New Social Europe Archives: December 2007

  • PES Women: Dads, what about staying at home with the children?

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    Rating: 4.4/5 with 7 votes

    Published Friday, December 7, 2007 at 14:06
    by Editor (1242 views and 9 comments)

    ‘Maternity leave’ is usually the way that we describe the period of absence that workers are entitled to when they have a child. But who says that it has to be the mother who takes the entire leave?

    In many European countries parental leave is a ‘woman’s business’. Maternity leave easily becomes a trap for women – in her new role as mother the woman is gradually moved away from the workplace and the labour market. Problems such as women’s lower wages and the fact that women advance less can easily be traced back to maternity leave and being absent from the workplace for many months – in some cases even years!

    One of the smaller European countries, Iceland, has taken an active approach to dealing with the ‘dark side’ of maternity leave. By law Icelandic men are obliged to take a part of the leave, giving women the chance to return to their jobs more quickly. At the same time the law ensures fathers the right to spend time and have a closer relationship with their children.

    What do you think the PES manifesto should say about parental leave – if anything at all? Should men be forced into taking up and sharing more family responsibilities - or?

    Tags: equality, women

  • PES Council: another step on the way towards 'New Social Europe'

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    Rating: 4.4/5 with 7 votes

    Published Thursday, December 6, 2007 at 09:45
    by Editor (755 views and 0 comments)

    At the recent PES Council in Sofia politicians and activists met and discussed what a common manifesto for Europe’s socialists and social democrats should look like. Another of the roundtables on the first day of the Council addressed the manifesto theme ‘New Social Europe’.

    PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen gave his ideas for priorities in this theme:

    • Since markets are becoming ever more globalised, we need to ensure that markets are not bypassing the labour, health and safety, environmental and other standards on which Europe’s social market economies are based.
    • Free movement of labour and migration mean that there is an ever greater need for a basic set of employment rights and protection against exploitation across the EU.
    • Given the high level of interdependence between Europe’s economies – we mostly trade within the Single Market and many member states now share the euro as a currency– it makes sense to have a combined effort for higher sustainable economic growth. We still have unacceptably low growth in many... » read more ...

    Tags: council, equality, workers

  • What is the future of European SMEs?

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    Rating: 5/5 with 4 votes

    Published Monday, December 3, 2007 at 09:45
    by Sortir de l'Impasse Join PES activists (970 views and 2 comments)

    There are currently 23 millions small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe, representing 99 percent of European companies and account for around two thirds of European jobs.

    In the latest Eurobarometer report dedicated to SMEs published in May 2007 (16,339 SMEs interviewed in 27 country members), we are told that European SMEs believe that “competition in their markets has increased over the past two years. Six out of 10 managers stated that competition has recently intensified. The perception of increased competition is even more widespread among LSEs.”

    According to this survey, 12 percent of the SMEs' turnover comes from their “new or significantly improved products.” France has one of the lowest rates with 7 percent only, whilst Slovenia equals 24 percent, Romania 21 percent, Germany 11 percent, and Italy 12 percent. Actually, one of the ways to resist this increasing competition is to invest in research and development in order to be able to launch new products.

    The right wing parties often claim that labour costs are too high for the SMEs. This Eurobarometer pointed... » read more ...

    Tags: employment, investment