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Reports from the European Commission

Free movement of workers is good for Europe's economy

According to a report published by the European Commission on 18 November 2008, mobile workers from countries that joined the EU in 2004 (ten Central and Eastern European states) and in 2007 (Bulgaria and Romania) had a positive impact on the economy of receiving Member States such as the UK, Sweden and Ireland. The report found that mobile workers from these 12 countries have made a significant contribution to sustained economic growth over the past years by addressing labour market shortages. Given the evidence presented in the report, Vladimir Špidla, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, called on all Member States to open their labour markets to the new EU members: "Lifting restrictions now would not only make economic sense but would also help reduce problems such as undeclared work and bogus selfemployment", the Commissioner said.
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Easy Web Accessibility

The commissions gives a current status on the initiatives in the fields of IKT-availability, and makes proposals for future steps in this area, including a special web accessibility. In the report it is found that the process is too slow in reaching the targets set in the Riga Declaration of June 2006 on those areas before 2010 and that there is a need for a more coherent, common and effective strategy for IKT-accessibility, and in particular web accessibility. Such a strategy is a prerequisite to rapidly achieve its objective of an information society that are accessible for disabled people, as proposed in the new social agenda.
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Women highly under-represented in decision-making positions

The new report "Women in European politics - time for action" presents the situation as regards women and men in higher decision-making positions. At European level, the members of the European Parliament comprise 31% women and 69% men.
2009 will be an important year for politics and for women in Europe: a new European Parliament will be elected, a new European Commission will be appointed, and various high-profile posts will need to be filled across the EU institutions. This year will be an excellent opportunity for the Member States and all those in charge of putting forward, electing or appointing candidates to such posts to demonstrate their commitment to gender equality and fair representation of women in top positions at European level.
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The non-discrimination governmental expert group

In order to uphold and advance the legacy of the 2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities, the European Commission has set up in July 2008 a governmental expert group in the field of non-discrimination and the promotion of equality.
In 2009, the group will particularly focus on multiple-discrimination and non-discrimination mainstreaming, as set out in the European Commission Communication of July 2008 and confirmed in the conclusions of the Equality Summit held in September 2008 in Paris. The European Commission is also working with the governmental expert group to follow up the findings of a comparative study on homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the EU, carried out by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.
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Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion 

The 2009 Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion provides an assessment of the renewed National Strategy Reports (NSRs) presented by EU-27 in autumn 2008. The NSRs outline each Member State's policy priorities up until 2011 in the second cycle of the integrated EU process for Social Protection and Social Inclusion. The assessment draws on the material provided by Member States in their NSR, but also on analysis prepared by independent experts and on studies and research carried out in the framework of the Social Open Method of Coordination.

The EU disability plan

The European Community and its Member States have jointly signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007. The Commissions disability strategy since 2003 has been to make equal opportunities for disabled people a reality.
One of the main areas for 2008-2009 is to identify accessibility as a priority for active inclusion and access to rights.
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Childcare services in the EU

In 2002, at the Barcelona Summit, The European Council took the initiative of inviting Member States to "remove disincentives to female labour force participation and strive, taking into account the demand for childcare facilities. A new report from The commission shows that most of the Member States are still far from achieving the coals. Lack of childcare facilities is the main problem for women's access to paid employment.
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Child Poverty in the European Union

According to The EU Social Protection and Social Inclusion Process thematic study on policy measures concerning child poverty 19% of children in the European Union are at risk of poverty.  The delineation on how to measure poverty varies from country to country, forwhich reason The European Union has composed a relative definition af poverty; "The share of persons with a disposable income below 60% of the national median".Children in lone-parent houses or in larges familys tend to be at greater risk of poverty. This is linked to the parents edicational level, jobsituation as well as their housing.The European Union and its Member States are therefore making the fight against child poverty a top priority.
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