Tag: social affairs

Belgian authorities are prepared to use a military airfield to receive EU leaders for the extraordinary summit on growth and jobs, as trade unions threatened a mass strike on Monday that is likely to block the Brussels airport.

Austerity measures and public spending cuts are making life worse for the poorest members of society, whose plight is being "systematically ignored" by national and EU policymakers, according to anti-poverty campaigners.

Looking beyond the 2010 European Year for combating poverty and social exclusion, Employment and Social Policy Commissioner László Andor says the EU and its member states must keep working to find new and more effective ways to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged groups. He spoke to EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

While EU-funded projects look nice on paper, the money has little real effect in addressing social issues in Hungary. The huge subsidies could be a strong weapon in the fight against poverty, but EU funds barely reach their target groups. EurActiv Hungary reports.

According to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, the goals of the 'Europe 2020' strategy – including that of reducing poverty by 25% – are ''illusory''. So too is the notion that the social situation of all Slovak citizens has improved in the decades since 1989. EurActiv Slovakia reports.

Romania, one of the poorest countries in Europe, has never dealt with poverty reduction in the twenty years since its transition to a market economy, which makes any commitment to the EU's 2020 poverty reduction goals seem "utopian". EurActiv Romania reports.

At his hearing at the European Parliament, Hungarian Commissioner-designate László Andor was criticised for providing "too general" answers. But many of the questions themselves were also too general, Andor told EurActiv Hungary in an interview.

Amid growing unemployment and increasing inequality in Europe, the new social provisions in the Lisbon Treaty will not immediately correct social imbalances, according to experts. But the crisis might trigger the right kind of social innovation and reform the market economy, they say.

In an interview with EurActiv France, French Socialist MEP Pervenche Berès highlighted the importance of including a social dimension in the battle to solve Europe's economic problems, and questioned the decision to award the European Parliament's important economic committee chair to an English Liberal MEP.

Limosa, a little-known scheme that requires foreigners to register with social security before heading to Belgium for temporary work, has raised concerns in Brussels EU circles. The official behind the scheme, Sarah Scaillet, seeks to clarify the new law in an interview with EurActiv.

At a conference organised by the Social Platform, politicians, officials and NGO activists discussed the importance of a European social model to bringing the EU closer to its citizens. 

Where should the priorities in EU labour policy be? Can the Danish flexicurity success be exported? How to reconcile flexibility and social security? Those questions and more were debated by a panel at Employment Week.

In an exclusive interview for EurActiv, Hans Skov Christensen, director general of the Federation of Danish Industry, speaks out on the benefits that the model of flexicurity has from an employer's point of view.

The model of flexicurity - a combination of easy hiring and firing, high benefits for the unemployed and a pro-active labour market policy - could solve many of Europe's unemployment problems, experts at a conference agreed.

Quizzed by MEPs about his priorities, the new Greek Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs gave few concrete answers, but promised to push for progress on outstanding issues.

The European social model helps to achieve the ambitions of the Lisbon agenda of making the EU the world's number one knowledge economy. This is the key message of a study on the "costs of non-social policies" prepared by DG Employment and Social Affairs for the mid-term review of the Social Policy Agenda.

Employment and Social Affairs Council seeks political agreement on draft directive on information and consultation of workers