European Social Policy articles from November 2005

European Social Policy archives from November 2005

LISBON RESTABILISED.(Lisbon Agenda)
November 22, 2005... "What a game of chance human life is!", Voltaire commented in the wake of the earthquake that shattered Lisbon 250 years ago. It remains the case - as recent disasters have grimly demonstrated. But the intervening years have seen huge...

CULTURE: COUNCIL APPROVES POST-2007 PROGRAMME.
November 22, 2005... The Culture 2007 programme was adopted in its entirety. Regarding the only question that remained to be solved - the submission of the projects selection to the comitology procedure - it was decided to submit projects with a total EU...

EDUCATION/YOUTH: MINISTERS APPROVE LIFELONG LEARNING PROGRAMME.(European Commission)
November 22, 2005... The European Commission has foreseen a budget of euro 13.6 billion over seven years for the lifelong learning programme, which aims to improve the quality of training and education systems. The programme is comprised of four sectoral programmes...

EDUCATION: COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION FLAGS UP NEW TARGETS FOR LIFELONG LEARNING.
November 22, 2005... The Recommendation on key competences for education, training and lifelong learning follows on from the "Education and Training 2010" work programme. The Commission defines competences as a blend of "knowledge, aptitudes and attitudes", whereby...

REGIONAL POLICY: COMMISSION PREPARED TO REALLOCATE FUNDS TO FRENCH SUBURBS.(European Commission)
November 22, 2005... True to its earlier promise, the European Commission is on the ready to provide funding for areas affected by urban violence. It now has a clearer idea of figures, too: a total of euro 50 million can be expected from the URBAN programme (which...

REGIONAL POLICY: CRISIS IN FRENCH SUBURBS SPURS COMMISSION AND MEPS INTO ACTION.(Members of the European Parliament)
November 22, 2005... Jean-Marie Beaupuy, who is also deputy Mayor of Reims, believes it is important that "decisions should not only emanate from central government", arguing there should also be coordinated action at EU level. Speaking to journalists on November...

SOCIAL AFFAIRS: FINLAND LIKELY TO LET EASTERN WORKERS IN.(Brief article)
November 22, 2005... Finland is considering opening up its labour market to workers from new member states. According to recent reports on Finnish public radio station Yle Radio Suomi, from Polish press agency PAP and other media, Helsinki will probably choose not...

JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS: MEP SEEKS TO PUSH TRAFFICKING FOR SEXUAL EXPLOITATION UP THE AGENDA.(Ms. Prets)
November 22, 2005... Ms Prets is calling for an annual anti-human-trafficking day to be established with its own logo, along the same lines as already exists for AIDS and breast cancer. She proposes that a telephone helpline with the same number across Europe...

HEALTH & SAFETY AT WORK: DEAL CLINCHED TO SCRAP SUNLIGHT MEASURE.
November 22, 2005... According to a Parliament spokeswoman, an overwhelming majority of MEPs on the delegation agreed at the November 15 meeting to scrap all references to sunlight after two leading members relayed news of the new deal to them. The move was...

TIGHT VOTE IN PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE ON SERVICES DIRECTIVE.(Brief article)
November 22, 2005... As Europe Information was going to press (on the eve of November 22), the European Parliament's Internal Market Committee was voting on the 1,602 tabled amendments to the controversial draft Services Directive. The only clear point to have...

JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS: EU RULES ON WILLS NEEDED, SAY LEGAL EXPERTS.(wills and succession)
November 22, 2005... Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee organised the hearing to get to grips with issues raised by the European Commission's February 2005 Green Paper on wills and succession. There were 50,000 such international cases in the EU in 2002, Italian...

EDUCATION: COMMISSION TAKES STOCK OF PROGRESS TOWARDS 2010 TARGETS.
November 22, 2005... Still, national reforms are "going in the right direction", said Education Commissioner Jan Figel. The Communication, which will be forwarded to the Council and discussed by EU Education Ministers meeting in Brussels on November 15, also...

EU/UNESCO: NEW REPORT CALLS FOR KNOWLEDGE, NOT INFORMATION, SOCIETIES.
November 22, 2005... The report attempts to draw a distinction between information and knowledge societies. While information societies are based on scientific breakthroughs that improve access to technology, knowledge societies are more concerned with the content...

EU/AFRICA: CONFERENCE ON MIGRATION TO BE STAGED IN EARLY 2006.(Brief article)
November 22, 2005... These countries "jealously guard their independence" and are not well disposed towards EU interference in their affairs, according to the Commissioner, who argues that human rights condemnation simply risks rendering these countries deaf to the...

SOCIAL AFFAIRS: ETUC CLAIMS THERE REALLY IS ONLY ONE SOCIAL MODEL.(European Trade Union Confederation)
November 22, 2005... The European Trade Union Confederation is sticking to its guns in defending the view that there is one single 'European social model' - as opposed to 25 disparate ones. ETUC General Secretary John Monks told journalists in Strasbourg on...

MIGRATION: DOES EUROPE NEED A THIRD WAY?
November 22, 2005... Brain circulation. "Europe should have its own third way policy on qualified foreign workers: neither closing the door to the potential they offer nor falling into the North American trap: the brain drain i.e. attracting skilled immigrants...

SOCIAL AFFAIRS: EXPERTS BACK GLOBALISATION FUND AND NORDIC MODEL.
November 22, 2005... Each of the six papers, which were published as a complement to the summit, were penned by individual experts. One focuses on climate change, another on immigration, with a call to "rapidly" lift temporary work bans imposed by all the 'old'...

SOCIAL AFFAIRS: MEPS DISCUSS 2006 WORK AGENDA IN VIENNA.(Members of the European Parliament)(Brief article)
November 22, 2005... According to a spokeswoman for the Committee, there was no official agenda for the series of meetings. Such visits are routinely paid ahead of upcoming EU presidencies - Austria takes over from the UK on January 1. MEPs held talks with...

ENERGY: COMMISSION TO LOOK INTO SOCIAL ASPECTS OF ENERGY-SECTOR LIBERALISATION.(European Commission)
November 22, 2005... The European Commission's DG Transport and Energy (DG TREN) intends to update the 2001 study on the social dimension of liberalisation of energy markets in the EU, Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs told a conference of the European Federation...

JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS: EU NOTARY CONGRESS HEARS MIXED VIEWS ON NEED FOR HARMONISED CIVIL LAW.
November 22, 2005... Step-by-step approach. The two-day conference was kicked off by Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, although his speech focused more on national rather than European issues. Summing up the EU Commission's strategy, Mr Frattini told...

SPORT: NEW EU CHALLENGE TO FOOTBALL RULES.
November 22, 2005... The Oulmers lawsuit is currently making its way through the Belgian system, but is expected to be passed up to the EU Court as it involves issues that national jurisdictions are thought unable to rule on. The case involves an incident in...

SPORT: FIFA AND CLUBS WORK TO PREVENT ANOTHER EU COURT CASE ON FOOTBALL.(International Association of Association Football)
November 22, 2005... The moves were confirmed in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on November 13 at the annual Soccerex convention, the last before the 2006 World Cup, drawing more than 2,000 professionals and 100 exhibitors from more than 75 countries. FIFA and...

EU/AFRICA: MALTA PUSHES COUNCIL TO TAKE TOUGHER LINE ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.
November 22, 2005... Migration/development tension. A meeting of member state ambassadors to the EU (COREPER) on November 17 failed to resolve the differences, with Malta digging in its heels, say inside sources. Malta is one of the countries worst affected by...

MULTILINGUALISM: COMMISSION PROMOTES POLYGLOTS WITH NEW WEB PORTAL.
November 22, 2005... The web portal, with access in all 20 official EU languages, brings together relevant information on EU programmes and actions related to promoting language learning and multilingualism in a user-friendly format. "This is a thematic portal...

EU JOBLESS RATE STABILISES AT 8.6%.(Brief article)
November 22, 2005... The EU unemployment rate was 8.6% in September 2005, unchanged compared to August, according to the latest figures from Eurostat. It was 9% in September 2004. At the same time euro-zone seasonally-adjusted unemployment stood at 8.4% in...

JOBS & GROWTH: REPORT STRIKES UPBEAT NOTE ON NURTURING KEY SECTORS NOW.
November 22, 2005... Aptly entitled "Jobs for the Future", the 43-page report puts forward a ten-point action plan for policy-makers and business to promote top jobs for the 21st century. The basic idea was to distil key proposals that could serve as "a roadmap for...

INFORMATION SOCIETY: REPORT REVEALS DIGITAL DIVIDE ACROSS EUROPE.(Brief article)
November 22, 2005... Europe is suffering from a digital divide stemming from differences in education and employment status, according to new figures released by Eurostat. While 85% of students used the internet during the first quarter of 2004, only 40% of the...

EU KEEN TO SIGN READMISSION PACT WITH MOROCCO AT BARCELONA SUMMIT.(Brief article)
November 22, 2005... The European Commission is keen to take the opportunity of the Euromed summit in Barcelona on November 27-28 to sign a readmission agreement with Rabat, as part of a wider drive to combat illegal immigration. This was confirmed by EU External...

SPANISH REGIONAL LANGUAGES USED AT COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS PLENARY.(Brief article)
November 22, 2005... Spanish regional languages were officially used for the first time in an EU institution when the Committee of the Regions (CoR) met in Brussels for its 62nd plenary session on November 16-17. Pasqual Maragall i Mira (PES), President of...

MEPS BACK 'SOCIAL GLOBALISATION'.(Members of the European Parliament)(Brief article)
November 22, 2005... The European Parliament called on November 15 for social policies to offset the more brutal effects of globalisation. MEPs adopted a report drafted by Slovenian EPP-ED Mihael Brejc saying that globalisation must be a process with a strong...

WORKING TIME: FRANCE ORDERED TO PAY UP FOR FAILING TO TRANSPOSE EU DIRECTIVE.(Brief article)
November 22, 2005... France has been found guilty as charged by the European Court of Justice for failing to adopt all the laws, regulations and administrative measures necessary to comply with the Working Time Directive (2000/34/EC). In a judgement presided over...

ASYLUM POLICY: ECJ SLAMS GREECE FOR NOT TRANSPOSING TEMPORARY PROTECTION DIRECTIVE.(European Court of Justice)(Brief article)
November 22, 2005... Greece has been reproached by the European Court of Justice for not implementing a key part of EU asylum law, the Temporary Protection Directive (2001/55/EC). The law, which requires member states to offer asylum in cases of sudden mass...