Brussels, 26/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - The battle continues to rage between European Parliament (EP) and Council over maternity leave. The work-life balance package was presented by the Commission in 2008, yet revision of the maternity leave directive (Directive 92/8/EEC) is still pending in Council, decisions having already been taken on the other proposals on assistant spouses and childcare facilities.
EP angry. This delay particularly annoys the EP and rapporteur Edite Estrela (S&D, Portugal). Estrela, then, put an oral question to the Council during the EP plenary session on Tuesday 25 October. She finds it difficult to understand why the Council is not taking the Parliament proposal of 20 weeks' maternity leave on full pay and two weeks' paternity leave on full pay more seriously, when a recent survey revealed that almost eight in 10 Europeans would like to see longer maternity leave. She said that maternity must no longer be considered as a burden for society but of good service to society. She was very critical of the Council's refusal to negotiate with the EP, and its failure to take account of the opinion of the majority of the groups in the EP, and, thus, of citizens.
Council deadlocked. Radoslaw Mleczko, Polish Deputy Minister for Employment and Social Policy, responded at length to MEPs on behalf of the Council. He acknowledged that there was deadlock in negotiations on this issue, given the large number of amendments to the Commission proposal put down by the EP. Most member states harboured doubts over such detailed amendments when, in some instances, various national measures exist. Member states even felt that the EP proposals infringed the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. The general view in the Council, following the informal meeting of ministers for family affairs and gender equality in Krakow on Friday 21 October, is that detailed measures should be left to member states. Governments are concerned too, at the financial implications of the proposal in this time of crisis. Estrela rejects any such concerns, as a financial impact assessment of the EP proposals demonstrated that “the costs related to maternity leave would be completely covered if this proposal could increase female employment by only 1%”.
Changing the EP position? In short, the Council is awaiting a gesture on the part of the EP to relaunch negotiations: if the EP reined in its ambitions, the Council might be able to find common ground. MEP Sylvie Guillaume (S&D, France) indicated that the EP would be willing to open that door: “Governments believe the cost of this measure to be too high in this time of crisis. Parliament has said time and time again that we are ready to discuss this point and, while 20 weeks' maternity leave is still our aim, a compromise might be considered. However, that governments continue to treat the Parliament with disdain is unacceptable”. (MD/transl.rt)