[18. 6. 2018] The family organisations urge the German govenment to support the work-life-balance package on the next meeting of the European Council on 21 June. This is clained by the organisations in the run-up to the meeting on which the states will have a decision on the initiaitive. A positive decision is not yet aussured.
“The work-life-balance package is the most important and most concrete initiative on the European level for families for a long time and contains noticeable improvements for the families in Europe”, the chair of the Association of German Family Organisations, Stefan Becker, argues. “This in no case should collapse because of the German government which has named the reconciliation of family and work as an important goal.”
The AGF organisations welcome the intention of the European Commission explicitly and support the planned directive which foresees relevant positive measures for a better reconciliation of family and work life for parents and carers. The organisations notice that the initiative also supports many goals of the national coalition agreement of the current government as the distribution of tasks between parents and in families having care obligations. Additionally the European Commission has a special attention on fathers which the family organisations welcome. A rejection of the package would therefore be contradictory to what the government has proclaimed so far in which it stated to be supportive to a better reconciliation.
The family organisations ask the German government to support the package of the Commission constructively and to set a signal for a better reconciliation of work and family life in Europe and in Germany by agreeing to the package. Doing this, the content of the initiative should in no case be further watered down like it has been done in past weeks and months or even ultimately fail.
Related Links
- Download Press release (in German)