The Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities has produced three new video news releases. They all address social issues which are currently high on the agenda.

A video on the gender pay gap in Europe explains the problem and shows how a number of EU countries are taking actions to try to end discrimination against women in the workplace. On average women earn 15% less than men throughout the European Union. In some sectors, such as clothing manufacture, this pay gap can rise as high as 86%. To address the continuing disparities in pay between women and men, a higher awareness of this issue is necessary among all parties involved.

The clip "Protecting the dignity of our older people" throws light on the abuse of elderly people, which has become a serious problem in our society. Almost half (47%) of people across the EU consider the phenomenon to be widespread in their country – and the challenge is only likely to increase with time as Europeans get older. The film shows good examples of tackling poor treatment, neglect and abuse of dependent elderly and preventing similar abuse in the future.

Tackling child poverty and breaking the transmission of poverty and exclusion from one generation to the next features high on the European Union’s political agenda. Child poverty is recognised as a multi-dimensional problem which requires urgent integrated actions across a wide range of social, economic and cultural policies. Almost 20% of European youngsters are at risk of poverty – a higher rate than the adult population. The video news release shows areas in the EU where child poverty is a prevailing problem, but where some encouraging action is also taking place.

The films have been broadcasted on Europe by Satellite and have been placed in their shorter 3-minute versions on EUTube - the European Commission's channel on popular video-sharing website YouTube.