Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) can submit written questions to the President of the European Council, the Council, the Commission or the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

Last November, MEP Eduard Kukan submitted a question to the Commission on the implementation of the Employment Equality Directive, underlining that despite the Directive, age discrimination is still rampant in the labour market and has increased since the financial and economic crisis. Observed consequences were among others: gender pay and pension gaps, and long-term unemployment for older workers.

He therefore asked the Commission how it intensd to enforce the implementation of Directive in order to fight against persisting age discrimination in the labour market, and how it plans to encourage the employment of older women.

The Commission just sent its reply. It states it willingness to fight age discrimination, its efforts to monitor the situation in the Member States, but recalls that it is up to the Member States to transpose the Directive. Regarding employability of older workers, it replied that that gender gap aspects are part of the monitoring done in the context of the European Semester. In 2015, several Member States received country specific recommendations on improving family support services, work-life balance, skills upgrading, while others were encouraged to take steps to harmonise the retirement age between men and women.

Read more here.

The European Commission has released the Strategic Framework for Health and Safety at Work 2014-2020 in late 2014. The framework put the emphasis on non-legislative actions to reach out to small and medium-sized enterprises, explore new and emerging risks such as psycho-social conditions or exposure to new materials and the exchange of practices. The new Juncker Commission has announced a ‘refit’ exercise for health and safety regulation, meaning it will be reviewed with the aim of simplification. Doubts are cast by trade unions that this might mean a reduction of safety standards. The Commission’s view is that legislation can be simplified without lowering protection.

In its reaction, the European Parliament highlighted that lower protection for workers is not acceptable, but that ‘improving the quality’ of the regulatory framework is positive. The Parliament asked that new and emerging risks such as nanomaterials, musculoskeletal disorders are included. On psycho-social disorders, the Parliament called for systematic monitoring of stress, burnout and depression and for specific programmes that should develop recommendations on these risks.

What is there for older persons?

The Parliament called on the Commission and the Member States to design appropriate policies to address the ageing of the workforce and considered sound health and safety rules as a way to provide healthy work environments throughout people’s working life and enabling them to work up to statutory retirement age. It stressed the importance of preventive policies and workplace health promotion, as a way to foster a ‘culture of prevention’ starting already with apprenticeships.

The Parliament also called for more attention to be paid to groups of workers, such as domestic workers who often operate outside of all health and safety frameworks. All occupational health and safety measures should include a gender dimension, it said, looking at the specific risks of women and at sectors where the workforce is predominantly composed of women.

AGE view

AGE Platform Europe has repeatedly called for comprehensive health and safety policies, including legislative obligations for employers, as a way to promote health prevention of risks. Occupational health and safety rules have a key role to create the physical and mental capacity to cope with longer working lives, and therefore are also key to the success of pension reforms. The gender aspects and new forms of risks have to be taken as seriously as traditional risks that are already enshrined in legislation.

Read the full report here.

The Commission has released in October a proposal aimed to better integrate long-term unemployed into the labour market. According to current statistics, around 5 % of the EU active population is long-term unemployed. The problem is higher for older workers, as long-term unemployed constitute 63% all unemployed between 55 and 65, and many do not figure in the statistics as they do not declare themselves as unemployed.

The European Parliament welcomed the Commission’s proposal to improve services for long-term unemployed, also highlighting some of the shortfalls of the proposal. The Parliament’s concerns are that a more decisive measure would have been preferrable, that individual needs assessments need to be elaborated much earlier than at 18 months of unemployment and that all actors, including NGOs, working with unemployed should work together.

What is there for older persons?

The Parliament recalls that long-term unemployment often have negative long-term consequences for employment prospects, career progress, earnings profiles and pensions.

It also underlined that skills maintenance in the event of job loss, together with education, training and reskilling that anticipate future skills needs, is an important element in avoiding and redressing long-term unemployment.

AGE views

AGE welcomes the proposal from the Commisison, however AGE is concerned that it is not sufficient to make a distinctive difference. Individual assessments should be conducted much before 18 months of unemployment, as the distance from the labour market grows with the time. Also, life-long learning facilities should be provided as well as in-work trainings for workers of all ages – often, these are no longer available for workers from a certain age, due to age discrimination. Long-term unemployment is a waste of skills and experience that could be used to benefit companies, younger workers and society as a whole.

Read the full report here.

With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the importance of tourism is recognised at EU level. Article 195 of the EU Treaty indeed offers the possibility to take European or multinational actions while respecting the principle of subsidiarity and the competence of the Member States.

The Commission has given new impetus to tourism policy with a main initiative undertaken in 2010, the Communication ‘Europe, the world’s No 1 tourist destination a new political framework for tourism in Europe’ which has set out a new consolidated policy framework and an action plan for tourism. With 21 actions, the Commission set itself a very ambitious objective against the background of a desirable contribution to growth and employment in Europe.

The European Parliament asked the Commission to deliver a comprehensive implementation report on actions taken, including the use of financial resources, in the frame of this initiative.

What is there for older persons?

The Parliament recognised several times in its report the relevance of addressing specific needs, notably those of older persons, when developing touristic products.

It welcomed the Calypso social tourism initiative, which allows seniors, young people, people on lower incomes and people with disabilities to go on holidays outside the high season and stressed that this initiative has the potential to overcome the problem of seasonality, particularly in less well-known destinations.

It called to strengthen the ‘tourism for all’ principle which allows and empowers people, particularly those with specific needs (such as people with disabilities or reduced mobility, young people, the elderly, low-income families, and families with children), to enjoy their rights as citizens, and to make it the reference for any national, regional, local or European tourism-related action.

Last but not least, it underlined the need to place particular emphasis on the use of new technologies when developing tourism concepts for senior citizens and people with specific disabilities.

Read the full report here.