Shaping a Strong Social Europe fit for Families of Today

2026-07-22

COFACE Families Europe has existed for over 60 years, contributing to shaping Europe through our wide network and expertise. With 50+ member organisations in 23 European countries, COFACE is a pluralistic network representing millions of families, volunteers, and professionals, addressing the needs of all types of families, and specifically families in vulnerable situations: at risk of poverty, single parent, large, migrant, same-sex, with disabilities, living in areas with limited services. The place of families as one of the three key players in the economy and welfare (families, state and market) is fully recognized, even more so in COVID-19 times, in a context of major transitions (demographic, digital, green). We believe the actions under the European Pillar of Social Rights can positively impact all types of families and their children. We have actively boosted its implementation through support for various actions (EU work-life balance directive, Child Guarantee, Disability Rights Strategy). Through a wide range of partnerships, we harness the full potential of Europe for human rights and family empowerment, based on 4 action pillars: 1. Develop a European civil society network of excellence (through consensus-building, strategic decisions and quality assurance) 2. EU advocacy and agenda-setting (shaping an EU that works for families of all types, building EU alliances, and consolidating evidence-based policies). 3. Build multi-level bridges (with expert groups, empowering families, and good practice collection) 4. Dissemination and communication (through campaigning, awareness-raising, and community-building). COFACE is a multi-level network with actions on 3 levels: national, transnational, European. This results in a number of position papers, studies, policy briefs, webinars, toolkits, guides, newsletters and more, used at national, EU and international level to advocate for social rights and achieve our objectives.

Belgium

2025-12-15