European Social Policy articles from November 2007

European Social Policy archives from November 2007

QUALIFIED MAJORITY VOTING : DOUBLE MAJORITY VOTING WILL HAVE TO WAIT TILL 2014 **.
November 14, 2007... The new qualified majority voting system in the Council should only be applied from 1 November 2014. This is what the heads of state and government of the EU27 unanimously agreed in the early hours of June 23, to satisfy Poland's persistent...

EUROPEAN COUNCIL : JOB MARKET AT CENTRE OF TRI-PARTY SOCIAL SUMMIT.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... The social partners, the European Commission, and the EU Troika (Portugal's Jose Antonio Vieira da Silva, Slovenia's Janez Jansa and Frenchman Jean-Pierre Jouyet) are holding, at the start of the European Council on 18 October in Lisbon, an...

INTERNAL MARKET : LEGAL ACTION FOR NON-RECOGNITION OF PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... The European Commission, on 17 October, sent reasoned opinions (the second stage of the infringement procedure) to 22 member states for failing to implement a directive amending EU rules on professional qualifications so as to allow for...

SOCIAL POLICY : MODEST SUCCESS FOR A SOCIAL EUROPE **.
November 14, 2007... Although the new treaty only brings small advances for social policy, it can be considered a modest success at least for a social Europe. The document proves that Europe is not inherently hostile to social issues as the supporters of the yes'...

INTERNAL MARKET : NO FOREIGN MEDICAL TREATMENT, BOILERS, DEBT COLLECTORS OR AUDITORS.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... France received, on 17 October, a reasoned opinion, the second stage in the EU's infringement proceedings process, for refusing to reimburse the costs of foreign' medical treatment. The European Commission says it is merely mechanically...

SOCIAL POLICY : SOCIALISTS MAP OUT NEW ROUTE TO SOCIAL EUROPE.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... With the election of the European Parliament emerging on the horizon, the Socialists have decided to step up the debate. Martin Schulz, head of the Socialist Group in the EP, has written to Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, who chairs...

ILLEGAL WORK : 5% OF EUROPEAN WAGE EARNERS ARE PAID ILLEGALLY, SURVEY SHOWS.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... One employee in 20 acknowledges being paid illegally, according to a Eurobarometer survey just published by the European Commission. This percentage varies greatly among countries: from 3% or less to more than 10% (Central and Eastern Europe in...

LISBON TREATY : A SOCIAL POLICY IN A MINOR KEY.
November 14, 2007... While the scope of social policy does not change, certain developments nonetheless occur with regard to the philosophy of the objectives, the introduction of a social horizontal clause, voting rules on social issues, the emphasis given to...

AUSTRIA TAKES THE DEAL ON STUDENT QUOTAS.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer confirmed to fellow EU leaders, on 18 October, his willingness to drop suggestions that the right of member states to impose quotas on foreign students should be made clear in the EU reform treaty. His...

CITIES AND IMMIGRATION.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... EU Commissioner Franco Frattini (Freedom, Justice, Security) and Mayors Litizia Moratti (Milan) and Ivo Opstelten (Rotterdam), signed, on 5 November, the Milan Declaration, in which they agree to strengthen the voice of cities in implementing...

FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY : COMMISSION PRESENTS INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS FOR TACKLING POVERTY.
November 14, 2007... Income support, access to labour markets and quality social services are the three key areas that the European Commission wishes to develop in order to strengthen the EU's policy against exclusion, as presented on 17 October, the International...

SERVICESaDIRECTIVE : COMMISSIONa(RE)DEFINES EXCLUDED NON-ECONOMIC' SECTORS.
November 14, 2007... The European Commission's Directorate-General for Internal Market and Services (DG Markt) has published on its internet site a handbook(1) on the implementation of the Services Directive (2006/123/EC), proposed in 2004 by Commissioner Frits...

LABOUR LAW : CONSULTATION REVEALS DIVERGENT VIEWS.
November 14, 2007... What is the future of labour law? The consultation carried out by the European Commission on its green paper of November 2006 has brought in a wide range of reactions (450 opinions were submitted). The subject was known to be highly sensitive...

SERVICES OF GENERAL INTEREST : CRITICISMS AHEAD OF COMMISSION COMMUNICATION.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... "The Commission's approach is unacceptable." At his regular press conference at the European Parliament on 13 November, the leader of the Party of European Socialists, Martin Schulz, condemned the approach the European Commission is expected to...

EMPLOYMENT : CULTURAL SECTOR A SIGNIFICANT PLAYER ON EU LABOUR MARKET.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... Some 4.9 million people were employed in the EU's cultural sector, or 2.4% of the Union's total employment, in 2005, according to figures released by Eurostat on 29 October. The figure covers all people engaged in cultural occupations in...

SERVICES OF GENERAL INTEREST : DISPUTE RAGING WITHIN THE COMMISSION.
November 14, 2007... The adoption by the European Commission of several communications, one on services of general interest and the other on social services of general interest, has been postponed from 13 to 20 November. This is a sign of extreme difficulty which...

DRUG ADDICTION : DRUGS AGENCIES AGREE TO COOPERATE.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... Greater cooperation is expected between EU and Russian drugs trade experts, following the signing of a memorandum of understanding on 26 October. The memorandum is concerned with improving links between the European Monitoring Centre for...

SOCIAL EXCLUSION : EAPN WARNS ITALY AGAINST CRIMINALISING ALL IMMIGRANTS.(European Anti Poverty Network )(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... Speaking on the occasion of the 2007 General Assembly of the European Anti Poverty Network (EAPN), held from 8 to 10 November in Budapest, EAPN Director Fintan Farrell expressed his deep concern regarding the emergency decree on expulsion...

AGE DISCRIMINATION : ECJ CONFIRMS COMPULSORY RETIREMENT AGE.
November 14, 2007... Can an employer force retirement on an elderly employee when age discrimination is forbidden under EU law? Yes, according to the EU Court of Justice, on condition that certain principles are respected (judgement of 16 October, Felix Palacios de...

LISBON TREATY/EDUCATION AND TRAINING : EDUCATION AND CULTURE TO KEEP THEIR LIMITED SCOPE FOR ACTION.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... Education, vocational training and youth policy will retain the same status under the reform treaty as they had before. These policy areas are classed in the new treaty as examples of those in which the EU can carry out actions to support,...

EMPLOYMENT : EP ADOPTS REGULATION TO IMPROVE STATISTICS.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... The European Parliament adopted, on 15 November, a report by Alexandru Athanasiu (PES, Romania) on the regulation concerning quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies. This text aims to remedy the lack of reliable national data on...

IMMIGRATION : EPC: MIGRATIONS HELP INCREASE GROWTH POTENTIAL.(Report)
November 14, 2007... The Ecofin Council of November 2006 mandated the European Commission to present a report analysing the economic determinants of migration in Europe. On the basis of this report, the Economic Policy Committee (EPC) submitted its own conclusions...

PUBLIC HEALTH : EP WANTS MORE RESEARCH ON DANGERS OF SNUS.
November 14, 2007... In an own-initiative report adopted on 24 October in Strasbourg, on the Green Paper Towards a Europe free from tobacco smoke', the European Parliament urges the European Commission "to investigate the health risks associated with consumption...

UNEMPLOYMENT : EU JOBLESS RATE AT 7% IN SEPTEMBER.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... In the eurozone, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 7.3% in September 2007, compared to 7.4% in August and 8.1% in September 2006. In the EU27, the unemployment rate was 7% in September 2007, compared with 7.1% in August and 8%...

EU MULLING RESPONSE TO ITALY'S LAW ON EXPULSION.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... The European Commission has so far refused to give an official position on a new Italian law facilitating the expulsion from Italy of nationals from other EU member states, on the grounds that it has still not been officially notified of the...

EDUCATION AND TRAINING : EUROPEAN QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK MOVES A STEP CLOSER TO REALITY.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... The initiative to create a European Qualification Framework moved a step closer to success, on 24 October, as the European Parliament completed its first reading on the dossier. The first reading essentially endorses the Commission's...

EU TACKLES CHILDHOOD OBESITY.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou opened, on 8 November, the European Day of Healthy Food and Cooking'. This event is supposed to encourage children to eat more healthily in order to combat child obesity in Europe. In 14 member states,...

LISBON TREATY/FREEDOM, SECURITY AND JUSTICE : EXTENSION OF MAJORITY VOTING HERALDS NEW ERA FOR JHA POLICY.
November 14, 2007... The most fundamental change in the area of Justice and Home Affairs, under the new Treaty, will be the extension of qualified majority voting (QMV) in Council to areas where decisions previously had to be taken by unanimity (JHA renamed in the...

LISBON TREATY/JUSTICE : FRATTINI CALLS FOR CO-DECISION IN ADVANCE OF LISBON TREATY.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... The European Parliament should be treated as if it had co-decision powers on new legislative proposals relating to police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, according to Commissioner Franco Frattini, despite the fact that this goes...

JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS : FRATTINI TAKES WAIT AND SEE' STANCE ON ITALIAN DECREE.
November 14, 2007... The European Commission is still holding back from giving a proper assessment of the legality of a recent Italian decree, adopted on 31 October, giving local officials the power to expel EU citizens from other member states. Speaking in...

LEGAL MIGRATION : FRATTINI UNVEILS PLANS FOR EU BLUE CARD' SCHEME.(Franco Frattini)
November 14, 2007... Long-awaited proposals for the EU blue card' scheme for highly skilled migrants were adopted by the European Commission on 23 October. The idea of the blue card has been promoted by Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini as an important tool to...

REVISION OF LISBON STRATEGY : GLOBALISATION: PARLIAMENT'S RED LINES.
November 14, 2007... If the European Union really wants to benefit from globalisation(1), it should first and foremost boost its own economic and social cohesion. That is the message MEPs aim to put across during a debate (on 14 November) on the challenges of...

INCREASE IN OFFENCES RELATED TO REST PERIODS.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... The European Commission is "concerned" by the results of checks carried out by member states on driving times, breaks and rest periods for professional drivers, the reason being that these checks show that the average number of offences is not...

ECONOMY : INDICATORS DROP FURTHER IN OCTOBER.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... Following a marked drop in September, the Business Climate Indicator (BCI) for the eurozone continued to decline in October, says a European Commission press release published on 31 October. However, in combination with the pick-up in...

IONISING RADIATION IN PORTUGAL.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... The European Commission sent, on 17 October, a reasoned opinion to Portugal for failure to fulfil its obligations on basic safety standards for the protection of health of workers and the general public from ionising radiation (Directive...

MAYORS SUPPORT QUALITY PUBLIC SERVICES.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... The mayors of Brussels, Paris, London, Luxembourg, Lisbon, Sofia, Amsterdam, Tallinn, Vienna and Nicosia signed, on 31 October in Brussels, a declaration in support of "high-quality public services, accessible to all". In the declaration, they...

ILLEGAL WORK : MEMBER STATES URGED TO STEP UP FIGHT AGAINST UNDECLARED WORK.
November 14, 2007... The European Commission's message is clear: "It is time for member states to step up their fight against undeclared work". Vladimir Spidla, the European commissioner for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities, was even more specific...

MEPS BACK PLANS ON SUSPENDED SENTENCES.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... MEPs have given broad support to the establishment of EU-wide rules on the implementation by judicial authorities of suspended sentences, and certain types of non-custodial sanctions (such as community service) which have been imposed by the...

IMMIGRATION : MEPS INSPECT BELGIAN FACILITIES FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... After inspecting Belgium's three centres for detention of illegal immigrants, a European Parliament delegation said during an 18 October press conference that the centres lack appropriate facilities for children and adequate documentation for...

FLEXICURITY : MEPS SEEK TO DEFEND INTERESTS OF EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYERS ALIKE.(members of the European Parliament)
November 14, 2007... Any flexicurity strategies should make recruitment easier thus allowing companies to respond rapidly to changing economic circumstances, says an own-initiative report adopted by the Employment Committee of the European Parliament on 12 November...

WORKERS' REMITTANCES : MIGRANTS SEND 19 BILLION EURO TO NON-EU COUNTRIES.(non-European Union countries)(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... The money sent by migrants from the EU to their former country of residence, usually referred to as workers' remittances, amounted to 26 billion in 2006, compared with 23 billion in 2005. These figures include both intra-EU and extra-EU flows....

LEGAL MIGRATION : MINISTERS DEMAND CLARIFICATIONS ON FUNCTIONING OF EU BLUE CARD.(interior ministers)(European Union blue card)
November 14, 2007... Further clarity is needed on the requirements that would be placed on applicants for the planned EU blue card', according to EU interior ministers, who discussed the plans on 8 November during a debate on the European Commission's recent...

JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS : MINISTERS MAKE HEADWAY ON NON-CUSTODIAL SENTENCES.(European Union national ministers)
November 14, 2007... EU national ministers have made considerable progress towards reaching agreement on arrangements for transferring EU citizens back to their home country when they have been punished with a non-custodial sentence in another member state. ...

SAFETY AT WORK : MRI SCANS TO GET FOUR-YEAR REPRIEVE.(magnetic resonance imaging)
November 14, 2007... The European Commission proposed, on 26 October, to postpone for four years - until 30 April 2012- the deadline for introducing legislation on workers' exposure to electromagnetic fields, which could affect the use of technologies such as...

ROAD TRANSPORT : NEW INFRINGEMENT PROCEEDINGS AND ECJ REFERRALS.(European Court of Justice)(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... At its weekly meeting on 17 October, the European Commission decided to launch a series of infringement proceedings, some of which concern road transport in the EU. A reasoned opinion, the last step before a formal complaint to the EU...

LISBON TREATY / FREEDOM, SECURITY AND JUSTICE : OPT-OUTS EXTENDED TO ADDRESS CONCERN AT LOSS OF NATIONAL VETOES.
November 14, 2007... New elements are to be added to the opt-out' arrangements for the UK and Ireland, under the EU's new reform treaty, aimed at addressing previously unexplored questions concerning Council decision making in Justice and Home Affairs (JHA renamed...

GLOBALISATION ADJUSTMENT FUND : PARLIAMENT APPROVES FIRST APPLICATIONS.
November 14, 2007... The European Parliament approved, on 23 October, the mobilisation of the European Globalisation Fund (EGF) for subcontractors at Renault and Peugeot. France had made two applications on 9 and 13 March to come to the aid of employees...

CHARTER OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS : PARLIAMENT APPROVES NEW VERSION, WARSAW PROCRASTINATES.
November 14, 2007... The European Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee cleared, on 12 November in Strasbourg, a decision approving the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This is a necessary formality prior to the (re)proclamation of the charter on 12 December...

SCHENGEN AREA : PARTY PLANNING IN FULL SWING AS DATE SET FOR ENDING BORDER CHECKS.
November 14, 2007... It is official: nine new EU member states will, as planned, be joining the Schengen area on 21 December. The move will lead to the absence of internal border checks in Europe for an area stretching from the Atlantic coastline to as far as the...

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT : PLENARY TO DEBATE EXPULSION OF ROMANIANS FROM ITALY.
November 14, 2007... The highlights of the European Parliament's plenary session, held from 12 to 15 November in Strasbourg, include the official visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, votes on the financing of European political parties and on soil protection,...

CHARTER OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS : POLISH OPT-OUT BECOMES IRREVERSIBLE UPON SIGNATURE.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... The Charter of Fundamental Rights no longer appears in the text of the treaty. This decision has the effect of reducing the length of the text by some 50 pages and responds to a philosophical concern: "It would have undermined the standing of...

PORTUGAL'S EGF APPLICATION.(European Globalisation Adjustment Fund)(Opel Portugal, Alcoa Fujikura and Johnson Controls)(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... In the application submitted by Portugal to the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, three companies are primarily targeted: Opel Portugal (Azambuja plant, 658 workers), the electronic systems supplier Alcoa Fujikura (Seixal plant, 360...

WORKING TIME/TEMPORARY WORK : PORTUGUESE PRESIDENCY ATTEMPTS TO UNBLOCK DOSSIERS.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... As the Portuguese employment minister announced at the beginning of the summer, Portugal's EU Presidency is going to try to unblock two sensitive issues which have already dragged out for several years: the review of the Working Time...

PRAGUE EASES EU DOCTOR ENTRY.(European Union)(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... Doctors from EU countries wanting to work in the Czech Republic should no longer encounter difficulties of a legislative or administrative nature. An amendment to the law on the recognition of diplomas has been adopted by the Czech cabinet,...

PRISONER TRANSFER PLANS SUPPORTED BY MEPS.(Members of European Parliament)(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... Firm support has been given by MEPs to proposals aiming to increase the extent to which criminals, convicted of a crime in an EU member state, are sent to serve their prison sentences in their home country. The EP gave its opinion on the issue...

EDUCATION, YOUTH AND CULTURE COUNCIL : QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK AND ERASMUS MUNDUS HIGH ON AGENDA.
November 14, 2007... Ministers made significant progress on the establishment of a European Qualifications Framework, and on agreeing arrangements for the next phase of the Erasmus Mundus Programme, at the meeting of the Education, Youth and Culture (EYC) Council...

REGULATION ON INNOVATIVE THERAPIES.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... The EU27 have formally adopted the proposal for a regulation creating a Europe-wide legal framework for medicines from gene therapy, somatic cell therapy and tissue engineering. They adopted all the amendments suggested by the European...

LISBON TREATY : SERVICES OF GENERAL INTEREST GET LEGAL BASIS.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... In the new treaty, services of general economic interest (SGEI) benefit from a new legal basis but also from a series of principles contained in a protocol. The protocol was negotiated for the most part by the Dutch who face an ongoing inquiry...

LEGAL MIGRATION : SET OF EU-WIDE MINIMUM RIGHTS PROPOSED FOR THIRD COUNTRY WORKERS.(European Union)
November 14, 2007... People from third countries who have come to the EU to work should be guaranteed a basic set of rights no matter which member state they are living in, according to the European Commission, which has adopted proposals to address the issue on 23...

GLOBALISATION ADJUSTMENT FUND : SIX NEW APPLICATIONS FILED SINCE SUMMER.
November 14, 2007... Hard on the heels of the applications filed by France (for sub-contractors of car makers Peugeot-Citroen and Renault) and by Germany and Finland (concerning redundancies in two companies in the mobile phone sector, BenQ and Perlos ), the...

LISBON STRATEGY : SLIGHT AMENDMENTS MADE TO EP'S RESOLUTION.(European Parliament)(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... At the conclusion of a long and very lively debate over the challenges the EU has to face as a result of globalisation (and notwithstanding that the final text was taken in hand by the Conference of Group Presidents), MEPs have adopted (with...

HARASSMENT AT WORK : SOCIAL AGREEMENT SUBMITTED TO MEPS AND MEMBER STATES.(members of European Parliament)
November 14, 2007... The European Commission has submitted to the European Parliament and Council the framework agreement on harassment and violence in the workplace, which was concluded on 26 April by union and employer representatives at the European level. This...

AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY : SOCIAL PARTNERS AGREE ON ADAPTING TO CHANGE.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... The European Commission and the leading industry federations and workers' organisations in the automotive sector officially announced, on 5 November, the launch of a new partnership to help better anticipate and manage change in the EU's...

LISBON SUMMIT : SOCIAL PARTNERS AGREE ON FLEXICURITY.
November 14, 2007... After two days of discussions in the Executive Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), on 17 and 18 October, the trade unions finally agreed to sign the text negotiated with the other social partners (BusinessEurope, CEEP...

SOCIAL POLICY : SPIDLA SPELLS OUT PRIORITIES OF NEW SOCIAL AGENDA AFTER 2010.(Vladimir Spidla)
November 14, 2007... A social and competitive' Europea- this is the leitmotif that the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimir Spidla, intends to roll out in the coming months, and which he presented to social...

PUBLIC HEALTH : STUDY: EU LACKS CONSISTENCY IN PANDEMIC PLANNING.(European Union)
November 14, 2007... Despite being better prepared than they were in 2005, countries in Europe are still failing to provide details of exactly what measures have been implemented to combat a potential flu pandemic. A study published recently in the World Health...

INTERVIEW WITH JOHN MONKS, GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE EUROPEAN TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION : "THE LIFETIME JOB STILL HAS A FUTURE".(Interview)
November 14, 2007... The social partners presented publicly, on 7 November in Brussels, their joint analysis of the European employment markets (adopted at the Tripartite Social Summit,). On this occasion, the general secretary of the European Trade Union...

UK EXTENDS RESTRICTIONS ON ROMANIAN, BULGARIAN WORKERS.(United Kingdom)(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... Britain will keep restrictions on the number of Romanian and Bulgarian workers it allows in for at least another year, Home Office Minister Liam Byrne announced on 30 October. The government limited the number of low-skilled workers it would...

UNION FEARS TELECOMS JOB CUTS.(French Confederation of Christian Workers)(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... Between 600,000 and 800,000 redundancies in Europe are possible in the telecommunications sector, according to the French Confederation of Christian Workers, a union which criticises Commissioner Viviane Reding's project of separating networks...

REGIONAL COHESION : URBACT II PROGRAMME KICKS OFF.(Brief article)
November 14, 2007... The first call for proposals for the URBACT II programme were presented on 6 November, on the occasion of the new programme's inaugural conference, which took place in Berlin from 4 to 6 November. This second generation programme, which is...