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News - December 2014





Newsletter December 2014


Dear Readers,
 
2014 is slowly coming to an end, and so is our 2014 Year of reconciling Work and Family Life. As we look back on the year, perhaps the most striking was how incredibly busy we were. With 3 major conferences, 2 under the auspices of the Greek and the Italian Presidencies respectively, as well as the Employers’ Forum in Helsinki, and not to forget our early February event for the European Elections in Berlin, no wonder the whole team of COFACE, as well as the Members were very busy this year.

Many of our Members, as well as Members of the 2014 Alliance, and other stakeholders also took the opportunity to organise events around the issue of work-life balance, to which they very kindly also invited us. As we have certainly clocked up a lot of miles traveling, these were mainly great opportunities to learn about the different aspects of reconciliation, the real challenges at national, regional, local and workplace levels, and also very inspiring to see all the different initiatives, that are making a difference in the lives of many working parents and carers.
 
However, there is still a lot more to do. This is why we are working hard to finalise the European Reconciliation Package, which we will be hopefully able to share with many of you, and directly give it to policy and decision makers, with very specific inspiring examples, as well as policy pointers, and concrete policy and legislative proposals.
 
We are as always trying to bring you the latest news and publications from our office, our network and beyond, and hopefully you will find something useful and interesting to read.
 
In closing, let me thank you again for your on-going interest in, and support for our work all through 2014, and wish you and your loved ones a restful and Merry Christmas, as well as all the best for an exciting, challenging and probably, just as busy, 2015!
 
See you soon!
 
Enjoy the newsletter.
 
Agnes Uhereczky
Director

COFACE launches the #DeleteCyberbullying app for Android & iOS

Hurtful messages, fake profiles and nasty comments pursue the victims of cyberbullying 24/7, and can cause a lot of harm. Often the victims are too ashamed to speak out, and internalise the problem, which only makes it grow bigger.
 
Funded by the European Union Daphne III programme, as part of the #DeleteCyberbullying project, COFACE and the project partners aim at raising awareness about the issue of cyberbullying and what can be done to prevent and tackle it.
 
The #DeleteCyberbullying app aims at answering questions teens, parents and teachers may have about this phenomenon through an interactive quiz to test their knowledge. It also enables teenagers to take a self-diagnosis tool, which redirects victims or worried parents to the designated help phone-lines, where they can contact directly professionals for specific advice in their own country and language.
 
The app is available in 16 countries in 14 languages.

To download the app: deletecyberbullying.eu/app

Joint action to ensure rights of migrant children

COFACE is one of the 26 organisations that sent a letter to the new elected EU Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs, Dimitris Avramopoulos, asking to take measures to realise the rights of all children affected by migration, regardless of their or their parents’ migration status, and to address all violations of their rights, as a priority within his mandate.
 
In the letter, we called on the Commissioner to expand the existing EU frameworks protecting specific groups of migrant children to ensure that every child affected by migration -including those who are accompanied by their parents or other caregivers- have their rights upheld in policy and practice.

Joint statement on how to promote family-based care and independent living in Europe

The European Expert Group on the transition from institutional to community-based care (EEG), together with MEPs Ádám Kósa and Helga Stevens put the spotlight on this issue in a high level debate organized at the EP on 10 December.
 
The debate focused on how the new European Commission and European Parliament could support reforms aimed at the transition from institutional to community-based care in line with the international human rights standards, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Fundamental Rights Charter. Read more

Recognizing and sharing best practice in reconciling work, family and private life

EIGE, the European Institute for Gender Equality organised a highly interesting and relevant event at the end of November in Vilnius, Lithuania, gathering different experts from across Europe to exchange and discuss best practices for reconciling work and family and private life.

This event was took place in the broader framework of EIGE’s commitment and work on collecting, analysing and disseminating good practice on gender equality. In 2014 there was a special focus on reconciliation legal framework and best practice, and this event at the end of November was the follow-up of the peer review already held at the first half of the year. Read more

Towards a European Reconciliation Package

All along the year, the 2014 Alliance, coordinated by COFACE, has worked to develop the European Reconciliation Package (ERP), the main policy outcome of the year of Reconciling Work and Family Life in Europe. This Package will be published during the spring 2015 and translated into the major European languages to be able to have a wider reach and will explore the potential of reconciliation policies from different angles.

In particular, we will analyse four main areas: reconciling for carers, women’s employment and the potential of reconciliation, childcare solutions and education and reconciling at the workplace. For each area, a legislative and policy background will outline the current situation and some recommendation will be put forward and a number of existing practices will be presented.

The ERP will be available online soon, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us for more information.

What will happen to the European Maternity Leave Directive?

Nobody knows…
 
Frans Timmermans, who is the Vice-President of the European Commission, and is charged with ensuring better law-making by the European Union revealed his plans at the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg. There are some legislative initiatives that have been on the back burner for months and even years that will be taken through the Refit (regulatory fitness and performance programme) procedure, that would test their effectiveness, change them if needed, or axe them completely. One such legislation concerned is the infamous maternity leave proposal, which will be pulled and replaced if no agreement is made in the next six months.
 
The Directive, backed by the European Parliament in 2010, has been stuck at the EU member state level since. The EP proposed to extend minimum maternity leave in the EU from 14 to 20 weeks with full pay. It also called for six weeks of compulsory leave after childbirth. Some Member States really couldn’t accept these propositions, and no argument could be found for 4 years now. Read more

Eurofound workshop on Early Childhood Education and Care

On the 4th of December, Eurofound held a workshop on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) to share and discuss the progress made on the upcoming report “Assessing Childcare Services” which will be published next year. A number of experts from all over the EU gathered to share their views on the report and present good practices and experiences from their countries.
 
The report aims at stringing together the best evidence available to date on the impact that working conditions and in service training may have on the quality of ECEC and presenting examples of evidence-based practices that make ECEC services more inclusive.

The document will be a key resource for policy makers and practitioners, providing both recommendations for better policy making and extensive case studies and examples of good practices working towards quality and inclusive ECEC services.
 
COFACE was present at the meeting and underlined two key issues not sufficiently addressed in the document. Read more about this meeting here

More information about our position on ECEC visit our website

COFACE’s involvement in the work of the UN

Based on the past decades’ dialogue and mutual cooperation, after the positive decision of the Economic and Social Council on COFACE’s special consultative status application, a COFACE delegation held several formal and informal discussions with the colleagues of the UN Division for Social Policy and Development over a 2-day visit in New York.

Besides bilateral exchanges our colleagues participated at the High-level meeting of the General Assembly on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention of the Rights of the Child over which the #IMAGINE global awareness raising initiative has been launched.
 
COFACE was also invited to take part at the monthly roundtable meeting of the UN NGO Committee on the Family, where Renata Kaczmarska, Social Affairs Officer at the Focal Point on the Family in the Division for Social Policy and Development at DESA, gave a very informative presentation, covering the link in between the UN, the family and the sustainable development goals. Read more

European strategy against over-indebtedness. What could be done at EU level?

On the 12th of December, the EFIN network organized a conference on household over-indebtedness.
 
COFACE has been following the issue of financial inclusion and over-indebtedness closely and fully supports measures such as interest rates caps, responsible lending and creditworthiness checks or access to key basic financial products such as mortgage credit.

Many COFACE members are also directly engaged in various activities including providing independent information or guidance about financial services to families, facilitating access to micro-credit or providing solidarity loans to families facing difficulties in paying for basic services and needs such utility bills or rent. Read more about this meeting here
 
For more information about COFACE’s position papers related to financial services, please visit our website

FamiliesAndSocieties project Update

The FamiliesAndSocieties project involves 25 research partners from 15 European countries and three transnational civil society actor partners who together carry out the work structured in 12 work packages.

Management and dissemination serve all work packages, providing a frame for research activities. The partnership studies important aspects of the family life course, focusing on new family configurations, life goals and transitions, on the new roles of women and men, and on late fertility, childlessness and assisted reproductive technologies. Read more about this project here

New website of the European NGO Platform on Asylum and Migration

The brand new website (www.ngo-platform-asylum-migration.eu) of the European NGO Platform on Asylum and Migration (EPAM), will be launched on December 18 on the occasion of the International Migrants Day.
 
EPAM is the meeting-place of European non-governmental organisations and networks seeking to contribute to the development of asylum and migration policy in the European Union. COFACE is part of this platform that has been running on a voluntary basis since 1994.

EPAM members meet to exchange information and views on EU developments and to coordinate advocacy actions. To learn more about EPAM’s achievements and its key priorities for the future EU asylum and migration policy, visit the new website.
COFACE, as the Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union brings together a large number of civil society organisations with the aim of giving a voice to all families and representing the issues most important to them at the European level.
 
For more information about COFACE and its work please visit: www.coface-eu.org

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COFACE is supported by the EU Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity PROGRESS. This newsletter is produced with the support of the European Commission but does not necessarily express its views.
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