Families and the European Social Policy

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International Population Conference European
Population Day Tours, July 21, 2005

Families and the European Social Policy
Constantinos Fotakis DG Employment and Social
Affairs European Commission
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Contents

• Overall EU Policy approach in relation to
• families
• Relevance of certain EU policies to family
• issues, namely
• The European Employment Strategy
• The Open Method of Co-ordination on
• Social Inclusion
• Concluding remarks on future policy
• perspectives

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Why there is no EU family policy?

• Institutional reasons
• There is no legal framework at EU level for the
  development of a common EU policy approach on
  family issues
• On the basis of the principle of subsidiarity
  national and regional authorities are responsible
  for the development of family policies

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Why there is no EU family policy?

• Factual reasons
• Diversity of family models across the
• EU due to different historical and cultural
• backgrounds
• Heavy reliance of family structures on the
• broader national socio-economic and
• institutional environment

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Changes in family behaviour interact with wide
range of policies

• Changes in the family size, structure and
  behaviour have important implications
  particularly on fertility, employment and
  informal care provision.
• Growing attention on the interactions between
  family trends and a wide range of policies beyond
  the traditional limits of "family policy"

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The family/children dimension in the European
Employment Strategy

• Lisbon objective female employment of 60 of the
  population of working age up to 2010
• Barcelona objectives to provide by 2010 childcare
  to at least
• 90 of children between 3 years and the school
  age
• 33 of children under 3 years of age

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EU acquis paternity/maternity and reconciling
work family life

• Council Directive 96/34/EC Work agreement on
  parental leave
• Council Directive 92/85/EEC Safety and health of
  pregnant workers or those recently given birth

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The family/children dimension in the EU Process
of Social Inclusion

• One of the four Common Objectives is
• "to implement action to preserve family
• solidarity in all its forms"

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Conclusions

• The growing awareness on families beyond the
  traditional limits of "family policy"
• Increasing awareness on women pivotal role both
  in the economic and family life.
• A renewed interest on population dynamics