In an open letter published on Monday 16 April, around 51 charitable organisations called on the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, to support the directive on a balance between professional and private life. The letter has been sent to the President just as he is getting ready to appear before MEPs (see EUROPE 12001). The signatories include COFACE Families and AGE Platform Europe, which highlight the importance of this directive to “550 million Europeans” and the progress that has made on the issue of parental leave. We are able to read that, “parental leave presents a challenge to early childhood care, equality between men and women and women's employment: if there were a version with better pay and improved distribution, it would be more attractive”.
The signatories consider that, “support from the President of the Republic in favour of this directive will constitute a strong and concrete political act and would translate into genuine social progress for millions of European families”.
One source close to the dossier explained to us that this is because concerns are emerging among family and disability charities about the delays involved in the dossier at the Council of the EU. It should be recalled that the initiative was presented by the European Commission almost a year ago (see EUROPE 11775). Our source believes it would be better if they obtained a general approach under the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council rather than under the Austrian Presidency, which would be less in favour of the text.
There is also a risk of a minority blockage forming at the Council, with many member states opposing the proposal, mainly due to the costs it could generate when implementing the directive and out of concerns for respecting the subsidiarity principle.
In parliament, the legislative draft is in the hands of the rapporteur, David Casa (EPP, Malta) and is making progress according to the timeframe initially set out (see EUROPE 11940). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)