Nearly one in eight European households includes a child under the age of six. One in five of these children, who represent 19 million children, are at risk of poverty. For that reason, the European Commission has launched for the first time an action plan aimed at giving every child a better start in life and to lay the foundations for successful lifelong learning, social integration, personal development and employability later in life.

Besides directly tackling this problem, the Commission's proposals to ensure universal access to pre-school education, will also contribute to two of the headline targets of the Commission's 'Europe 2020' strategy, i.e. reducing the share of early school leavers to under 10% and to lift at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty and social exclusion. It is for that reason that this Plan complements some Commission actions in this field such as Youth on the Move, the Agenda for New Skills and Jobs which has also been recently launched or the European Platform against Poverty.

Although compulsory education starts at the age of 5 or 6 in most Member States, it starts earlier in Cyprus, Luxembourg and Northern Ireland in the UK. However, the level of services provided for young children up to the start of compulsory education varies considerably across Europe in terms of funding, governance and staffing policies.

In 2009, Education Ministers set a target for 95% of children from the age of 4 to receive early childhood education and care. The current EU average is 92.3%, but, here too, the figures vary widely and do not necessarily reflect the quality of services provided.

The European Commission's proposals come in response to a request from Member States in May 2009, following their adoption of the Strategic Framework for Cooperation in Education and Training, to measure and analyse progress across the EU in improving access to early childhood education and care and to identify best practice.

The Commission's proposals on universal pre-school education

• Universal access to quality pre-school education, based on stable funding and good governance.
• An integrated approach to education and care, taking account of children's needs in a holistic way.
• Age-appropriate curricula with the right balance of hard and soft skills.
• More focus on the professionalization of staff with appropriate qualifications, salaries and working conditions.
• Quality assurance systems and standards to monitor progress.