European Union News - Social Affairs

The 'Colorful but Colorblind' project has been granted by the prestigious award from the US-based Society of Professional Journalists. The project is a series of 25 short films telling the stories of Roma communities living in central and Eastern Europe. The aim was to encourage a more nuanced coverage of Roma issues and a greater participation of Roma journalists in mainstream media operations.

On 23 of August, the Europe-wide Day of Remembrance of the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, several EU justice ministers signed the Warsaw Declaration. The document symbolises mutual understanding and solidarity in the context of the difficult and painful experiences linked to totalitarian regimes.

During the celebration of World Water Week (21 - 29 August), Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, reaffirms the EU's commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goal pledge of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.

The Council and the European Parliament have reached political agreement on the draft directive aimed at combating sexual abuse and exploitation of children as well as child pornography. The new directive will harmonise around 20 relevant criminal offences and setting thresholds for maximum penalties.

The European Commission and the Cedefop presented a Green Paper in which the Professional Qualifications Directive is evaluated. The Green Paper's main aim is to gather stakeholders' views on a modernisation of this directive. The contributions can be made by 20 September 2011.

The Committee of the Regions, AGE Platform Europe and the European Commission have issued a brochure presenting EU funding possibilities for regional and local initiatives to promote active ageing and solidarity between generations. The brochure aims to make a particular contribution to the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations 2012.

The Council of the European Union adopted in June 2011 a recommendation on policies to reduce early school leaving which seeks to promote progress towards the Europe 2020 headline target of reducing school drop-out rates to less than 10% by 2020. Reducing early school leaving is essential for achieving a number of key objectives in the Europe 2020 strategy and will help to achieve the objectives of smart and inclusive growth.

The European Commission has accepted the request made by Spain to restrict the access of Romanian workers to its labour market until December 31st 2012. This measure is mainly due to the effect that these migration flows are having in the Spanish labour market, which is experiencing the highest rate of unemployment in the European Union.

The TAKE CARE ("Strategies towards responsible alcohol consumption for adolescents in Europe") project has reached the practical phase. First pilot trainings with adolescents took already place in the individual countries. The project counts with EU funds.

85,000 responses were received to the public consultation on the upcoming revision of the Tobacco Products Directive. The outcome shows that contributions varied significantly. For example, those in favour of mandatory pictorial health warnings stressed that these measures would significantly weaken the advertising effects of the packaging. Opponents, on the other hand, raised legal concerns arguing that these measures would have little or no impact on the uptake of smoking.

Commission starts legal procedure against nine countries which are not yet notified all national measures needed to fully implement the European Union Mediation Directive. This Directive entered into force on 21 May and it applies when two parties who are involved in a cross-border dispute voluntarily agree to settle their dispute using an impartial mediator. Now these nine countries have two months to respond.