A more socially just Europe for children and parents?! – Invitation
On 25 March the heads of EU states will gather for an informal summit in Rome to make major decisions on the future or Europe. As President Juncker has declared, from now on they wish to focus on achieving a social AAA rating for Europe. The European Commission is promising to release a White Paper on the Future of Europe and the Social Dimensions of the European Monetary Union at around the Rome Summit and to publish the European Pillar of Social Rights at the end of April, about a week after this conference. Civil society, including EPA has strongly criticised some aspects of the Social Pillar during the public consultation in the second half of 2016. The main areas the package cover and that affect most families are early childhood education, child care, reconciliation of work and family life and lifelong learning. The major question mark is that it is planned for the Euro Zone only, paving the way for establishing first and second class EU citizenship.
This conference – co-organised by EPA and its two Cypriot members, PCPAPE and PCPASE – will focus on the first three of these topics, but, as always, with the underlying element of lifelong learning. We have chosen a format that allows us to learn about EU policies, those already published by then as well as those still in the pipeline, to discuss what parents wish for their children and to learn from inspiring practices within our membership and beyond.
Registration is now open.
Registration deadline:
Midnight 10 March
Preliminary Programme
The conference is held in English.
Saturday, April 22nd, 2017
10:00 Sightseeing in Paphos, the 2017 Cultural Capital of Europe, including lunch
16:30 Registration
17:00 EPA General Assembly – only for EPA members (with one coffee break at elections) – click here for the agenda
Sunday, April 23rd, 2016
9:30 Official opening by the the Ministry of Education of Cyprus, the Municipality of Paphos and the President of the hosting organisation
10:15 Keynote session 1
What EU policy offers for parents and children – speaker from the European Commission
Early childhood education and childcare in Cyprus – Eleni Loizou, Associate Professor, University of Cyprus
11:15 Coffee break
11:45 Keynote session 2
The best possible early childhood – Austeja Landsbergiene, PhD, CEO and founder of Vaikystés sodas pre-schools in Lithuania
Quality Services for Early Childhood – introduction of the new SEQUENCES project by the project team
12:30 Round table – Early childhood and reconciliation – how professionals and parents see it
13:30 Lunch
14:30-16:00 Workshop session 1
A socially just Europe
Defining quality in early childhood provisions
Parents and professionals together for a playful childhood
16:00 Coffee break
16:30-18:00 Workshop session 2
Continuing the work started in the morning
20:00 Conference dinner
Monday, April 24th, 2016
Visits to early childhood centres in the morning
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Participation fee:
EUR 100 per person for those eligible to reduced rate
EUR 120 per person for non-members and additional participants of members
Accommodation:
We have pre-booked two types of accommodation:
3-star hotel rooms or studios
single use EUR 35 per night including breakfast
double use EUR 55 per night including breakfast
rooms in a luxury holiday village
single use EUR 80 per night including breakfast
double use EUR 100 per night including breakfast
We are negotiating special arrangements for airport transfer for those arriving to Larnaca airport rather than Paphos Airport as it seems to be more convenient and much cheaper. If you are willing to join others that may mean a waiting time of maximum one hour, please also register for airport transfer. It costs EUR 15 to 20 per person
You can register at this link
In all organisational questions please contact Brigitte Haider
e-mail: GA@euparents.eu
Tel. no: +43-664 562 4043
