Earlier this month, members of the European Parliament ruled in favour of expanding minimum maternity leave in Europe from 14 to 20 weeks and paternity leave to two weeks on full pay, a proposal which they must now try to sell to individual governments. In the end, MEPs decided to go beyond the initial proposal […]
The Commission recently adopted a five-year strategy for promoting equality between women and men in Europe. The strategy aims in particular to make better use of women’s potential, thereby contributing to the EU’s overall economic and social goals. It translates the principles set out in the European Commission’s Women’s Charter into specific measures, ranging from […]
The UK government announced on 29 July 2010 that it plans to scrap the default retirement age of 65 from October 2011. This means that in the future, employers cannot dismiss staff because they have reached the age of 65. The Employers Forum on Age (EFA) has described the new proposal as a “victory” against […]
France’s National Assembly on Tuesday backed by a crushing majority a bill banning the wearing of the full face veil in public spaces, a garment which politicians across the political spectrum regard as a symbol of religious extremism. The vote – by 335 to 1 – takes France a step closer to becoming the first […]
Many European countries have launched anonymous application trial programmes over the recent years. The Dutch programme, tested in Nijmegen in 2008, was a subject of national discussion and compared anonymous CVs and application letters with ones detailing name and ethnic background. Belgium’s federal government has hired
In Belgium, although there is conducive business environment, only 2.91% of women have started their own businesses, much less than in other countries of higher income where the average is 7.91%. Only one in three entrepreneurs are women who work mainly in areas of human services and business sectors, while women represent nearly half of […]
The Spanish government will create a law on Religious Liberty to establish the use of the Islamic headscarf in public spaces, including in educational facilities. The Minister of Justice, Francisco Camaño, stated that the new legislation “must be clear” with respect to the use of religious symbols in public spaces. Even though the
On June 2nd, the Italian House of Deputies began debating a new bill requiring a mandatory four-day paternity leave for all new fathers. If the bill is approved, Italian fathers will be obligated to take four days off immediately after the birth of their new child. The four-day paternity leave would be fully paid by […]
With programmes such as ‘Espoir Banlieues’ and ‘Chance2’, France and Germany are concretely fighting inequality for disadvantaged youth. The 2010-revised French programme ‘Espoir Banlieues’ (transl. ‘Hope Suburbs’) began in 2008 and supports the employment and employability of young people from “les banlieues”, the low-income districts with a high percentage of non-integrated minorities. Since the launch […]
With Spain holding the EU presidency for the first half of 2010, Spanish Prime Minister José Zapatero plans to speed up the process to Gender Equality in the EU. While speaking at the ‘Women for a Better World’ Conference in Valencia, Zapatero stressed that during the Spanish EU presidency, Spain would continue to support the […]
