European Social Policy articles from May 2006

European Social Policy archives from May 2006

RECOGNITION OF DIPLOMAS : 4 MEMBER STATES FACE LEGAL ACTION ON VOCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS.
May 12, 2006... The European Commission announced on 19 April that it had referredaSpain, France, Greece and Sweden to the Court of Justice in a bid to correct breaches of EU law on professional qualifications (1985, 1989, 1992, 2001 Directives). ...

JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS COUNCIL : ANTI-PROSTITUTION TRAFFICKING PUSH FOR WORLD CUP.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... Responding to fears this summer's World Cup in Germany will be a magnet for forced prostitution, EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers have taken preventive measures. Conclusions adopted on 27 April urge deployment of police officers to help...

COURT OF JUSTICE : CAN COMMERCIAL AGENTS CLAIM DAMAGES FOR TERMINATED CONTRACTS?(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... The European Court of Justice issued two judgements in March clarifying the definition of independent commercial agents and the right to an indemnity for termination of a contract under the terms of a 1986 Directive. A self-employed...

SOCIAL INTEGRATION : CAN THE EU HELP IMMIGRANT WOMEN INTEGRATE INTO EUROPEAN SOCIETY?
May 12, 2006... How can the EU facilitate the integration of immigrant women onto the labour market and in society in general? Language learning, zero tolerance of human rights violations and raising awareness of fundamental rights and obligations were a...

CHRISTIAN NAME = DISCRIMINATION.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... A study by the French Observatory on discrimination (1) claims that 'Christian names are a marker of social and geographic origin, age and religious leanings'. Entitled 'Do Oliver, Gerald and Mohammed share the same career prospects?', the...

EMPLOYMENT : CITIES DEMAND A ROLE IN EMPLOYMENT STRATEGIES.
May 12, 2006... Cities dominated the EU Committee of the Regions' plenary session in Brussels on 26 and 27 April. Firstly with the adoption of a report by Michael Haupl, the Socialist Mayor of Vienna (Austria) on 'the urban contribution to growth and jobs in...

EUROBAROMETER : CITIZENS HAVE SOCIAL EXPECTATIONS FOR FUTURE EU.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... Achieving comparable standards of living, introducing the euro in all member states and ushering in a common Constitution. These are the principal aspirations identified by citizens for the future of Europe, according to the results of a...

STRUCTURAL FUNDS : COUNCIL REVIEWS REGIONAL AND SOCIAL FUNDS.
May 12, 2006... The draft Regulations on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF) have not been fundamentally altered in the agreement reached by the Council of Ministers on 5 May on the Structural Fund package for the...

EAPN URGES SOCIAL INCLUSION.(European Anti Poverty Network)(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... In its response to the Commission's consultation on 'action at EU level to promote the active inclusion of the people furthest from the labour market', the European Anti Poverty Network (EAPN) is calling for support for all strategies that...

RIGHT OF RESIDENCE : ECJ BACKS GERMANY'S EXPULSION POLICY.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... The European Commission has lost a case it took against Germany with regard to the latter's expulsion of EU nationals with criminal convictions. The EU Court of Justice reconfirmed on 27 April (C-441/02) that member states are not allowed to...

SOCIAL SECURITY : ECJ DEFENDS PENSION RIGHTS OF TRANSSEXUALS.
May 12, 2006... The European Court of Justice ruledaon 27 April that the refusal to grant an occupational pension at the normal female retirement age to aa transsexual who had undergone a gender reassignment operation from male to female constitutes a...

FREE MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE : ECJ REFUSES TO RULE ON CHOICE OF SURNAME.(European Court of Justice)(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... The EU Court of Justice has refused to get involved in deciding whether a German ban on using double-barrelled surnames flouts EU law. The ECJ said on 27 April (Case 96/04) that the body referring the case - a local court in Niebull - was...

JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS COUNCIL : EFFORTS TO RETURN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS STEPPED UP.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... The need to work together more closely in returning illegal immigrants to their home country is becoming an increasing preoccupation for the European Commission and EU Council of Ministers. On 27 April, Justice and Home Affairs Ministers...

EMPLOYMENT STRATEGY.
May 12, 2006... The European Commission has published two calls for proposals to accompany the EU's Employment Strategy (VP/2006/010 and 011). The first concerns the assessment of results, notably the effectiveness and impact of policies applied through...

FAMILY : EP PUSH FOR REGULATION ON WILLS.
May 12, 2006... A move to have a Brussels IV' Regulation, setting out which country's law and jurisdiction to apply in executing wills and succession rights with a cross-border dimension, is causing something of a stir in the European Parliament. Chairman of...

EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND : ESF ACTIONS ON EARLY SCHOOL LEAVING UNDERMINED BY POOR ANALYSIS.
May 12, 2006... In a special report published on 20 April, the European Court of Auditors has highlighted a grey area in actions undertaken by six member states (Spain, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom) to deal with the problem...

ECONOMIC POLICY : ETUC TABLES RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A BETTER MACRO-ECONOMIC POLICY.(European Trade Union Confederation)
May 12, 2006... Trade unions are concerned that rising interest rates are preventing the economic revival from picking up quickly enough. In a report published together with the Commission's spring economic forecasts on 8 May, the European Trade Union...

FREE MOVEMENT OF WORKERS : EU-15 EASE RESTRICTIONS ON EU-8 WORKERS.
May 12, 2006... At a press conference on 2 May, Vladimir pidla, the Commissioner responsible for Employment, Social Affairs and Gender Equality, welcomed the decision by several member states to open their labour markets to workers from the eight new East...

BORDER SECURITY : EU ISSUES BORDER CODE.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... The EU's first ever border control code was published on 13 April. It sets out when, where and how the EU external border can be crossed and when border checks between member states can be reintroduced. Ireland and the United Kingdom will not...

JOB MARKET : EURES ON ROUTE TO SUCCESS WITH NEW INTERNET ADDRESS.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... Finding EURES on the internet has become simpler, after the site adapted to the recently launched .eu system: the European employment agency portal is now available at 'eures.europa.eu'. Launched in February (see Europolitics Social 171), it...

HEALTH : EURO-MPS DEMAND STRATEGY TO TACKLE DIABETES.
May 12, 2006... British Conservative MEP John Bowis and three of his colleagues (two from the Socialist group and one from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) presented a written declaration on diabetes on 19 April. Adopted by an absolute...

EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP PANELS.
May 12, 2006... The European Commission has launched a call for proposals (EAC/18/06) for the promotion of active European Citizenship. Projects should encourage citizens' panelsafor stimulating active interaction and to empower a group of active European...

COMPANY LAW : EUROPEAN COOPERATIVE STATUTE LAW UPHELD BY THE COURT.(European Court of Justice)
May 12, 2006... The European Court of Justice, on 2 May, upheld the 2003 Regulation establishing an EU-wide statute of European cooperative society (C-436/03). The European Parliament, supported by the Commission, had contested the Council of Ministers' choice...

RADIATION PROTECTION : EXPERTS CLASH OVER HEALTH CONSEQUENCES OF CHERNOBYL.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... Just a few days before the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Greenpeace has published a damning report on the health impact of the explosion of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant's reactor unit 4. Fifty-two scientists from...

SAFETY AT WORK : EXPOSURE TO ARTIFICIAL OPTICAL RADIATION: NEW EU DIRECTIVE UNCOVERED.
May 12, 2006... Formally adopted on 5 April, the EU Directive on 'exposure to risks due to artificial optical radiation' is the last in a series of four specific Directives designed to enhance workers' health and safety. It must be transposed into national law...

SOCIAL SERVICES OF GENERAL INTEREST : FIRST TIMID STEPS TOWARDS A EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK.
May 12, 2006... True to its word, the European Commission adopted a Communication on 26 April addressing the issue of social services of general interest (SSGI), a first for the EU executive - in which it sketches out a series of pointers. Vladimir...

SOCIAL SERVICES OF GENERAL INTEREST : GOOD BUT NOT ENOUGH.
May 12, 2006... 'Good, but could do better' would be the best way to describe the general reaction to the European Commission's newly-released Communication on social services of general interest (SGI). The satisfied if unenthusiastic reaction is undoubtedly...

HEALTHCARE.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... This study examines the impact of European law on healthcare. It looks at the various facets of the issue, namely thea circulation of patients, care providers and healthcare products, and health insurance management in view of European rules on...

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... The First European Human Resources Barometer, published by the Club of the same name and put together by Hewitt and Associates, reveals that productivity and organisational change are the biggest concerns facing HR managers but also shows that...

CRIMINAL LAW : HUMAN-TRAFFICKING LAWS SATISFACTORY, COMMISSION SAYS.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... National laws for penalising human-traffickers are generally adequate, the European Commission has concluded in a report on implementation of Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA on human-trafficking. Severe criminal penalties are provided for in...

IMMIGRATION : INTEGRATION POLICIES NOT WORKING.
May 12, 2006... None of the various national policies for integrating immigrants are working well, speaker after speaker at a European Parliament conference on the subject on 25 April claimed. The problem for EU law-makers, however, is that the legal basis for...

UNEMPLOYMENT : JOBLESS RATE STABLE IN THE EU, DOWN SLIGHTLY IN EURO-ZONE.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in the twelve-nation euro-zone stood at 8.1% in March 2006, down on the 8.2% recorded in February and 8.8% in March 2005. The EU25 unemployment rate was 8.4% in March 2006, the same as inaFebruary....

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES : KROES APPEALS TO WOMEN TO SHOW WHAT THEY ARE CAPABLE OF.(Neelie Kroes)(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... Attending a conference on gender equality on 4 May, EU Competition CommissioneraNeelie Kroes launched what she called a 'resounding appeal to women'. 'We can no longer make do with diplomatic talk. If we do, it will take at least 50 years to...

JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS : MEPS URGE ACTION TO ALLEVIATE MALTA'S IMMIGRATION CRISIS.(Member of the European Parliament )
May 12, 2006... Following their first-hand witnessing of the abysmal state of Malta's migrant detention centres, MEPs are proposing remedies. Asylum-seekers should be kept in open, not closed, centres and detention periods drastically reduced, says a report to...

HEALTH AND SAFETY OF WORKERS : MEPS WANT LAW TO PROTECT HEALTH WORKERS FROM USED NEEDLES.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... Members of the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs invoked the little used Article 39 of the EP's Rules of Procedure on 20 April, in order to ask the European Commission to bring forward a legislative initiative to...

SCHENGEN INFORMATION SYSTEM : MEPS WARY OF USING BIOMETRICS IN SIS II.
May 12, 2006... Niggling doubts remain among MEPs about using biometrics identifiers like fingerprints to identify people in SIS II, the revamped Schengen Information System, being set up. In the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee on 18 April,...

HEALTH AND SAFETY OF WORKERS : MULTI-SECTOR AGREEMENT ON CRYSTALLINE SILICA DUST.
May 12, 2006... Trade unions and employers from several sectors (mining, metallurgy, cement, ceramics, etc) signed an agreement on 25 April designed to protect workers exposed to crystalline silica dust (1). Vladimir pidla, the European Commissioner for...

CHILD PROTECTION : NEW LAW LEAVES ROMANIAN ORPHANS ABANDONED, SAY MEPS.
May 12, 2006... Orphans in Romania who believed they had found new families abroad are facing being abandoned for a second time, due a new Romanian adoption law, according to Members of the European Parliament who organised a public hearing on 25 April. ...

OCCUPATIONAL PENSION SLOTH.(occupational retirement provision )(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... The European Commission has decided to send reasoned opinions to eleven member states (Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom) for not having written Directive...

INTERVIEW / VOLKER HARTUNG, DIRECTOR OF THE COLOGNE NEW PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA : ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK.(Interview)
May 12, 2006... On 22 February 2005, Volker Hartung was about to perform Ravel's Bolero with his German orchestra in Strasbourg when French police arrested and held him for two days for flouting French labour law. Mr Hartung says what happened was an attack on...

PORTABILITY OF PENSIONS : PARLIAMENT HOLDS FIRST DEBATE ON PORTABILITY OF PENSION RIGHTS.
May 12, 2006... At a mini-hearing on the portability of supplementary pension rights, held by the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, both experts and MEPs gave the European Commission's initiative a fairly cool reception. ...

SOCIAL INCLUSION : PARLIAMENT INTERGROUP DRAFTS EUROPEAN CHARTER ON HOUSING.(European Parliament)(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... MEPs on the European Parliament's URBAN-Housing Intergroup adopted a European Charter on Housing on 26 April. The text is intended as an expression of a 'European policy of proximity' as expressed by its promoter Belgian Socialist Alain...

PEUGEOT PLANT CLOSURE PROTESTS.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... European trade unions anda workers' representatives at Peugeot (PSA) gathered in Brussels on 27 April to denounce the closure of the Ryton assembly plant in the United Kingdom, condemning an industrial strategy 'based principally on a...

JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS COUNCIL : PRICE OF A VISA TO GO UP TO EURO 60.
May 12, 2006... The price of issuing a Schengen short-stay visa is set to increase from 35 to 60, following an agreement reached by EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in Luxembourg on 27 April. The initiative, spearheaded by France, is justified by the...

SOCIAL INCLUSION : PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR EU ACTION AGAINST POVERTY.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... There does seem to be support at the grass roots for action at EU level to reduce poverty, a public consultation has revealed. Several organisations responded to the open consultation held by the European Commission betweena8 February and 19...

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY : RISK OF ACCIDENTS AND LONG JOURNEYS CAUSING STRESS FOR BUILDERS.(European Construction Industry Federation, European Federation of Building and Woodworkers )(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... The European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC), and the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW), adopted a joint recommendation on 7 April on the prevention of occupational stress in the construction sector1. 'Stress...

VISAS / IMMIGRATION : RUSSIAN DEALS PREPARED AS FRATTINI OUTLINES THINKING.(Franco Frattini)(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... EU member states have been formally asked to approve the signature and conclusion of agreements between the EU and Russia on easing visa procedures and taking back illegal immigrants. The European Commission proposed on 26/27 April Council...

SAFETY IN THE WORKPLACE.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... Ireland has been referred to the European Court of Justice for failure to notify the European Commission of measures to transpose Directive 2001/45/EC of 27 June 2001 onathe minimum safety and health requirements for the use of work equipment...

SOCIAL SERVICES OF GENERAL INTEREST : SECTOR DEMANDS CLEARER AND MORE SUITABLE REGULATION.
May 12, 2006... The Communication on Social Services of General Interest which the European Commission is expected to adopt on 26 April is long overdue, despite being waited for patiently by all involved in the sector. This was the verdict of a conference...

RIGHT OF ASYLUM : SLOVENIA'S REFUGEE RECOGNITION RATE LESS THAN 2%.(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... Less than 2% of people who apply for asylum in Slovenia are recognised as Geneva Convention refugees and there are just 114 refugees living there. That is according to a report Slovenia sent to the European Commission outlining how the money it...

SOCIAL EUROPE A POLICY TOO FAR?
May 12, 2006... With the institutional question back on everyone's agenda, it seems appropriate to look at the one issue sidelined by the Convention on the Future of Europe, the social question. Those who followed the Convention back in 2002-2003 will recall...

PIDLA AND SOCIAL GLOBALISATION'.(Vladimir pidla)(Brief article)
May 12, 2006... Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimir pidla set out his vision of a new European social policy at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on 21 April. He believes that "the future of the European social model" lies in...

WORKERS' TRAINING.
May 12, 2006... Only three weeks remain for trade unions at European and national levels to reply to the open call for proposals (VP/2006/002) afor information and training measures for workers' organisations benefiting from EU funding. Last year, the average...