25/05/2007
SPD gets legal right to child care
From 2013, parents in Germany will have a legal right to a child care place from the first year of their children’s life – thanks to the social democratic party SPD!
In a meeting of the Government’s coalition committee earlier this month, the SPD persuaded their collation partners to support their idea for a legal right to a place in a nursery. The SPD also achieved agreement in the coalition that one third of child care expenses will be covered by the federal budget, providing good support to the regions and municipalities for the investments needed to expand child care provision as well as for present and future running costs. A law will be presented during the current legislative period announced SPD president Kurt Beck (that is before the next elections, due in 2009).
Bärbel Dieckmann, Mayor of Bonn, stressed the importance of SPD’s achievement for reconciling family and professional life, and said that only a legal right, as called for by the SPD, would guarantee true freedom of choice between child care at home or in high-quality facilities throughout the country.
Kurt Beck added that the coalition partners have not yet reached a final agreement on their conservative coalition partners proposal for assistance for parents who choose not to send their children to a crèche. The Christian-Democrats had made this element a precondition for their approval of an extension of general child care and had already suggested a sum of 150 euros per month. The compromise paper however “deliberately does not feature a concrete figure” said Mr Beck. SPD vice-president Elke Ferner did not believe such a “housewife bonus” to be realistic within the current legislative term.
