European Union News - Social Affairs

EU guidelines saying that border patrols have a moral duty to rescue migrants in distress at sea passed through the European Parliament on its last plenary session. Although a majority of MEPs voted to reject the non-binding guidelines in favour of binding legislation, they failed to muster the absolute majority of MEPs required.

Only one in 10 board members of Europe's biggest listed companies is a woman and all central bank governors in the EU are male. The economy would benefit by having full representation of both men and women in top positions, says a new report presented by the European Commission.

The European Commission has requested the views of workers' and employers' representatives on the options for reviewing EU rules on working time. The first stage consultation asks the European social partners at whether action is needed at EU level on the Working Time Directive and what scope it should take.

As part of its contribution to 2010, the European Year Against Poverty and Social Exclusion, DG Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth (EAC) is organising a conference and exhibition to discuss how EU programmes help the Roma minority.

On 16 th March, the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) will launch a modernised and streamlined selection procedure for EU officials, with its first competition for Administrators under the new arrangements. The new system will be better by establishing annual competitions for the most common job profiles, thus allowing candidates to plan their applications more effectively and helping strategic human resource planning by the EU institutions. It will be faster and more efficient, involving fewer steps than the current set-up

For the fourth year in a row, the European Commission has organized an international drawing competition on Gender Equality, which has been launched on the International Women's Day – 8 March 2010. This year's theme proposes to reflect on how girls and boys, women and men, can together make the world a better place.

This Monday, International Women's Day, the ministers of employment and social affairs of the European Union (EU) are defining the instruments and the main lines of action in Europe's strategy against gender-based violence.

EU Employment and Social Affairs Ministers have agreed on a new facility to provide loans to people who have lost their jobs and want to start or further develop their own small business. The European Microfinance Facility will have a starting budget of €100 million which could leverage more than €500 million in cooperation with international financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group. The initiative is part of the EU's response to the crisis and is especially targeted at people who cannot normally obtain credit because of the economic crisis and the current lack of credit supply .

The European Commission plans to use a series of measures aimed at sig nificantly reducing the pay gap between men and women over the next five years. The average gender pay gap in the EU currently stands at 18%. To lower this rate, the Commission plans to raise awareness among employers, encourage initiatives to promote gender equality and support the development of tools to measure the gender pay gap

The European Commission has selected 43 major energy projects, which will significantly contribute to the economic recovery in the EU, while increasing our security of energy supply by creating cross-border infrastructure. With this decision, the Commission grants € 2.3 billion to 31 gas and 12 electricity projects. This is the second financial decision under the Economic Recovery Package which amounts to almost 4 billion Euros. It is the largest amount the EU has ever spent on energy infrastructure.

 European e-Skills Week is the result of a coordinated effort by the European Commission, governments, industry and educational establishments to inform the European public about the critical role ICT skills play in securing Europe’s future economic competitiveness. A broad range of activities across 35 countries in Europe will highlight the demand for skilled ICT users and professionals. Public authorities, ICT companies and educational institutions have together engaged in hundreds of activities, training events and competitions to inspire people to discover e-skills (such as using the internet) from their youth to retirement .

The European Commission has launched today the Europe 2020 Strategy to go out of the crisis and prepare EU economy for the next decade.  This battle for growth and jobs requires ownership at top political level and mobilisation from all actors across Europe. Five targets are set which define where the EU should be by 2020 and against which progress can be tracked.