Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-19-Speech-2-060"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20070619.6.2-060"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
".
Mr President, I am taking this report on behalf of my colleague Commissioner Špidla, who has been delayed due to travel difficulties.
You probably know that the Commission has launched a formal consultation of European social partners on reconciling work life and private life on the basis of Article 138 of the Treaty. The first phase began in October 2006 and the second in May 2007.
The Commission considers that different legislative and non-legislative components are indispensable with a view to better reconciling work, private life and family life. That is why, in the consultation document, the Commission invited the social partners to give their opinions on a set of legislative and non-legislative options. I am pleased to note that the motion for a resolution broadly echoes the concerns and arguments defended by the Commission in its two documents consulting the European social partners.
Lastly, I recall the adoption in November 2006 of the action programme in the field of lifelong learning for 2007-2013. This programme, which symbolises the new priority given to education, may provide support for projects that meet your concerns.
I should like to begin by congratulating Mrs Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou on the quality of her report and the very pertinent suggestions it contains. The Commission broadly welcomes the motion for a resolution of the European Parliament on measures enabling young women in the European Union to combine family life with a period of study.
While education and family policies are matters for the national authorities, it is important, in every context, to encourage the reconciliation of family life and study periods. At the Stockholm and Barcelona European Councils, the Heads of State and Government recognised that the future of the economy and of European society would depend on its citizens and, in particular, on the younger generations and their levels of training. Education and training have thus been located at the heart of the Lisbon process.
These policies are decisive for achieving a real knowledge-based European society. For economic reasons and on grounds of equity and equal opportunities, it is therefore important to ensure that young men and women with family responsibilities have the opportunity to take up and complete studies.
The Commission is pleased that the motion for a resolution concentrates not only on students with responsibilities for children, but also on those with responsibilities vis-à-vis dependent adults or people with disabilities. Likewise, it also welcomes the recommendations concerning childcare facilities, fathers’ roles and better sharing of housekeeping and family responsibilities as a significant factor in equal opportunities between men and women. This approach is in line with the Commission’s policy in the field of reconciling private lives and working lives.
The Commission also draws encouragement from the stress placed on equality between men and women. Reconciling private life and working life is one of the six priorities of the roadmap for equality between men and women adopted by the Commission in March 2006. As stated in the proposal for a resolution, we are well aware that, in reality, women bear most family and housekeeping responsibilities, even while studying. In the absence of adequate support, young women are thus more likely than men not to continue in education, to give up in the middle of a course or never to return to education, which inevitability leads to inequalities between men and women in their working lives and a loss of their potential.
Crèches and other childcare facilities are therefore essential to gender equality. In the roadmap for equality between women and men 2006-2010, the Commission emphasised that childcare services are adapting too slowly to social developments, and it undertook to support the achievement of the Barcelona objectives and the development of other care facilities through the Structural Funds and the exchange of good practices.
In 2008 the Commission also intends to present a communication on the achievement of the Barcelona criteria, which will take stock of the progress made and the efforts that remain to be made.
All these elements also contribute to the response that we have to give to the demographic challenge. Childcare services support individuals’ free choice, allowing them to have the number of children they would like to have."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples