Brussels, 07/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - After four years of stalemate at the Council, the Commission appears to be resigned to withdrawing its draft directive on maternity leave, as part of its REFIT programme to cut down on red tape. The European Women's Lobby has criticised this as a step backwards and has directly alerted Jean-Claude Juncker, the probable next president of the European Commission, of the implications.
The directive on maternity leave is part of the legislative initiatives making no progress that the Commission would like to scrap. The draft directive, however, was approved by the European Parliament in 2010. It sought to introduce 20 weeks paid leave, as well as enhanced measures to protect women workers from being sacked when they return to work.
This situation has provoked a heated response from the European Women's Lobby, which sees this as the EU as being very off-message and a sign that women's rights and gender equality are going backwards. The secretary general of the European Women's Lobby, Joanna Maycock, said that it was unacceptable that measures to protect women's rights were part of a compromise to lighten the EU's administrative burden. She has sent a letter to Junker, calling on him to immediately reject this proposal to withdraw the directive and to put this issue back on the agenda so that an agreement can be obtained as soon as possible at the Council. She also warned that the decision to withdraw the directive is scandalous as pregnant women - and those who could become pregnant - are being held hostage and so too are men as the directive includes provisions on paternity leave, as there is no European directive that that form of leave.
Maycock also added that the next College of Commissioners should respond to the demand for parity and that a commissioner for women's rights and gender equality should be appointed. (MD)