European monetary union and children
The Centre's project on European Monetary Union and Children aims to raise the profile of children in the debate on Europe's future. The focus of most discussions on EMU has been almost entirely on whether the economies of Europe are converging. The Centre's research examines whether the living standards of children are converging - a subject on which there has been little or no debate at all. The Centre is drawing together the data that is available to get a general picture of the situation of children across the new Europe.
The Centre produced two key documents as part of this research programme in 1999. EMU, Macroeconomics and Children (Innocenti Occasional Paper 68), drew the link between macroeconomic analysis and child well-being. Is Child Welfare Converging in the European Union? (Innocenti Occasional Paper 69) found that while some aspects of child well-being have converged alongside economic factors, others have not. The paper called on the EU to place more emphasis on the needs of children in its own analyses on economic and social cohesion in Europe.
A more recent publication, Child Well-Being in the EU and Enlargement to the East ( Innocenti Working Paper 75) focuses on the implications of the possible accession of new members to the European Union. The paper analyses measurable differences in the well-being of children in EU member states and the ten Central and Eastern European countries seeking admission.
In 2000, the Centre collaborated with Policy Press to copublish research on convergence in child well-being across the EU. The publication: The Welfare of Europe's Children asked whether child well-being was becoming similar in member states, or was it diverging even as economies converged? The issues were addressed with a wealth of data on different dimensions of the changing welfare of Europe's children -- evidence pulled together for the first time.