CHILD CARE : MEMBER STATES WRESTLE WITH DEFINING BEST INTEREST OF CHILD'.

Although there was "no overall agreement to revise the Barcelona objectives on child care," the Czech EU Presidency is "satisfied" and looks back on "a very fruitful debate" at the informal meeting of the Union's ministers for family affairs, on 4 and 5 February in Prague. The Presidency's original request was for the participants to "start a debate on the revision of the Barcelona objectives on child care". However, none of the other member states agreed with Prague's initiative to revise these objectives, a Czech diplomatic source indicated.

The European Commission and the European Parliament (which adopted a resolution on the issue on 3 February), along with the European social partners, who sent a new joint letter to Prague, reacted sharply to the Czechs' move. Their message was that the member states should stick to their commitments to obtain better and more child care provisions in the EU (see Europolitics 3687). The Barcelona objectives include the introduction, by 2010, of child care provisions for 90% of the children between age three and the mandatory school age, and for at least 33% of the children aged three or less. The future of the Barcelona objectives after 2010 remains unclear.

"The debate showed that the member states differ in their opinions on how to support the reconciliation of family and employment," said the Czechs. They argued that these "differences" stem from the member states' "respective cultural, historical and political traditions and experiences". At the ministers'...