La tutela dei diritti dei minori nell’ordinamento comunitario

The European Union legislation on children's rights is quite recent. In the 1970s and 1980s the community's provvisions concerned minors only as consumers, users od services, workers and young family members of migrant workers. The situation changed with the Maastricht Treaty that recognised that European citisenship confers a number of specific rights. In 2004, the Court of justice, in the Zhu case, established that European citizenship is non a status granted depending on the attaiment of a minimum age. As a consequence, children are beneficiaries of the related rights. Moreover, the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights, adopted in December 2000, also contains provisions about children's rights. More recentrly, the Commission produced a communication denominated "Towards an EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child", that is of utmost relevance. The aim of the communication is to develop a European strategy to promote and safaguard children's rights in alla their internal and external actions. Through the mainstraming process, it also intends to improve consistency and effectiveness of children's protection.