Proposals and recommendations
from the 8 one-day workshops presented to the final Conference on 4 June 2008
1) Reconciling work and family: can gender equality accommodate recognition of parental work?
Ligue des familles, Belgium
The final recommendations fall into three categories focused on ways of helping people combine family life with working life.
First legislative measures:
- to implement a decent incomes policy so that some duties can be farmed out.
- to increase family benefits
- to create a level playing field in work-life balance measures (maternity, paternity and parental leave, time credit, etc.) to avoid any discrimination related to employment contracts, employment status (employee or self-employed worker), etc.
Then, action on services:
- that includes public transport, health care, education, new information and communication technologies, as well as community services.
- that accepts the need for recognition/certification of the skills involved in caring for dependant persons, thereby improving the status of these tasks.
- that implements a policy of social times to promote reconciliation (time management offices, time banks).
- that improves childcare provision (quantity and quality)
Finally, action towards workplaces (win-win strategy for employers and employees):
- gender-sensitive, family-friendly pay, career plan, and training policies
- limitation of non-standard working hours
- flexible hours of work for personal and family reasons
giving a return through improved business competitiveness (workforce investment in and loyalty to the company, quality of work, creativity, advantages of workplace diversity, upskilling, tackling the labour shortage).
Family and Childcare Centre, KMOP,
The recommendations to come out of the day workshop to increase men’s involvement in their family and enhance commitment to the European dimension of citizenship are:
- introduce other European models for active involvement while preserving elements of the Greek family tradition
- persuade the media and policy makers of the value in fostering nascent European citizenship in a family context
- organize public awareness campaigns
- put a bigger focus on learning active citizenship starting in nursery/primary school to influence the next generation (of men).
3) Families and the European Union. The importance of families in the People’s Europe
Union départementale des Associations familiales (UDAF), Indre-et-Loire, France
The following recommendations were made at the end of the day workshop:
- real equivalence of educational qualifications between all European Union countries should be introduced
- access to higher education should be made easier to lighten the financial burden on parents (young people from poorer backgrounds should not be deterred from higher education by the cost)
- motherhood should be valued in
- anonymous childbirth should be preserved, so that a woman can give birth under medical supervision while leaving particulars that identify the child (enabling the child to trace its origins while respecting the desire for anonymity)
- the growing burden on parents of having to look after their children and grandchildren but also care for their own parents due to rising life expectancy must be taken into account (the ties between the generations must be able to be preserved whatever the moral and financial situation, in particular by easing the burden of simultaneous caring for the older and younger generations).
The general conclusion is that acting on these recommendations would enable families to play their part as citizens of the European Union to the full.
4) Integration of migrant families
The conclusion was that family relationships are one of the things most affected by the change in migrants’ lives. Immigration and the challenges of integration can put family cohesion and well-being under strain. Migrants should be given support to become active citizens, and the family dimension of immigration and integration given recognition, in particular through support for parents. The recommendations therefore are that:
- inclusion policies must put a focus on children, young people, the role of the family and parenting (and not just employment and economic well-being)
- assistance services with a multilinguality, multiculturality awareness must be developed to deal with relationship and parenting issues
- the European Commission should focus on recognition of migrant families’ needs in the integration process.
5) Romanian families and women in
The recommendations made to facilitate European civic participation by Romanian families are:
- promote better employment opportunities for women (their jobs are below their educational levels) and in less restricted geographical areas
- address the negative stereotype of the Romanian community to facilitate their adjustment and inclusion
- open up channels of information and communication between officialdom and Romanian citizens
- sexual health services must connect with Romanian women (who often have a particular contraceptive behaviour informed by their history)
- help sex-workers
- tackle people trafficking.
6) Civic forum on intimate partner violence
Femmes
Demands
On victim intake:
- policies must accommodate the specific characteristics of initial contact/intake for women victims of violence
- provide adequate, long-term funding for the types of shelter provision: resident and non-resident (no woman should be turned away!)
- adapt specific aid to victims: post-residence follow-up or non-resident assistance
On budgets:
- draw up an overall budget and a specific budget for each responsible entity
- set budget priorities
On children:
- prevention from early childhood
- build awareness among teachers and school heads
- make shelter providers aware of the problems of child witnesses to violence
- work on child witnesses to violence in the parental relationship
- work on young victims/abusers in their first intimate partner relationships
On training:
- specific violence awareness training for police officers
- training for the judiciary
On justice:
- bring legal practices into line
- create a family court (all aspect of the case must be managed by the same court, from the violence issue to the question of child custody)
- make emergency provision for victims of foreign origin
- assess split custody measures and no-fault divorce in the context of violence
- treat non-payment of maintenance as a criminal offence
- ease access to the legal system and streamline procedures so that the harm can be legally “compensated”
- establish the link between criminal and civil law
- preserve records on all complaints, even when withdrawn
On the media:
- take steps to counter sexism in the media
- create media awareness of the problem
On prevention:
- campaign on the cycle of violence and the difference between an argument and intimate partner violence (power, dehumanization, etc.)
- include intimate partner violence on school curricula
- hand out a booklet to all new entrants to
On protection of victims (physical and psychological violence):
On criminal law enforcement:
- encourage criminal mediation
- draw up common protocols for intervention (police, judiciary, etc.)
- no victim responsibility in cases of intimate partner violence
- give a fresh impetus to law enforcement policy
On networks:
- coordinate services in order to develop a common vocabulary
- roll out networking provision across all provinces
On statistics:
- evaluate and publish statistics at regular intervals
Other demands:
- analyze the social impact of violence
- focus on respect for human rights
- leverage and give regulatory force to the official definition of violence established for
- use the existing tools, bring measures that are proven to work into general use.
7)
Families with
dependent members
Union de
Centros de Accion Rural, UNCEAR,
The seminar reached conclusions in three areas.
Territorial cohesion:
- Everyone with dependency issues is entitled to care.
Rural families must benefit from the same services as urban populations,
especially care for dependent people, to remain living in the countryside.
- Investment is needed in local provision, and
investment in rural services must be seen as an investment in society and
people, a civic right and not just a cost. That includes investment in new
technologies and in human capital.
Job opportunities:
- The work of carers must also be recognized by giving
them rights and addressing their needs for information, training and support
services.
- There is a need to promote integration between the
social welfare and health systems, a change in attitudes of professionals and
the authorities to address the needs of dependent people and their families.
- Rural development policy must be integrated with
family policy, and new partnerships facilitated in social matters – e.g.,
public-private partnerships – that stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship
and involve all interested parties.
8) Inclusion for disabled people and their families
Unione Famiglie Handicappati, UFHA,
The
following proposals were made:
- take
small towns as the baseline and leverage their value to take the social issues
to Europe
- Europe
and European funds cannot only be about public works
- almost
all funding goes to big organizations
- there
needs to be a focus on social Europe
- small
towns and villages have always been undervalued, and yet have a wealth of
culture, traditions and resources
- families
are the first resource for an inclusive Europe, they must be the starting point
because they are the engine of a growth spurt and European values
(specifically, families with a dependent member often have only family
solidarity to rely on and feel abandoned)
- young
people in southern Italy and families have qualms about flexicurity which they
see as a measure that promotes short-term contracts and insecurity.
- Europe
must educate the media to carry accurate information on European policies and
institutions, the advantages of European citizenship, especially for disabled
people and their families; a platform must be set up to discuss the issue.
