Following the announcement by the European Commission of a new initiative called “New start to address the challenges of work-life balance faced by working families”, the European Parliament Committees EMPL and FEMM, decided to draft jointly, an own initiative report on “Creating Labour Market conditions Favourable for Work-Life Balance”. The report is to serve as an input into the Commission’s Roadmap and provide the position of the Parliament on the work-life balance policies. The co-rapporteurs are: Tatjana Zdanoka (Greens/EFA) for EMPL and Vilija Blinkeviciute (S&D) for FEMM. In order to start this process and receive inputs, the Committees organized a public hearing on 22 March 2016, giving the floor to a pool of experts.
Paola Panzeri, Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer was invited to present COFACE’s work and position on the European Commission upcoming initiative. In her speech, she highlighted the necessity of a coherent initiative that can support all families along the life-cycle and the importance of evaluating the positive and negative consequences that technologies can have in the world of work. Finally she presented the three main calls that COFACE is putting forward for this new initiative:
1. A comprehensive set of legislative measures for leave policies.
2. A monitoring and benchmarking system for care services provision within the EU semester (beyond childcare).
3. Policy guidance, awareness raising and share of practices for implementing better flexible working arrangements at Member States and company levels.
COFACE response to the public consultation
More information on the event click here
Reconciling Work and Family Life 