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THE MINISTERS OF EMPLOYMENT and social affairs from all the EU Member States met recently as part of the Council of Ministers now officially called the Council of the European Union. One of the subjects under discussion was the 'balanced participation of women and men in family and working life'. The discussion took place under the articles in the Amsterdam treaty which give responsibility to the EU to promote equality between men and women. The committee took as the basis for their discussion that 'The principle of equality between men and women makes it essential to offset the disadvantage faced by women with regard to conditions for access to and participation in the labour market and the disadvantage faced by men with regard to participating in family life'. 'Both men and women, without discrimination on the grounds of sex, have a right to reconcile family and working life' they went on.
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Two of the ministers at the Council Meeting: | |
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Martine Aubry, French Minister for Employment and Solidarity |
Tessa Jowell, Minister of State, Department of Education and Employment |
As far as concrete measures are concerned the committee quoted a previous council decision which stressed 'the importance for men and women of policies on career breaks, parental leave and part-time work, as well as flexible working arrangements which serve the interests of both employers and employees, while maintaining the necessary balance between flexibility and safety. The meeting came up with a list of recommendations for Member States, the EU in general, the Commission and employers and workers. Member states should be encouraged to examine the scope for their legal systems to grant working men a right to paternity leave, maintaining their rights relating to employment, to be taken at the same time as the mother takes maternity leave irrespective of the lengths of the periods of maternity and paternity leave; to examine 'the possibility of harmonising school and working hours' and to encourage 'businesses, in particular SMEs, to introduce and extend management practices which take account of their workers' family life'.
The EU, as an employer should promote' the balanced recruitment and career advancement of men and women' while the Commission is recommended to ' step up its information and awareness effort', 'to promote research' and 'to work towards developing dialogue between the social partners at European level' 'with a view to the promotion of equality between men and women by reconciling family and working life'. The social partners, in turn, should organise working time and abolish 'conditions which lead to wage differentials between men and women' to the same end.
Three wise men to judge Austria |
New takeover directive in the pipeline |
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The European Court of Human Rights has appointed a three-man investigating body to assess the rights of minorities, refugees and immigrants in Austria and the political nature of the far-right Freedom Party. As we noted in our article in Issue 10, after the incorporation of the Freedom Party into the Austrian government the other countries of the European Union initiated sanctions such as a bilateral meeting ban and withdrawal of invitations to Austrian ministers. This spread to actions such as athletes being banned from competing in the country and cancellations of school exchanges to France and Belgium. Reports vary on the effect of this bad feeling on the Austrian tourist industry but it is generally agreed that the Freedom Party has become more popular since the start of sanctions. Faced with this fact and the possible blocking of EU enlargement by an Austrian veto if they were not dropped, the Commission has been looking for a way out and seems to have found one in the new body. Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel praised the three 'wise men' and said he was confident they would give 'Austria a clean bill of health when it comes to human rights'. He also promised not to use the veto. The group will report its findings to the new EU presidency held by France, one of the strongest supporters of sanctions. |
The Council of Ministers has adopted a 'Common Position' on a proposed directive on takeover bids. Following concern over the behaviour of companies in recent takeovers (see the article on the Vodafone / Mannesmann bid in Issue 10) the measure, which has been discussed for more than a decade, must now be sent to the European Parliament which must give its decision by the end of October. It would ensure that all shareholders are treated equally, that if they have stock in the target company they are given time to make up their mind and that the board must act in the interests of the company as a whole. As far as the bidding company is concerned the draft directive insists that they bid for all the shares, that they make the bid public and inform both the supervisory body, the employees and all the shareholders. An acceptance period of between two and ten weeks would then ensue during which a general meeting of shareholders in the target company must be held. The directive obliges Member States to set up competent supervisory authorities and rules on which country should take charge of cross-border bids. The proposed directive is part of the EU's financial services action plan which aims to create a single market in financial services by 2005. |
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