Guardians are key to ensure children’s well-being and that their best interests are taken into account. But the EU and its Member States continue to face many challenges to provide for full and effective guardianship for unaccompanied children arriving in Europe, reveals the latest report from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).

“EU and international standards guarantee unequivocal support for unaccompanied children. Yet, the gap between theory and practice leaves many of these vulnerable children without the guardian they need,” says FRA Director Michael O’Flaherty. “EU countries should make guardianship systems more effective to ensure all children enjoy the support, services and protection which they are entitled to.”

The ‘Guardianship systems for unaccompanied children in the EU’ report looks at key developments since 2014. It builds on earlier FRA research and suggests how to address challenges and improve the diverse guardianship systems in the EU. As a priority, EU countries should:

• Protect all children equally: The support, and the type of protection offered, depends in practice on the child’s status. Countries should allocate sufficient resources to provide guardians for unaccompanied children, as part of overall national child protection schemes, no matter their status. This also derives from the obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by all EU countries.
• Act in the child’s best interest: Guardians need to cover all aspects of a child’s well-being to ensure their social, health, psychological, material and educational needs are met. But they are not always fully involved in all decisions affecting children.
• Proper training: Guardians continue to lack training support. They need systematic training and on-going support to effectively carry out their important work.
   

Guardianship systems vary greatly across and within EU countries with local authorities, social work centres or reception centres being responsible for providing guardianship. This can lead to inconsistent approaches. It can also result in conflicts of interest if the guardian’s duties overlap with day-care responsibilities. Guardians can be responsible for between three to 50 children. There can also be delays in appointing guardians.

The EU is improving the effectiveness of guardianship systems for unaccompanied children. It set up a European Guardianship Network. Some countries introduced protocols, guidance and training for new guardians. Some improved the independence of guardians and increased the participation of children in decisions that affected them.

In addition, the EU’s Child Rights and Anti-trafficking strategies, and proposed Migration and Asylum Pact should help standardise protection measures and reinforce efforts to protect migrant children.

This report focuses on unaccompanied children from non-EU countries. It covers the 27 EU countries, North Macedonia and Serbia.

 Press release: Effective guardianship is key to better protect unaccompanied children (112.57 KB) 

La valedora do Pobo, Dolores Fernández Galiño, pronuncia en la jornada sobre Idadismo, la conferencia inaugural: “La discriminación por edad: el idaismo”, celebrada no Ayuntamiento de Carballiño. La Valedora do Pobo en colaboración con el Consello da Cultura abordan la problemática de una nueva manera de discriminación a causa de la edad.

bg es cs da de et el en fr hr it lv lt hu mt nl pl pt ro sk sl fi sv

The General Court examines for the first time the impact of systemic or generalised deficiencies in the rule of law in a Member State on determining the competition authority that is best placed to examine a complaint

In the context of the exercise of activities in the forwarding services sector, the company established under Polish law Sped-Pro S.A. (‘the applicant’) used rail freight transport services supplied by PKP Cargo S.A., a company controlled by the Polish State. On 4 November 2016, the applicant lodged a complaint against PKP Cargo with the European Commission. In that complaint, it submitted that PKP Cargo had abused its dominant position on the market for rail freight transport services in Poland on account of its alleged refusal to conclude with the applicant a multi-annual cooperation agreement on market conditions. On 12 August 2019, the Commission rejected the complaint by Decision C(2019) 6099 final (‘the contested decision’), 1 on the ground, in essence, that the Polish competition authority was best placed to examine it.

It is in those circumstances that the applicant brought an action before the General Court seeking annulment of the contested decision. In support of its action, it raised three pleas in law, alleging, respectively, infringement of its right to have its case handled within a reasonable time and failure to state reasons in the contested decision, breach of the principle of the rule of law in Poland, and manifest errors in assessing the EU interest in pursuing the examination of the complaint. By its judgment of 9 February 2022, the General Court upholds the action and annuls the contested decision in its entirety. On this occasion, it examines for the first time the impact of systemic or generalised deficiencies in the rule of law in a Member State on determining the competition authority that is best placed to examine a complaint. It also provides important clarifications as regards the circumstances in which failure to comply with the reasonable time requirement is liable to lead to the annulment of a decision rejecting a complaint in the field of competition law.

Findings of the Court

In the first place, as regards the reasonable time principle, the General Court recalls, first, that observance of the reasonable time requirement in the conduct of administrative procedures relating to competition policy constitutes a general principle of EU law. Article 41(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union also reaffirms the reasonable time principle in respect of administrative procedures. Thus, the General Court points out that the Commission is under an obligation to decide on complaints in the field of competition law within a reasonable time.

However, the General Court states, secondly, that breach of the reasonable time principle is liable to lead to the annulment of a decision rejecting a complaint only where the applicant shows that the failure to comply with the reasonable time requirement has had an impact on his or her ability to defend his or her position in that procedure, which would in particular be the case if that failure had prevented him or her from gathering or submitting before the Commission factual or legal material concerning the anticompetitive practices complained of or the EU interest in investigating the case. In the light of those principles, the General Court finds that, in the present case, it is not necessary to rule on the European Commission’s compliance with the reasonable time principle, since the applicant has not adduced any evidence capable of showing that the alleged failure to comply with that requirement had an impact on its ability to defend its position in that procedure. Consequently, the General Court rules that the complaint alleging breach of the reasonable time principle is unfounded.

Le Médiateur du Faso, madame Fatimata SANOU/TOURE assistée de ses plus proches collaborateurs a reçu ce mardi 1er février 2022 au siège de l’institution, l’Unité de Gestion du Programme d’Approvisionnement en Eau potable (PAEA) conduite par son coordonnateur. Il s’est agi de s’entretenir avec l’équipe sur l’intervention de l’institution dans la mise en œuvre du dudit programme et aussi d’échanger sur les termes du protocole d’accord tripartite signé entre l’Unité de Gestion du programme, l’Autorité Supérieure du Contrôle de l’Etat et de lutte contre la Corruption et le Médiateur du Faso à cet effet.
 

Il faut souligner que dans la mise en œuvre des activités du PAEA, Le Médiateur du Faso a été identifié pour gérer les plaintes et griefs y relatifs. Cette gestion des plaintes consiste entre autres à la réception et au traitement des plaintes des communautés bénéficiaires du programme, le suivi et l’évaluation de l’état de mise en œuvre des plaintes durant toutes ses phases d’exécution et la prévention et gestion des conflits intra et intercommunautaires relatifs au programme.
 

Pour Madame Fatimata SANOU/TOURE, il était important de s’accorder sur le Plan d’action 2022 de l’institution afin d’atteindre les résultats escomptés. Quant au coordonnateur du programme, monsieur BINGBOURE Jean Mathieu, il a tout d’abord félicité la nomination de madame le Médiateur du Faso avant de saluer la reprise de la collaboration avec le Médiateur du Faso. En rappel, le PAEA est financé par la Banque mondiale. Elle vise à permettre au pays, l’amélioration de l’accès, la pérennité et l’efficacité des services d’eau et d’assainissement en milieu urbain et rural ; il intervient dans quatre régions notamment la boucle du Mouhoun, les Cascades, les Hauts Bassins et le Sud-Ouest et dans 14 communes urbaines.

El martes 8 de febrero, la Valedora do Pobo y el Consello da Cultura programan la cuarta actividad conjunta, fruto del acuerdo firmado en 2020 para abordar asuntos relacionados con la inclusión. En esta ocasión se aborda la problemática de una nueva manera de discriminación a causa de la edad, ya conocido como  idadismo. La especial vulnerabilidad de las personas mayores se ve incrementada por la intersección con otras discriminaciones como el género, la orientación sexual, discapacidad o dependencia.

Hasta ahora, tuvieron lugar tres actividades. En noviembre pasado, en el marco de una jornada sobre Violencia institucional,  interviron la ganadora y la finalista del I Premio para Trabajos Fin de Grado y la finalista para Trabajos de Fin de  Mestrado, organizados por la Defensora y las tres universidades gallegas. En el mes de junio se celebró el encuentro de “Mujeres rurales. Un vistazo desde Galicia y América Latina” en la que participaron especialistas en la materia de ambas orillas atlánticas. En abril de ese mismo año, se desarrolló una segunda sesión dedicada al pueblo gitano, organizada en colaboración con la Fundación Secretariado Gitano. Esta actividad tuvo una primera parte en noviembre de 2020.

En la jornada sobre  idadismo, al otro lado de la propia temática que contará con especialistas en la materia y tendrá como conferencia inaugural a impartida por la Defensora, Dolores Fernández  Galiño, se da la circunstancia de contar con la colaboración de un ayuntamiento de tipo medio, como es el de O Carballiño, con una  casuística importante en la materia objeto de reflexión. Luego, del punto de vista organizativo, supone escoger una localización poco frecuente para este tipo de actos en la búsqueda de favorecer la participación de la población que, habitualmente, no se desplazaría la otras localidades diferentes.