News
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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.
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12/04/2005
Commission tables 3-year blueprint for growth and jobs
Last month the Spring European Council gave its full support to the European Commission's "Partnership for Growth and Jobs" to re-launch and re-focus the Lisbon Strategy. Following this decision, the European Commission today adopted a new 3-year "Integrated Guidelines Package" for 2005 to 2008 designed to spur growth and jobs in Europe. Recommending concrete priority actions it lays out a comprehensive strategy of macroeconomic, microeconomic and employment policies to redress Europe's weak growth performance and insufficient job creation. The new integrated guidelines bring a simpler, more focused EU economic governance by reducing the number of guidelines and by concentrating on core measures to create growth and jobs. Today's package will give guidance to Member States to establish their newly established "national reform programmes" by autumn 2005.
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11/04/2005
ESmail: new DG Employment, Social Affairs & Equal Opportunities e-newsletter format available
After more than 80 issues sent out since 2001 to more than 13,000 contacts all over Europe and the rest of the world, we thought the moment had come for a revamping of ESmail, the e-newsletter of DG Employment, Social Affairs & Equal Opportunities. Readers now have the possibility to receive the newsletter in a clear and attractive webpage HTML-based layout in their mailboxes.
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11/04/2005
Employment Week
The 12th Employment week conference and exhibition in Brussels on April 12-14 will focus on the review of the EU's Lisbon jobs and growth strategy and the European Social Fund (ESF). Taking place at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers, the event will provide a one stop shop on employment, economic development and training.
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05/04/2005
Equipping people for change: Commission proposes over 11bn euro to help EU workers and regions affected by restructuring
The European Commission aims to allocate up to 11.3bn euro to people and regions affected by economic change. Faced with a future of intense global competition, the European Union needs effective policies in place to equip individuals to cope with change, promote new enterprise in areas affected by economic change and to anticipate restructuring. The Commission has put forward a proposal to strengthen social dialogue, streamline existing policies, increase funding and refocus existing funding.
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04/04/2005
Getting people into work: Commission reveals results from 5.5bn innovation programme at Warsaw EQUAL-Conference
On February 25, the results of over 1,300 innovation partnerships were unveiled at the 'Free movement of good ideas' conference in Warsaw. The results were achieved under the EU's 5.5bn euro EQUAL programme, which aims to find new ways of getting people into work by challenging existing obstacles. The European Commission, which co-financed the projects, presented an analysis of the new successful innovations and lessons learned.