EU: Czech Presidency questions childcare targets

The Czech Government, which holds the EU Presidency for the first half of 2009, has opened a debate over revising the EU’s 2010 targets for childcare provision, which most member states are unlikely to reach.

At the Barcelona European Council summit in March 2002, the EU member states set targets of providing, by 2010, childcare for: at least 90% of children between the age of three years and the mandatory school age; and at least 33% of children below three years of age.