Introduction

The European Union (EU) is expanding – over the next decade as many as 13 new members may be admitted, ten of them transition countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In this chapter we consider measurable differences in the well-being of children between current club members, the EU member states, and the ten CEE applicants seeking admission.

Discussion of the suitability of applicants to join any club provides an opportunity to look in a mirror and consider the state of the existing membership. We therefore emphasise the differences among the current members as well as contrasting them as a group with the applicants. And we consider whether applicants have a comparative advantage over members in any dimension of well-being – a possibility that is completely overlooked in both media and academic focus on the relative economic strengths of the two groups of countries. To anticipate one result: Slovenia has an under-5 mortality rate that is below the EU average.

We first discuss (a) criteria for EU membership, emphasising the human rights dimension, and (b) the approach currently taken by the European Commission to measuring differences in living standards within the Union. In both cases we emphasise the need for a much broader view than is typically taken, and one that includes a comprehensive picture of the well-being of children – the 79 million in the current EU15 and the 25 million in the CEE applicants.

We then consider in turn three dimensions of well-being of European children; their economic welfare, their health, and their education. The account we give is far from complete, but this rough sketch provides a starting point for the full picture that we argue is needed.

EU membership, human rights and ‘cohesion’

The best-known criteria on which applicants for EU membership are judged, and those which form the corner-stone of negotiations over accession, are the economic criteria. Applicants must have a functioning market economy in place and the capacity to cope with competitive pressures and market forces.

However, the ‘Copenhagen Criteria’, agreed in 1993 to govern EU entry, are in reality much wider than this. In addition to meeting the economic and financial conditions, “membership requires that the candidate country has achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities”.