European Union News - Social Affairs

The euro area (EA16) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 10.0% in November 2009, compared with 9.9% in October. It was 8.0% in November 2008. The EU27 unemployment rate was 9.5% in November 2009, compared with 9.4% in October. It was 7.5% in November 2008. For the euro area this is the highest rate since August 1998 and for the EU27 since the start of the series.

Ten years ago, European leaders pledged to end poverty in the EU by 2010. As this deadline approaches, the goal is still some way off. That is why the European Union has decided to declare 2010 as European year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion.

The European Commission has published in the Official Journal of the European Union a call for proposals based on Decision Nº 1719/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 November 2006, establishing the Youth in Action programme for the period 2007 to 2013. The total budget of the call is over 115 million euros.
 

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, has explained the objectives of the Spanish Presidency of the EU at the headquarters of the European Council and maintained that all the political initiatives of the six-month period which begins on 1 January will be designed to overcome the economic crisis, based on the principles of innovation, peace, welfare and gender equality.

Improving labour market flexibility is one of the key elements of the Lisbon strategy to make Europe more dynamic and competitive. Eurofound's second European Company Survey is designed to make easier for Companies to find strategies to manage the economic recession.

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) will, for the first time, open its doors in Vilnius. The Presidents of Lithuania and Latvia, Dalia Grybauskaitė and Valdis Zatlers, along with Commissioner Vladimír Špidla, the Institute's Chair of the Management Board, Eva Welskop-Deffaa and the Director of the Institute, Virginija Langbakk will unveil the new premises at a ribbon cutting ceremony. The ceremony will honour the launch of one of the EU's youngest agencies whose aim is the promotion of gender equality issues.

Legal measures to make it easier for people who have lost or risk losing their jobs to get credit to start up their own businesses were backed by the European Parliament on Tuesday.

Crisis response measures and EU financial support have helped to stem the adverse impacts of the slowdown on EU labour markets in 2009, says a European Commission report issued today. But these measures must be coherent with long-term employment reforms to prepare a successful exit from the crisis. The draft 'Joint Employment Report' will be discussed by employment and social affairs ministers in the Council in March 2010 and will contribute to the EU's new 2020 strategy for growth and jobs, due to be adopted by EU leaders in Spring 2010.

The first results of the latest Eurobarometer survey reveal that for Europeans unemployment is the most important issue facing their own country, while concerns about the economic situation have lessened slightly. However, a majority still believes the worst of the crisis is to come.

The number of persons employed in the euro area (EA16) fell by 0.5% in the third quarter of 2009 compared with the previous quarter, according to national accounts estimates published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

A decision taken by the European Commission treserves two new "116" numbers for services of social value. The helpline numbers 116 006 and 116 117 will be reserved for victims of crime and for citizens calling non-emergency medical services across the EU.