On 24 November 2015, the Commission has launched a public consultation on how to improve work-life balance and reduce obstacles to women’s participation in the labour market. This consultation follows the recent withdrawal of the Commission’s 2008 proposal to amend the Maternity Leave Directive. The Commission has committed to replacing the withdrawn proposal with a ‘new start’ initiative in its Work Programme for 2016.
The consultation document begins by giving an overview of the main challenges of work-life balance for parents and people with caring responsibilities and takes stock of EU-level measures already in place. It then invites the public to provide feedback on the current challenges and a possible range of EU-level policy responses. This is the link to the online consultation: http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/consultations/index_en.htm. The deadline for responses is 17 February 2016.
We encourage our members to contribute their views, as well as share the information about this consultation among their networks.