News
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21/05/2007
Commission calls on trade unions to play active role in shaping a prosperous, social Europe
Addressing participants at the four-yearly European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) congress in Seville, European Commission President José Manuel Durão Barroso said "Social dialogue is essential for Europe to progress and to prosper. Trade unions are indispensable to social dialogue. ETUC is a valued and very relevant European player. Europe's social dimension has been and should continue to be a factor of success. If we are to respond to today's global challenges, we need to build on our successes. This means stronger and better cooperation." He added, "As the workers' representatives, you should be part of the pioneers for the new Europe we are building together - a Europe of prosperity, solidarity, fairness and partnership."
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21/05/2007
Commission organises European eGovernment Awards 2007
The third European eGovernment Awards will be presented at the Ministerial eGovernment Conference 2007 on 20 September in Lisbon, Portugal. The awards will select good practices in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in public services, and are a great opportunity to demonstrate the different possible solutions for eGovernment in the area of European public administration, be it national, regional, local, etc.
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20/05/2007
CSR Network to hold final Multi-stakeholder Roundtable on exchanging best practice in Brussels
OECD Watch, the network of 67 international NGOs working on Corporate Social Responsibility, will be holding the last of a series of four Roundtable discussions on CSR. This session is entitled “A Model for Change: Upward Harmonisation of OECD Guidelines Procedures” and will take place on June 15th.
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15/05/2007
Commission welcomes new Declaration on Equality between women and men
Commenting today at the informal meeting of ministers for gender equality and family affairs in Bad Pyrmont (Germany), Vladimír Špidla, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities welcomed the discussions saying "If Europe is to meet its economic, social and demographic challenges, equality between women and men has to be the starting point. Recent success in the EU's labour market performance is largely thanks to more women joining the workforce. We are seeing that, in countries where women participate actively in all aspects of economic, social and political life, well established work-home reconciliation policies are the norm - these are also the countries where women and men have, on average, more children".
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12/05/2007
European Diversity campaign reaches 100 million Eurovision TV viewers
Tonight the EU’s European Year of Equal Opportunities for All partnership with the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest will bring its message of tolerance and diversity to an estimated 100 million television viewers around Europe and beyond. The official partnership is the first time in twenty years that Eurovision has been associated with an EU initiative.
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11/05/2007
2007 European Demography report
This is the first biennial report on the demographic future of Europe 2006.
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10/05/2007
Support for families is key to reach Lisbon targets
The Commission today adopted a communication on "Promoting solidarity between the generations" to help Member States meet the demographic challenge. The Communication examines how Europeans can achieve a better work-life balance. It also looks at how best to support families so they can have the number of children they desire – very low birth rates are a concern in many Member States and studies continue to show that Europeans would like to have more children. The Communication highlights differences between national policies and areas where Member States can learn from each other, in particular through the European Alliance for Families as called for by the Spring European Council last March.
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09/05/2007
Commission wants to involve young people better in society
As Europe's population grows older faster and the pool of young workers shrinks, the EU will rely more and more on its younger generation. According to a Commission analysis presented today, young people are often insufficiently prepared to take on this responsibility. One in six young Europeans still leaves school early and 4.6 million 15-24 year-olds are unemployed. The document highlights the need, at EU and national level, to invest more and earlier in youth education and health and to improve transitions from education into work. It also stresses the importance of involving young people more in civic life, as well as in society as a whole.
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08/05/2007
Cohesion policy 2007-2013: Austrian regions first to have programmes approved by the Commission
The Austrian regions became today the first in the European Union to start drawing benefits from the new Cohesion policy 2007-2013 as the European Commission approved the first group of regional operational programmes. The Commission decision on the eight Austrian operational programmes opens the way for Austrian regions to start implementing the new policy in the framework of the strategic plans and priorities agreed between Austria and the Commission on 4
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08/05/2007
Cohesion policy 2007-2013: Commission approves the national strategy and priorities for Hungary
Regional policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner and Employment and social affairs Commissioner Vladimír Špidla congratulated Hungary for reaching agreement with the European Commission on the national plan and priorities for Cohesion policy 2007-2013. In their National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) the Hungarian authorities describe how they are going to invest EU funding of € 25.3 billion that they will receive over seven years to deliver growth and jobs to their regions. The adoption procedure has now been completed as the European Commission issued its decision on elements of the Hungarian NSRF, including priorities, indicative annual allocations, and list of operational programmes.