News
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03/06/2005
Commission promotes safety in new Member States' construction industry
The European Commission is launching a publicity campaign in the 10 new EU Member States highlighting the need for safety in the construction industry. The campaign will be accompanied by inspections of construction sites across these countries, pinpointing possible dangers and showing how to prevent them.
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01/06/2005
2007 to be "European Year of Equal Opportunities for All"
The European Commission has designated 2007 as 'European Year of Equal Opportunities for All' as part of a concerted effort to promote equality and non-discrimination in the EU. The European Year is the centrepiece of a framework strategy designed to ensure that discrimination is effectively tackled, diversity is celebrated and equal opportunities for all are promoted. The strategy is set out in a Communication adopted by the European Commission today.
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30/05/2005
Addressing the concerns of young people in Europe: the Commission adopts a communication on youth policies
The European Commission adopted today a Communication on "European policies concerning youth". This text is a follow-up to the adoption of the European Youth Pact by the European Council in March 2005, which made young people a key part of the renewed Lisbon partnership for growth and jobs and which proposed taking action for young people in the fields of employment, integration and social advancement, education and training, mobility, and reconciling family and work life.
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26/05/2005
The first Roma internships have started
The first four stagiaires of Romany origin have started their in-service training in the European Commission on 2nd May. The Commission, in co-operation with the Open Society Institute, offered two three month periods of in-service training this year for ten young Roma university graduates from all new Member states (except Cyprus and Malta), Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Croatia, FYROM, Serbia and Montenegro. Odile Quintin, the Director-General of DG EMPL, hosted a welcome reception for the newly arrived stagiares and their future colleagues and tutors from DG EMPL, DG PRESS and DG JLS. Six other Roma stagiaires will start their internship on 15th September.
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25/05/2005
European Commission promotes gender mainstreaming in the Structural Funds
Today Danuta Hübner, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, has hosted the third meeting of the High Level Group on Gender Mainstreaming, which comprises senior civil servants from EU Member States responsible for promoting the gender dimension in the management of the structural funds. Best practice examples include a Gender Institute in Sachsen-Anhalt (Germany), pre-school care facilities in Kent (UK) and a micro-credit scheme for female entrepreneurs in Finland.
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20/05/2005
Danuta Hübner and Vladimir Spidla discussed in Luxembourg today the Community priorities for cohesion policy after 2006
European Commissioner for Regional Policy,Mrs Danuta Hübner and European Commissioner, Mr Vladimir Spidla, presented at the Informal Ministerial meeting on Regional Policy and Territorial Cohesion in Luxembourg a reflection paper setting out ideas for future priorities based on the renewed Lisbon agenda for growth and jobs. Today's session covered the Strategic Guidelines for the next generation of regional cohesion programmes for 2007-2013. Tomorrow's session is devoted to territorial cohesion.
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04/05/2005
Austria fails to implement EU race anti-discrimination law
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) today ruled that Austria had breached EU law by failing to transpose fully a European Directive prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnic origin (Directive 2000/43/EC). The deadline for EU Member States to transpose this Directive was 19 July 2003 - except for the 10 new Member States, who had to ensure that their legislation complied with the Directives by their accession to the EU on 1 May 2004.
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02/05/2005
French journalists win first EU "For Diversity. Against Discrimination" Award
The first prize of the EU Journalist "For Diversity. Against Discrimination" Award has been won by a group of four journalists from France. The winning article "Raciste, l'entreprise?" by the team Pascale-Marie Deschamps, Michel Derenbourg, Claire Aubé and Lionel Steinmann takes a frank look at racial discrimination in the workplace. The second and the third prizes were won by articles from Denmark and Hungary respectively. The three winners will be presented with their prizes of a trip to an EU country of their choice with a tailored journalistic programme by Vladimir Spidla, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.
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28/04/2005
Germany has failed to implement EU race anti-discrimination law
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) today ruled that Germany had breached EU law by failing to transpose fully a European Directive prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnic origin (Directive 2000/43/EC). The deadline for EU Member States to transpose this Directive was 19 July 2003 - except for the 10 new Member States, who had to ensure that their legislation complied with the Directives by their accession to the EU on 1 May 2004.
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19/04/2005
Commissioner Špidla hails launch of "Stop that Noise" Campaign
Vladimir Spidla, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, today hailed the launch of the Europe-wide "Stop that Noise" campaign aimed at raising awareness of the risks of excessive noise at work. New EU rules will set a new, lower limit of 87 decibels for workers' daily exposure to noise from next year. More than 13 million workers, not only in heavy industry but also in sectors such as services, education and entertainment, are thought to have suffered impaired hearing at work.