Brussels, 01/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - In the afternoon of Monday 30 November, the Employment and Social Affairs Council reached political agreement on a “balanced text”, the draft directive seeking to improve social protection for self-employed workers and assisting spouses. “We dealt with the issue from the point of view of social security, by which I mean that each member of the couple can have equal right to parental leave,” Swedish Integration and Equal Opportunities minister Nyamko Sabuni told press. Despite the difficulties some member states had in accepting the progress made in this kind of proposal, Sabuni welcomed the broad support from ministerial delegations. She then highlighted the difficulty in coming to a text “centred on women so that they can get maternity leave with allowances too”.
Self-employed workers and assisting spouses will have the right to parental leave with financial support, but will not enjoy other social benefits. Was this not a watering down of the initial Commission proposal, a journalist asked. In response, Špidla said: “Our initial proposal was much more ambitious. But it is not for the Commission to decide. The decision has come after democratic discussion, and now, we have a compromise!” Sabuni said, “What we have got here is not a loss. We have used a legal basis that does not adversely affect member states' national responsibilities. We had to find a text, concentrating on women, to allow them to get maternity leave with, in addition, allowances, and to ask member states which do not have such a law to bring it into their legal system”. (G.B./transl.rt)