European Union News - Social Affairs

The adoption of measures to promote the mobility of researchers and creating more stable and attractive working conditions for this group were two of the subjects discussed this Tuesday by the formal Council of Competitiveness Ministers (Research) in Brussels, chaired by the Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation, Cristina Garmendia.

To achieve quicker de facto gender equality, Commission and Member States should adopt and implement specific gender equality policies, Parliament said in a resolution adopted on its last plenary session. Improving the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women also belongs to the women's right agenda, including enabling fathers to share family responsibilities by taking paternity leave.

The first ever European e-Skills Week will take place between 1 st and 5 th of March 2010. European e-Skills Week highlights the growing demand for skilled ICT users and professionals to drive a competitive and innovative Europe. This campaign aims to inform students, young professionals and SMEs about the vast range of opportunities that ICT-related jobs present.

Minimum maternity leave in the EU should be extended from 14 to 20 weeks and be fully paid, believe MEPs in the Women's Rights Committee. An entitlement to paid paternity leave of at least two weeks was also approved by the committee.

In its annual resolution on equality between men and women in the EU, Parliament called for greater efforts to tackle violence against women, for paternity leave to be addressed at EU level and for equal pay legislation to be revised. A majority of MEPs also say women must have control over their sexual and reproductive rights, through easy access to contraception and abortion.

The Commission has published the results of the public consultation on the EU 2020 strategy. It consists of two documents in the context of the preparation for the Europe 2020 strategy, the successor to the Lisbon strategy.

Immediate action is required to solve Europe's skills deficiencies and give Europeans a better chance of labour market success in the future, says an independent expert report published by the European Commission in the framework of a conference on this issue.

On Safer Internet Day, the European Commission will announce if major internet companies have acted on their commitment to improve the safety of under-18s who use social networking sites. An EU-wide campaign to encourage teenagers to "Think before you post" will also be launched.

European women in charge of ministries and other european political organisms gathered at Cadiz on the occasion of the "European Summit of Women in Power" have produced a joint statement condemning the low participation of women in certain spheres of public life and its absence at high levels of responsibility and decision making.

Figures from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2008 dataset reveal that Europeans aged 65 years and over face a higher poverty risk rate (19%), compared to the total average population (17%). Results vary considerably for the 27 EU Member States, with older people facing the highest poverty risk rate in Latvia (51%) and the lowest risk rate in Hungary (4%).