October 2024 #RomaBelong addressing Roma statelessness; and #StatelessJourneys addressing the nexus between forced migration and statelessness). On the back of increased visibility and awareness, concrete progress has been made at both the regional and national level in Europe to address some identified gaps. For example, several countries have acceded to the UN statelessness conventions, new or improved statelessness determination procedures have been established, and safeguards to prevent childhood statelessness and reduce the risk of statelessness have been introduced. However, progress remains slow and much more focused attention by States is urgently required. The launch of the Global Alliance to End Statelessness presents an opportunity to help address remaining law and policy gaps. This includes through its Solution Seeker Programme, which supports States and Regional Intergovernmental Organisations not only to make pledges but crucially also to optimise and accelerate the rate at which these are implemented, thereby advancing concrete, permanent solutions for stateless communities. Entities joining the Solution Seeker Programme are required to commit to a timebound pledge implementation plan with clear, measurable milestones, developed in consultation with relevant stakeholders, including civil society and stateless people themselves. Becoming a Solution Seeker also provides an opportunity at a global level to showcase effective approaches and good practices that other countries can emulate. In addition, the Global Alliance will encompass Regional Network Labs and Thematic Working Groups to help share information and build the capacity of relevant actors and experts to support changemaking efforts. It will also feature an Online Marketplace to help resource necessary activities and engagement. Finally, a crucial component and ethos of the Global Alliance is its commitment to centre stateless people with lived experience and expertise. We have identified five key areas of action where the European Union, Council of Europe, and European States should focus greater attention and resources, including by leveraging the Global Alliance, to affect concrete reforms and support collective efforts to address statelessness: • Ending childhood statelessness by ensuring that European States yet to accede to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, as well as the 1997 European Convention on Nationality, now do so; engaging in efforts led by the Council of Europe CDCJ to address childhood statelessness; encouraging necessary nationality law reform in States with no or partial safeguards for otherwise stateless children born on their territory; promoting the removal of barriers to universal, immediate access to birth registration; introducing adequate child-rights based procedures to determine children’s nationality or statelessness; and improving the identification of statelessness among migrant and refugee children to ensure they can realise their right to acquire a nationality. • Improving the identification and protection of stateless individuals by encouraging all European States yet to do so to accede to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, including in particular the EU Member States of Cyprus, Estonia, and Poland; supporting and encouraging all European States to introduce dedicated statelessness determination procedures to properly implement their obligations towards stateless people, including protection from arbitrary and lengthy detention; and improving reporting and monitoring by national and regional authorities, including by obliging States to collect and publish reliable disaggregated data on stateless people born and living on their territories. • Addressing statelessness in Europe’s refugee response by pushing for the improved identification of statelessness in the context of international protection procedures, including within the EU to ensure the full and robust implementation of obligations under relevant EU Migration & Asylum Pact instruments; and improving the quality of and access to country of origin information and other resources to inform refugee response actors about populations affected by statelessness and nationality problems, and support affected individuals to access their rights. 3