European Union News - Social Affairs

Eurofound contributed to a conference celebrated by the Cyprus EU Presidency with research findings from projects that have looked at employment developments in childcare services for school-age children, company initiatives for workers with care responsibilities for disabled children or adults, and parenting support in Europe. Eurofound found that the proportion of people reporting difficulties in accessing childcare services are among the highest on all counts in Greece.

The European social partners stressed the need for the active involvement of social partners in the implementation of national reform plans and in EU governance as a whole in the Tripartite Social Summit held in Brussels on 18th October ahead of the autumn European Council.

The European Commission and UN Women launched Spring Forward for Women. This programme aims to support national and regional stakeholders to empower women economically and politically in the context of the progress that has followed the Arab Spring. The programme will respond to the support needed at regional and country levels.

The European Commission focuses this year's SME Week in promoting women entrepreneurship. According to the Commission, women's entrepreneurial potential is underexploited and the EU needs more women entrepreneurs to create growth and new jobs.

The outcome of the new Eurobarometer survey unveils that most of Europeans believe that Europe should continue helping developing countries despite the economic crisis. However, only 44% would be prepared to personally spend more money on products that support development (such as fair-trade goods).

The SME Performance Review 2012 report shows that Europe's Small and Medium Sized enterprises (SMEs) continue to strive for recovery. According to the Review, further policy is needed to help SMEs in recovery. The report also argues that the creation of more such enterprises should be an integral part of any growth strategy and suggests appropriate policies measures.

The European Commission announced that the Single CMO Management Committee voted to allocate €500 million from the EU funds for the 2013 Food for the Most Deprived programme. This will be the last year that the scheme will run in this form, funded from the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).

The European Union and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reached a new deal that will boost cooperation, dialogue and help to share information and best practice. The new partnership sets out clear, strategic priorities and encourages increased policy dialogue on areas of mutual interest between the two organisations, such as education, culture, science and technology, maritime policy and freedom of expression.

European Ministers for maritime policy and the European Commission adopted the new Maritime Agenda for growth and jobs. They adopted a declaration that proposes a marine and maritime agenda to back the Europe 2020 strategy. The agenda proposes a dynamic and coordinated approach to maritime affairs enhances the development of the EU's 'Blue Economy' while ensuring the health of seas and oceans.

The European Commission proposed a new policy to help vulnerable communities across the world build resilience to future crises. The measures proposed range from improving access to food through supporting partner countries to ensuring that governments are alerted quickly at the outbreak of crises. With this new policy, the Commission puts resilience at the heart of its work on fighting hunger and poverty.