BETTER CONCILIATION OF FAMILY LIFE WITH A PERIOD OF STUDIES OR TRAINING

19/06/2007: The plenary session of the European Parliament approved by a large majority the report of Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou MEP entitled "Towards a regulatory framework for measures to reconcile family life and a period of studies for young women in the EU".

The report, which was unanimously adopted on the 5th of June by the Women's Rights Committee, contains several recommendations which aim to enable young people to reconcile their period of studies or training with family responsibilities, maternity or paternity leave, or in situations of care for dependent persons such as disabled or elderly people.

The report underlines that the later achievement of the different stages of life (studies, work, family) is responsible, amongst others, for Europe's demographic decline.

It encourages the Commission and the Member States to promote policies for the conciliation of a period of studies or training and family life and to provide interested young people with the resources that correspond to their needs.

It invites Member States to propose low-cost social security schemes for students and trainees which could be extended to their dependents as well as to facilitate the provision of bank loans for students and to reduce or suppress the taxation of young people who take up family responsibilities in parallel with their studies, training or professional activity.

The report regrets that all the Member States have not yet complied with the Barcelona objectives on childcare facilities and encourages the creation of such structures within universities or professional institutes. As far as older children are concerned, the report encourages Member States to provide students with good quality and low-cost care facilities.

It recommends the establishment of a national certification system which would enable the identification of Higher Education Institutions which offer possibilities for the conciliation of studies and family life.

The report also invites the Member States and social partners to facilitate lifelong learning and its conciliation with family and professional life. It calls for the suppression of all restrictions to complementary paid work activities for students as long as the amounts received do not exceed the threshold set by each Member State.

Finally it calls on Member States to examine whether family responsibilities are a factor of abandonment of studies, especially for young women.

For further information: Tel: +32-2-2847447 Fax: +32-2-2849447
E-mail: marie.panayotopoulos@europarl.europa.eu

BETTER FUTURE FOR LARGE FAMILIES. JOSÉ RIBEIRO E CASTRO MEP, MARIE PANAYOTOPOULOS-CASSIOTOU MEP, AND ZUZANA ROITHOVA MEP

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.