European Union News - Social Affairs

The euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 11.7% in October 2012, up from 11.6% in September. The EU unemployment rate in October 2012 was 10.7%, higher than September. In October 2012, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria, Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands, and the highest in Spain and Greece.

The European Commission has adopted its Decision to modernise and improve the European job mobility network, EURES. The new EURES network will include new members and will be more flexible in order to meet job-seekers and employers' needs. Specific attention will be paid to young people by supporting targeted mobility programmes and new collaboration schemes between public and private job search organisations will be introduced.

The report on the state of the Schengen area was published by the European Commission. Among the conclusions, the Commission highlights that the Visa Information System (VIS) has worked well but the European institution will continue to find ways to improve the data collection and analysis of irregular migratory movements.

Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda and the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano signed a Joint Declaration in London, committing to make the Internet a safer and better place for children. Among the commitments signed, they agreed to implement joint campaigns on the occasion of an annual Safer Internet Day.

The European Commission announced the winner of the Enterprise Promotion Awards 2012. According to the Commission, the UK organisation Outset has been awarded for creating a unique approach to supporting start-ups by helping society’s most vulnerable groups to find work through self-employment and enterprise. Cyprus, Sweden, Italy, Portugal and Turkey also received prizes for driving enterprise with new and innovative local solutions.

The European Commission formally accepted on behalf of the European Union the Nobel Peace prize money which is approximate of €930,000. Moreover, the European institution confirmed that the prize money will be allocated to projects that support children affected by war and conflicts.

The new legislation proposed by the European Commission supposes attaining a 40% objective of the under-represented sex in non-executive board-member positions in publicly listed companies, with the exception of small and medium enterprises. The Directive will establish that companies which have a lower share of the under-represented sex among the non-executive directors will be required to make appointments to those positions on the basis of a comparative analysis of the qualifications of each candidate, by applying clear, gender-neutral and unambiguous criteria.

Jointly the European Youth Forum and the European Union organise a contest in order to invite four young Europeans to come to Oslo to attend the official Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony. The winners will be invited by the Presidents of the European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament, to be part of the official delegation of the European Union that will travel to Oslo to receive this year's Peace Prize.

The directive which sets out minimum rights for victims, wherever they are in the EU will enter into force on 14 November. Member States now have three years to implement the provisions into their national laws.

The European Commission approved two EU funded programmes for a total value of €120 million for Egypt, to support job creation for unskilled workers, and to enhance the efficiency of the Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) system to better respond to the demands of the labour market and to the country's new socio-economic needs.

The Employment and Social Affairs Committee in the European Parliament agreed that the EU aid to redundant workers would continue in 2014-2020, and could also go to additional categories of workers, such as the self-employed (including farmers) and those on temporary contracts. MEPs believe that redundant workers should have equal access to the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund independently of their type of employment contract.