children by restrictive measures.

Conference of INGOs of the Council of Europe - Winter session (22-26 January 2018) report

The Winter Session of the INGOs Conference was marked by several thematic debates, the election of the new Board members, and the creation of the working groups of the various committees. EPA was represented by its current representative Hermínio Corrêa.

Among the several debates organised during the week, some of the highlights were the following:

1st European Education Summit - report

EPA had the opportunity to participate at this important high-level event representing one of the main stakeholder groups of education. The event was preceded by the kick-off event of our Year of Equitable Access to Education to help highlight parents’ wishes for the European Education Area planned to be created by 2025. The summit was hosted by Tibor Navracsics, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, and took place on 25 January 2018, in Brussels. It invited EU education ministers (22 of them actually were present), education practitioners, stakeholders and business leaders to explore: how better to address inequality in education systems, how citizens can benefit from a future European Education Area, how education can help transmit our common values and what competences will be needed for the decades to come.

Playful learning – the gist of 21st century education for Europe

EPA kicked off 2018: the Year of Equitable Access to Education with a high-level event organised in partnership with the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on the eve of the 1^st European Education Summit on 24 January. The event was hosted by Pavel Trantina, President of the Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship (EESC SOC) and attended by Commissioner Tibor Navracsics, MEP István Újhelyi (S&D) and EESC member Renate Heinisch.

Public consultation on the future EU budget

The European Commission launched launched a series of public consultations for preparing the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) on 10 January 2018. Organisations and Eu citizens alike are invited to contribute to it in the next 2 months. EPA wants to make sure that the voice of parents is raised in this consultation, and will work hard on it being heard, too. 

Statement on Vaccination

Published for the Vaccine Hesitancy Seminar on 11 December 2017 in Brussels

Parents are the ones responsible for upbringing their children, thus also for their health and a safe environment for them (UNCRC Article 5). Parents’ rights emerging from this responsibility have to be respected, so any decision should be theirs, no state obligations should contradict this approach or prevent them from responsible decisions.

To come to the right decision, parents need objective information and support (UNCRC Article 18). Reluctant or anti-vaccination parents often act out of a position of lack of information and misunderstanding. Therefore governments are responsible for supplying such concepts and activities for a better understanding, avoiding bias towards pro or anti opinions, and offering clear and simple explanations on public and private benefits as well as risks.

All these efforts must not be biased by pharmaceutical industries or any other organisations or institutions with primarily economic interest.

All parents love their children and have great aspirations for them. If you can manage to provide clear and comprehensive information with reasonable arguments, most parents will follow your recommendations for the sake of their children, while others will take their own responsible pathways.

Anti-vaccination movements are not to be tackled by oppressive measures, but authorities have a responsibility in reviewing individual cases if necessary and seek the decision of independent courts in case parents appear to be unable to fulfil their duties in bringing up their children. Parents must possess the right to decision as long as an independent court has not restricted their guardian duties.

Problems arising from a shrinking percentage of vaccinated children should be tackled by analysing the reasons, offering a balanced approach to pros and cons, ensuring media coverage and individual support to parents in their decision making, but not by introducing compulsory vaccination against the parents’ will.                                 

Who we are:

EPA has been the only EU-level representative of parents as stakeholders in and responsible for ensuring the best interest of their children since 1985. As an umbrella organsation of national parents associations we cover 30 European countries and bring the voice of about 150 million parents to the EU and raise this voice on all issues concerning the lives of parents and children according to our statutes. We always pursue a rights-based approach, one that requires empowerment and involves responsible decision making by parents taking the children’s voice into consideration and the best interest of children as a basis, thus not ones based on restrictive measures.

Suitable Pathways – conference report

Role of Parents in Guiding their Children towards the Most Suitable Personal Careers

The European Parents’ Association held its annual conference on 24/25 November 2017 in the Tallinn School of Service under the auspices of the Estonian Presidency of the European Union and as part of the second European Vocational Skills Week on career guidance and suitable individual learning pathways for today’s children, with special focus on counterbalancing the bias towards university education (by the media, education policy and consequently very often by parents, too). The representatives of parents’ associations and students, VET providers, career guidance services and school heads participating at the conference looked at ways of home-school cooperation in career guidance, transversal skills for well-being, future life success and lifelong learning with special focus on entrepreneurship, and the role of parents and parents’ associations to improve the image of vocational secondary education and non-university tertiary education to help people understand that for most people it has always been and will always be a first and best choice. Bellow you will find a detailed report of the conference with download links for presentations and related documents.