The early childhood education and care policy debate in the EU

The paper describes the EU many cultural and political turning points on childcare in the last thirty years, focusing on its official documents and the interpretative, theoretical frameworks that have influenced them during this period. It shows that the effects of the quality of childcare services on children’s development as well as the responsibility of the states in sustaining children services costs have been mostly addressed in terms of the social investment approach. Nevertheless, one has ample reasons to wonder whether the social investment philosophy can be reconciled both with gender equality issues and a fundamental appreciation of the rights of all children. In our historical reconstruction and in our conclusions, we suggest that this may well be impossible.