European Union News - Social Affairs

Belgium and the European Commission will host the 12th Annual EU-NGO Forum on Human Rights in Brussels. It will be centred on the topic, “EU Human Rights instruments and the Lisbon Treaty: State of play and way forward”.

Official talks on the European Union's accession to the ECHR (European Convention of Human Rights) have started. Thorbjørn Jagland, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission, marked the beginning of this joint process at a meeting in Strasbourg. They discussed how to move the process forward so that citizens can swiftly benefit from stronger and more coherent fundamental rights protection in Europe.

The Informal Council of European Employment and Social Affairs Ministers, celebrated in Brussels, focused primarily of the place of employment in the new Europe 2020 Strategy for employment and growth.

AIDS affects more and more people. Besides, over 33 million people are living with AIDS world-wide and access to antiretroviral treatment remains poor. The European Parliament has approved a resolution calling on governments to pass new laws that ensure more affordable medication and to avoid free trade agreements that favour the commercial interests of the pharmaceutical sector over health needs.

Among proposals made by MEPs in a resolution on improving access to the labour market for young people is a "European Youth Guarantee" to ensure that young people who are unemployed do not remain jobless for more than four months.

The European Commission has launched a Europe-wide public debate on how to ensure adequate, sustainable and safe pensions and how the EU can best support the national efforts. Ageing populations in all Member States have put existing retirement systems under massive strain and the financial and economic crisis has only increased this pressure.

The European Commission is supporting a project on Active Ageing of Migrant Elders across Europe (AEMEE project) which is realised by the Ministry of Intergenerational Affairs, Family, Women and Integration of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council ended late on June 29th  with a deal for new rules on capital requirements for banks and a cap on bonuses for bankers. This new EU wide law, the first cap on how bankers are paid worldwide, will transform the bonus culture and end incentives for excessive risk taking.

The new directive entitles self-employed women and assisting female spouses of self-employed workers for the first time to maternity benefits and creates autonomous social protection rights for assisting spouses of self-employed workers.