Europe as a ‘producer’ of statelessness Today children are still being born in Europe without a nationality despite the existence of a clear normative framework that should prevent this.vii Many have inherited their statelessness from stateless parents, while others are the first in their family to experience statelessness, as the unsuspecting victims of a gap or conflict in nationality laws. Research by ENS in 2015 revealed that even among those European states that have acceded to relevant international conventions, more than half were still failing to properly implement their obligations to ensure that children acquire a nationality.viii Today, our Statelessness Indexix continues to document a worrying array of problems in the detail of many nationality laws, as well as in the laws and practices governing procedures for birth registrationx, which helps to establish and document a child’s nationality. Numerous countries in Europe have failed to include basic safeguards in law, such as to grant nationality to a child born on the territory who would otherwise be stateless, or to a child who has been abandoned and whose parents are unknown. Even where laws do provide a remedy against childhood statelessness, there is evidence that these safeguards do not always work in practice because they are not widely known or there are no guidelines on how and when to apply them. As a result of these and other gaps, thousands of children who have strong and clear connections to Europe are growing up without the protection or sense of belonging that a nationality bestows.xi No child chooses to be stateless, and this can never be in a child’s best interests. A specific area of concern is the heightened risk of statelessness faced by the children of refugees and migrants. The nationality laws of several of the most common countries of origin of refugees in Europe in recent years - including Syria, Iraq and Iran - prevent women from passing on their nationality to their children on an equal basis with men. Hence, if we are to avoid a future generation of stateless refugee children it is critical that it is properly identified and recorded where a refugee parent is stateless or unable to pass on their nationality in order that relevant safeguards can be applied to ensure that affected children acquire a nationality. Progress to date and further action required to address statelessness in Europe A historical lack of attention on statelessness motivated ENS to run its first region-wide campaign during 2014 calling on European leaders to improve the protection afforded to stateless people in Europe. This was followed by our #StatelessKids campaignxii in 2015-16, drawing attention to the problem of childhood statelessness; #LockedInLimboxiii in 2017 focusing on preventing the arbitrary detention of stateless people; #RomaBelongxiv in 2017-18 raising awareness about Roma statelessness; and #StatelessJourneysii in 2019, which draws attention to the nexus between forced migration and statelessness. On the back of increased visibility and awareness, concrete progress has been made at national and regional levels in Europe to address the identified gaps. For example, a handful of countries have acceded to the statelessness conventions, and new or improved statelessness determination procedures and safeguards to prevent childhood statelessness and reduce the risk of statelessness have been introduced. But progress is slow and more focused attention by States is urgently required. At regional level, in December 2015 during the Luxembourg Presidency of the EU, the European Council adopted the first ever Conclusions on Statelessness,xv which tasked the European Migration Network with setting up a dedicated platform on statelessnessxvi to help build capacity and exchange good practices. On childhood statelessness, the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Children’s Rights hosted three awareness-raising events in 2015-6, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly adopted a resolution in 2016 on the need to eradicate the statelessness of children,xvii the European Parliament introduced a resolution on the protection of children in migrationxviii in May 2018, and the Council of Europe Action Plan on Migrant and Refugee Childrenxix included an action on every child’s right to a nationality. In 2017, the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament held a joint hearing on statelessnessxx and leading public and political figures supported our statement calling for an end to the arbitrary detention of stateless people. In 2018, focus was given to the issue of Roma statelessness in Europe, including through a European Parliament resolution in November 2018 on minimum standards for minorities in the EUxxi recognising the need to end Roma statelessness, and specific calls by DG NEAR to states under the 2019 Enlargement Packagexxii to address the risk of Roma statelessness. In 2018-19, a proposed amendment to the Asylum Procedures Regulation on the protection of stateless refugees was approved by the Parliament, reference was included to statelessness in the EU Returns Handbook, and both the European Asylum Support Agency