20/10/2005: BETTER FUTURE FOR LARGE FAMILIES : a topic of discussion between Zuzana Roithova, Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, José Ribeiro e Castro and Commissionner Spidla.
Yesterday afternoon (19/10/05) Zuzana Roithova (Czech Republic), Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou (Greece) and José Ribeiro e Castro (Portugal), EPP-ED Members of the European Parliament, met the Czech Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Vladimir Spidla to discuss the difficulties encountered by large families in various fields and gave him an overview of their particular needs.
In this meeting, the MEPs called the attention of the Commissioner to the specific problems of large families in Europe such as social security, equal treatment, unfavourable tax policies, conciliation of family and professional life etc.
Mr José Ribeiro e Castro presented the European Large Families Associations Confederation (ELFAC) to the Commissioner and expressed the interest of the organization to discuss and establish a collaboration with the Commission, proposal to which Vladimir Spidla responded positively.
Recognizing the fact that Family Policies are competence of Member States and that it should remain so, all participants agreed with Mrs Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou’s proposal that the Commission should contribute to divulge and promote good practices within the EU and help Member States to adapt their policies to large families.
Mrs Roithova stressed the need for co-operation and co-ordination of good practices at the European level and insisted on the necessity of supporting the actions of national family organizations on this regard.
All three MEPs insisted on the importance of family, not only in demographical terms, but also as a factor of social cohesion.
As a response to Mr Ribeiro e Castro’s proposal of holding a European Large Families Forum supported by the Commission, Commissioner Spidla informed the present MEPs that he found the idea interesting and would consider it within the framework of the monitoring and evaluation of the Green Book on Demography.
Yesterday afternoon (19/10/05) Zuzana Roithova (Czech Republic), Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou (Greece) and José Ribeiro e Castro (Portugal), EPP-ED Members of the European Parliament, met the Czech Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Vladimir Spidla to discuss the difficulties encountered by large families in various fields and gave him an overview of their particular needs.
In this meeting, the MEPs called the attention of the Commissioner to the specific problems of large families in Europe such as social security, equal treatment, unfavourable tax policies, conciliation of family and professional life etc.
Mr José Ribeiro e Castro presented the European Large Families Associations Confederation (ELFAC) to the Commissioner and expressed the interest of the organization to discuss and establish a collaboration with the Commission, proposal to which Vladimir Spidla responded positively.
Recognizing the fact that Family Policies are competence of Member States and that it should remain so, all participants agreed with Mrs Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou’s proposal that the Commission should contribute to divulge and promote good practices within the EU and help Member States to adapt their policies to large families.
Mrs Roithova stressed the need for co-operation and co-ordination of good practices at the European level and insisted on the necessity of supporting the actions of national family organizations on this regard.
All three MEPs insisted on the importance of family, not only in demographical terms, but also as a factor of social cohesion.
As a response to Mr Ribeiro e Castro’s proposal of holding a European Large Families Forum supported by the Commission, Commissioner Spidla informed the present MEPs that he found the idea interesting and would consider it within the framework of the monitoring and evaluation of the Green Book on Demography.
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