By: H NAYTEMĪ OPIKH
The establishment of the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family in June 2023 was the ideological starting point for a new development model of family and demographic policy.
Gabriel Amitsis, Professor of Social Security Law, Director of the Social Administration Research Laboratory of the University of West Attica, and collaborator expert of ELFAC.
Despite the undoubted understanding by all institutions (state, market, civil society) of the impacts of the demographic collapse on the socio-economic cohesion and the preservation of the national identity of our country (in the light of particularly complex expected geopolitical challenges), the relevant public debate is basically limited to statistical findings and does not extend to the critical issue of developing sustainable family policies with a strong demographic dimension.
Although the relevant issue has been highlighted as a priority by specific bodies – such as the Economic and Social Committee of Greece, the Economic Chamber of Greece, the Supreme Confederation of Large Families of Greece and the Social Administration Research Laboratory of the University of West Attica – it has not yet become part of the hard core of the discussion on the well-being of Greek society.
PUBLIC family policies include tax advantages (especially in favor of large families), horizontal or targeted financial benefits from social protection systems, actions in favor of equality between men and women and combating gender discrimination in the labor market, quality social care services for children and other dependent persons, securing family rights in social security systems, practices for rational combination of family and professional life (e.g., parental leave or choice of reduced working hours by parents with minor children).
The motivations of these policies vary across the countries of the European Region, but are subject to two basic principles: a) ensuring the moral, economic and social well-being of children, b) ensuring the ability of parents to raise their children by combining demanding family obligations with their professional and social lives.
IN CONTRAST, however, to the majority of states in the European periphery, the Greek state has not chosen – despite the provision of relevant constitutional clauses for the protection of the family, marriage, motherhood and children, as well as for the planning and implementation of demographic policy – to activate the framework of a National Family Policy with a strong demographic dimension.
At the same time, ambiguous political choices from the 2010s remain in force – even after the country’s membership in the Fiscal Adjustment Mechanisms has ended, which:
a) They create strong systemic distortions (such as the use of bureaucratic welfare techniques to implement demographic policies of a horizontal nature).
b) They abolish critical social gains without any public interest reasons (such as the abolition of several benefits for large families).
c) They deregulate the protection of families in the event of basic insurance risks (such as the coverage of the insurance risk of family burdens, as in 2014 the relevant benefits granted by OAED through the Employee Family Allowances Distribution Account were abolished by subparagraph IA 3 of Law 4245/2014).
THE RESULTS of these choices are obvious. The Greek state has been trapped in the category of EU member states with low fertility rates (1.26% in 2023), the lowest investments in the “family benefits/child benefits” sector as a percentage of GDP (1.3% in 2022) and the highest rates of child poverty (27% in 2024).
The ESTABLISHMENT of the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family in June 2023, at the initiative of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, constituted the ideological starting point of a new development model of family and demographic policy, creating for the first time since the Transition, executive mechanisms at the level of the central administration with the aim of strengthening the protection of the family and the demographic revitalization of the country.
However, this important political intervention must be backed up with the corresponding institutional, operational and financial tools.
The DEVELOPMENT of a National Family Policy with a strong demographic dimension therefore deserves to be ratified as the new “great Social Agreement” of post-memorandum Greece in the light of three basic guarantees:
a) The institutionalization of the policy with the immediate adoption of a model law – framework for the family and a law – framework for the protection of large families, introducing both rights that were unjustifiably abolished during the period of the country’s accession to the Fiscal Adjustment Mechanisms as well as new rights (such as in particular the right of families to quality formal social care services for children and other dependent persons, the right to social protection of informal family caregivers, the right to alternative care for children at risk).
b) The operational legitimization of the policy with the establishment of a National Family Council (under the Prime Minister), with the participation of representatives of the most representative organizations of families and social partners, as well as the establishment of an Office for Family and Demographic Policies in the Greek Parliament (on the model of the State Budget Office in the Parliament), which will report directly to the President of the Parliament.
c) The financial sustainability of the policy with the establishment of a National Fund for Family and Demographic Revitalization (on the model of the Superfund / Growthfund), which will utilize resources from the state budget, the EU (Cohesion Policy, Special Financial Instruments) and other international organizations, while supporting the already dynamic contribution of private businesses, civil society organizations and the Church of Greece for the protection of children and families.