18/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - New consultation on family/professional life. The Commission is continuing with its consultations to identify measures to replace the draft directive on maternity leave. On Wednesday 18 November, it launched a public consultation on the balance between family and professional life for parents and carers. It is now committed to presenting an initiative in 2016 on ensuring a better balance between family and professional responsibilities for parents with children or those caring for family members, in an effort to establish a more effective balance between the sharing of family responsibilities between women and men and to increase gender equality in the labour market. The public consultation is being carried out at the same time as a specific consultation on social partners and is open until 10 February 2016. Link: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/WorkingCarers (SPj)