From non-compliance and basic minimum standards
to ambitious reforms for modern gender-responsive family policies

The EU Work-life Balance Directive is the first legislative initiative that follows the launch of the European Pillar of Social Rights in 2017, was formally adopted two years later in 2019 and fully integrated in the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan. COFACE Families Europe expects high ambitions from the different EU institutions and national governments in the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, as a stepping stone to develop a framework for a more social and fairer European Union. Therefore, the transposition phase of this Directive has been of paramount importance. COFACE has published an assessment of the transposition, focusing on family leaves (paternity, parental and carers’ leave) in 10 countries.

This new report presents the findings of COFACE Families Europe’s transposition assessment carried out together with national experts from 10 Member States representing a geographical and welfare mix: Belgium, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Spain. First, the report introduces the objectives of the assessment, presents the methodology, and specifies the scope of the assessment on family leaves (paternity, parental and carers). In the second part, the findings of the assessment are outlined providing a comparative analysis of the transposition in the 10 respective Member States. The third section discusses these findings in a broader social policy context, summarising the most important take-aways from the assessment. Finally, the concluding section highlights COFACE messages and priorities for future EU policy and legislation, providing recommendations in this regard.

Overall, COFACE Families Europe considers it crucial to launch a new dynamic in all Member States’ social policies by setting out new minimum standards in terms of family leaves which respect diversity of social systems and family-friendly policies at workplaces by providing flexible working arrangements for both men and women. In the light of the current challenges of economic crisis, there is further need for legislation which helps families to tackle and prevent poverty.

While COFACE Families Europe acknowledges the importance of the new social acquis of the Directive, it will continue to advocate for higher standards by using all tools available (EU, national, statistical, policy, research and more) working closely with its member organisations to monitor closely national reforms, ensuring that national family policies and systems are fully compliant with EU law. This includes both hard law like the EU Work-life Balance Directive and soft law like the EU Child Guarantee, EU Care Strategy, EU Strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities, and the EU Gender Equality Strategy – all fundamental policy frameworks to consolidate and rethink welfare systems so that families of today can be supported and resilient to different social and economic shocks.

Consult the full report here

See also the 2022 assessment of the European network of legal experts in gender equality and non-discrimination:  The transposition of the Work-Life Balance Directive in EU Member States: A long way ahead.

The post EU Work-life Balance Directive transposition in action: A mixed picture appeared first on COFACE Families Europe.

The EU Work-Life Balance Directive is the first legislative initiative that follows the launch of the European Pillar of Social Rights in 2017 and was formally adopted two years later in 2019. It covers aspects of Time (through family leaves and flexible working arrangements) and Resources (through the adequate payment for certain leaves) and paves the way for future action on access to Services as we can see today with the EU Care Strategy announced by President von der Leyen on 7th September 2022. 

The Directive contains legal elements that acknowledge the diversity of families in the 21st century, for instance with the mention of “equivalent second parent” under the paternity leave article. It provides for adequate payments of paternity, parental and carers leave, to ensure take-up of leaves and as an anti-poverty measure so workers with care duties do not fear loss of income. It also includes a provision of non-transferability of parental leave for fathers, to ensure that they use their right and can invest time in family care for their children, hence also promoting gender equality between women and men. 

All EU countries had until the 2nd of August 2022 to bring into force the laws, regulations, and administrative provisions necessary to comply fully with the Directive. 

The transposition process has been an opportunity for the Member States to review national work-life balance policies to ensure they meet the needs of families in the 21st century, based on values of gender equality, social inclusion and non-discrimination, and boost investment and development of services for families.  

Therefore, COFACE considers the transposition of the Directive crucial and assessed its transposition by drafting a report on the transposition status in 10 Member States, namely Belgium, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and Spain. The report puts the spotlight on family leaves and aims to assess how paternity, parental and carers’ leave were transposed into the national legislation. The aim is to provide an overview to the current transposition situation and highlight the importance of the social rights provided by the Directive.  

During the assessment, the secretariat relied on the expertise of COFACE Members from the respective countries to report on ongoing reforms and validate the information collected, with continuous exchanges on the transposition situation from a national and EU perspective. The results show a mixed picture from non-compliance to ambitious reforms. To find out more, check out the report coming soon at the beginning of October! 

Meanwhile, please note that on 21st September 2022, the European Commission adopted a package of infringement decisions due to the absence of communication by Member States of measures taken to transpose EU directives into national law. This includes measures to address non-transposition of the EU work-life balance directive. The following Member States have failed to notify national measures fully transposing it and will therefore be receiving letters of formal notice: Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia. More here.

Photo: ©Getty Images via Canva.com

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Media statement. Brussels, 8th September 2022.

COFACE Families Europe welcomes yesterday’s adoption by the European Commission of the European Care Strategy. With this decision, set in the framework of the Action Plan on the European Pillar of Social Rights, the European Union reaffirms its willingness to advance towards  the inclusive and community-based care system of tomorrow. This integrated and fair care infrastructure should cater to the care and support needs of all from birth to old age, while fostering gender equality and the social recognition of family carers.   We call on Member States to swiftly adopt the recommendations and to implement reforms to transition to a sustainable care model for all families and their members.   

 
The European Care Strategy, launched on 7th September 2022, contains a Communication and two Proposals for Council Recommendations aiming to create a sustainable and fair care system. The vision laid out in the documents caters for the needs of persons needing care, but also to the families and professionals providing it while giving indications on how to improve the well-being of families and family carers. The documents intend to SHIFT the European care debate toward a sustainable model that fosters gender equality, paying attention to users’ rights, independent living, and inclusion in the community.    

With the two Proposals for Council Recommendations, covering the topic of care from birth to old age, the European Commission is providing the building blocks of a long-awaited reform of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and Long-Term Care (LTC) systems to transition to community-based solutions respecting individual choices and supporting families.  The two proposed Recommendations are framed by the Communication which sets the scene for a Europe that cares.  COFACE believes the European Care Strategy offers an opportunity to create an EU inclusive of all families and their members that COFACE has been defending for more than six decades. 

“The Strategy proves that the European Commission recognises that care is a responsibility of the whole society and not only of families.  COFACE welcomes this Strategy that paves the way and encourages the development of national policies investing in high quality childcare and support to family carers.    ”  

Anne-Mie Drieskens, COFACE Families Europe President.  

Revised targets for a more efficient and inclusive ECEC for children and their parents.  

The proposed ECEC Recommendation calls for reforms to ensure all children have a legal entitlement to access quality services adapted to their needs while supporting parents in their parenting journey and career choices. This two-generation approach, bringing together the needs of parents with the rights of children is crucial for family balance and well-being.  

COFACE particularly welcomes the European Commission push for the provision of adequate  child/staff ratios as one of the measures to ensure quality in ECEC, continuous professional training of staff, and the inclusion of intensity/time requirements in the indicators. This last point is particularly important for children with disabilities who sometimes can only access ECEC services for a few hours a week -when they can access it-, the suggested targets are therefore appreciated and their extension to all children, regardless of their family background, origin, or disability status, should be specified in the upcoming Council Recommendation.  Finally, COFACE highly appreciates the attention paid to parents with disabilities in the ECEC Recommendation, as they and their families are too often invisible.

We call on the Council to swiftly adopt the Recommendation and to work to integrate the targets in their current work on fighting child and family poverty and social exclusion under the European Child Guarantee by using this recommendation to strengthen actions on access to high-quality, affordable and accessible ECEC services for all children.  

Pushing for strong national actions plan covering the full spectrum of Long-Term Care.  

The proposed LTC Recommendation presents guidance on how to respond to the complexity of the long-term care equation respecting the needs and rights of both care receivers and providers. It displays a broad vision of what constitutes care, offering therefore a continuum of care to ensure appropriate support. The importance of family/ informal care is stressed as an element of a sustainable care system with recommendations to provide appropriate support to family carers with financial resources, time arrangements – notably building on the new rights in the EU Work Life balance directive – and respite care; as well as facilitating the collaboration with formal care services. COFACE welcomes the recognition of the central role of family carers and the consideration of their reality and needs in the recommendation. We call on EU Members States in their National Action Plans to directly involve family carers and their representative organisations to develop strong and comprehensive measures to ensure that family care is a choice and not a necessity and to support people making that choice in their essential role. They should also include concrete steps for the social recognition and access to social rights for family carers as a way to support life in dignity, gender equality, and the fight against family poverty and social exclusion in Europe.  

The gender equality component of LTC is present through the document and is central to the Care Strategy. While the Recommendation includes measures to provide financial resources to informal carers, it clearly states that this should not deter participation in the labour market. Informal carers being for the large majority women, the gender aspect is central to any long-term care policies and will have to come out strongly in the National Action Plans including through actions to challenge the harmful gender stereotypes corroding the formal and informal care sectors.  

The proposed Recommendation notes that LTC systems must also cater for the support needs of persons with disabilities while clearly referencing the United Nation Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), notably the right to independent living and inclusion in the community (art.19). The development of community-based services with a well-trained workforce is a central part of the realisation of these rights. The National Actions plans therefore must be compliant with the UNCRPD objectives and push forward the transition to independent living.  

The European Commission sets out an ambitious governance and monitoring system based on revised indicators, National Action Plans and with the support of newly appointed coordinators in each EU Member State. COFACE welcomes this ambition to share expertise at the European level but calls on the European Institutions to go a step further by formalising the cooperation with key EU stakeholders on the implementation of the LTC recommendation by setting up a High-Level Expert group on LTC bringing at the table civil society organisations, Member States coordinators and all relevant stakeholders.  

“We welcome the European Commission’s leadership and now call on the EU Member States to work on strong national action plans for long-term care systems that respect the needs and wishes of the persons cared for and supported but also of the persons providing this care whether they are families or professionals.”  

Chantal Bruno, COFACE Disability Platform co-president 

COFACE Families Europe now calls on all governments to swiftly adopt the Recommendations and follow up by developing strong national action plans in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders, covering all key dimensions in the European Care Strategy Recommendations and based on a multi-generational approach with a strong family support stream that acknowledges the interrelated well-being of persons with care and support needs and their families – particularly family carers-, and the professionals working with them.   

Family organisations in the COFACE network support this initiative and stand ready to share their knowledge on strengthening overall care and support systems to S.H.I.F.T. to the full inclusion of persons with disabilities and their families as well as other persons in need of assistance. This will require an efficient system with intergovernmental coordination at national and sub-national levels to ensure effective and lasting change.   

What is the European Care Strategy?  

• A Package of measures to address the deficiencies of the care system.
  
  
  • • A Communication – presenting the overall vision of the social care infrastructures of tomorrow and the actions that will be taken at the EU level to push for upward convergence while respecting competences at EU and national level. It highlights the need to consider care as a continuum that needs to be addressed from a lifecycle approach taking into consideration the rights and wellbeing of all actors: persons in need of care and support, family carers and care professionals.   
    • A Proposal for a Council Recommendation on Early Childhood Education and Care – presenting a revision of the Barcelona targets, with more focus placed on the quality of services and their accessibility.  The 2002 indicators are raised and new quality indicators are included, such as the number of hours a child attends ECEC and staff/child ratios. Clear links are made with the European Child Guarantee, the European Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the EU work-life balance directive.  
    • A Proposal for a Council Recommendation on Long Term Care - presenting a vision of long-term care that balances the needs of care users with recommendations on carers from family to professional services addressing the continuum of care. It recommends that Member States adopt National Action Plans to reform their care infrastructures to boost the transition to independent living and full inclusion in the community.   

• A Package set within a wider European Pillar of Social Rights, the European Care Strategy brings to the fore the topic of care as an essential component of social rights, as it contributes to the advancement of Gender Equality (Principle 2), Work-life balance (Principle 9), Child Care and Support to Children (Principle 11), Inclusion of People with Disabilities (Principle 17) and Long-term Care (Principle 18).   
• The Commission will monitor the implementation of the strategy through a mix of tools, explicitly linked to the European Pillar of Social Rights 2030 targets on poverty reduction and employment. 
• It puts forward the need to recognise family carers – and to accompany this social recognition with support measures which ensure access to resources, services and appropriate time arrangements allowing the conditions for an informed choice.   
• The Member States now have to adopt the two Recommendations in the EPSCO council and they are encouraged by the European Commission to put forward concrete action plans on the LTC reforms that will be monitored through the revised indicators of the EU Semester developed in consultation with the Social Protection Committee. 

 For more information, contact Camille Roux croux@coface-eu.org  

COFACE resources  

• EU Care Strategy: COFACE Families Europe Recommendations  
• Mind the gap: the EU Care Strategy must promote gender equality  
• COFACE POLICY BRIEF – Early childhood education and care: A tool for child education, reconciliation of work and family life, and a caring and inclusive economy  
• European Charter for Family Carers  
• S.H.I.F.T. – A guide to shift towards meaningful inclusion of persons with disabilities and their families   
• From Words to Actions: Shedding light on the S.H.I.F.T towards meaningful inclusion in Europe   
• Key Findings: Study session on gender inequalities in care and pay   
• Long-term care: The family dimension  
• Towards an economy which cares: COFACE Economic Principles  
• Child Compass 2030: Shaping a healthy society, environment and economy fit for children  
• Who Cares?: Study on the challenges and needs of family carers in Europe   
• COFACE Position Paper: Families on the Edge   

Going Further  

• Looking beyond COVID-19: Strengthening family support services across the OECD  
• Study on exploring the incidence and costs of informal long-term care in the EU  European Commission 
• Gender equality and long-term care at home, European Institute for Gender Equality 

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EU Care Strategy: COFACE Families Europe Recommendations
For a future of care that supports and recognises family carers

A societal shift on the way we envision care is essential to create a sustainable future, which will serve social and economic inclusion of all and boost independent living. The whole of society needs to cater for the diversity of families and support them in the diverse forms of care that they need and have to provide.

____________

The EU Care Strategy will need to:

• Recognise the value of the informal work done by families and family carers,
• Relieve carers providing them with services and the opportunity to have a good work-life balance and appropriate resources through their life,
• Redistribute care addressing the gender care, pay and pension gaps while fostering the rights of children, persons with disabilities and all those with care and/or support needs.

The COVID-19 crisis has damaged our societies and economies, but also has served as a magnifying lens that put centre stage the role of families as safety net and the shortcomings of our systems that have been ignored for too long. This is the case of the care sectors and systems.  The over reliance on families as natural providers of care has led to under-investment and to an artificial divide between health and care that has long lasting consequences. The EU Care Package announced by President von der Leyen is part of the EU answer to this societal and economical challenge and offers a unique opportunity to shift the narrative of care for the benefits of all families and all their members.

The EU level thinking around the future of care did not start with the announcement of the package. It is important to ensure that the upcoming initiative in autumn 2022 brings together important aspects and builds on existing promises:

• The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and especially The Child Guarantee, the Child Rights Strategy and the Work-Life Balance Directive balancing the needs of parents and carers (especially mothers) with the reaffirmation that rights start at birth and that all children regardless of their gender, disability or migration status, economic background have a right to quality education and participation;
• the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the engagement of the EU to boost the independent living agenda and the right to be included in the community ( based on the obligation under article 19 of the UNCRPD) with a Care Package Communication and Recommendations fully inclusive of persons with disabilities and their families, enhancing the development of community and family based solutions fostering inclusion and participation;
• the Gender Equality Strategy to address the gender care gap in the formal and informal economy, recognising the need to work on debunking the myth and tradition linking care to women as an additional way to close the gaps;
• the Green Paper on Ageing, strengthening the life cycle approach taking into account the diversity of the ageing debate, including ageing of persons with disabilities and ageing of family carers looking at the risks that accompany these transitions.

All these EU policy and legal initiatives highlight principles that should guide the future of the Care equation by refocusing the debate on human rights, on inclusion in the society, gender equality, non-discrimination, participation, independent living…  Nevertheless, while it is important to have clear references to these different frameworks, it is also crucial to have the Care Package address the missing pieces and connect the dots by putting forward a vision of the social and economic care infrastructure of tomorrow taking a whole-family and whole-society approach.

Whole-family means both that every member of the family is empowered to make their choices and to access sufficient resources, time arrangements and services to live in dignified conditions and fully participate in society; but it also means that no family should be excluded because of their composition, economic resources or the disability status of one of their members. The evolution of care needs and the life-cycle approach should not only be seen as someone stepping in a carer’s role at some point, neither as someone developing care needs at some point in their life, but as a continuum. COFACE defends the systematic inclusion of a two-generation approach, taking into account the needs of the care giver and care receiver in their family context, in order to provide specific and holistic responses, as presented in our Child Compass 2030.

Being a care receiver is a position in which everyone has been in their life and might be again, being a care giver is also something that everyone may become at some point in their life. Care is a continuum and should be addressed in policy as such. Care needs evolve over time and the responses should be adapted as there is a need for real reflection on how we consider and address this continuum of care as a society. The upcoming package will address ECEC and long term care, but what about all the initiatives that surround these areas and are enabling care givers and care receivers to fulfil their role. If we take the example of child care, are the child-minders included in the reflection? Are the parenting support services? Supports and trainings for family carers? Are the programmes that support the transition to independent living of young persons with disabilities considered under long term care? Is the support provided by a personal assistant to deal with the bills care? Are mental health services and helplines care? Without this global vision of all the aspects that care involves, the narrative around the Care Package could miss the mark and create further silo thinking while we need synergies and intersectional thinking in both the Council Recommendations and in the European Commission Communication. The continuum of care must be thought following a multi-generation and life-cycle approach.

Hence under the Care Package the recognition and the support for families in their caring role, filling the gap in service provision, will have to be clearly expressed (see COFACE ECEC Policy Brief and our position on the Family dimension of Long Term Care) but also that the vision presented encompasses the diversity of needs and solutions. This is especially important to apply this life-cycle vision in the overarching narrative on care linking it clearly with the support needs of persons with disabilities and their families through their life. For instance the question of ageing of persons with disabilities and of family carers has not been addressed sufficiently neither in the Green Paper on Ageing nor in the European Strategy of Persons with Disabilities and the Care Package should put forward actions and recommendations to address this. Transition phases in life can expose persons to increased levels of vulnerability. The overall weakness of the social protection systems and overreliance on family carers increases the dependency of persons with disabilities to family support and offers few solutions when looking at the question of ageing independently. But for both groups, the questions of retirement and ageing is crucial, from the economic point of view: gender pension gap from the family carers side who are in the vast majority women is one of the aspects (see our study Who cares? for more details), but also the additional support they may need as they age and are not able to carry on with the same level of support that they were giving to their relative. From the perspective of persons with disabilities, the questions of their retirement conditions is also to consider as well as the extra support needs that can come with age as well as the solutions that should be offered when families carers are no longer available to care for or support them. By putting forward a system that enhances collaboration between the formal care sector and family carers from the start, with adapted responses we can lower the risks of these transitions as community based solutions are put in place, lowering the reliance on family carers and improving the right to choose adapted solutions. Efforts need to be made to ensure a continuum between professional and family care that appropriately supports the training opportunities and social recognition, while recognising the responsibility of the State to put in place the appropriate services system for early childhood education and care and long term care system. COFACE asks for family carers can be found in the European Charter for Family Carers. However in order to understand how to implement these rights at the European level it  is crucial to have an accurate vision of the situation, hence the needs to include in the Communication provision for a EU wide study on family carers.

The whole-society approach means that we need to keep our eyes on the end goal, care like health and many things in our life are not an end in itself, they are means to ensure that every family and their members can be supported to live an independent dignified life and fulfilling life being included in the community. If the reform of care is one of the challenges that we need to address urgently as a society, is because it is a tool for social and economic inclusion (See Towards an Economy which cares paper).

The care sector has been presented as a tool for women empowerment, outsourcing the tasks that were –are- deemed the responsibility of women[1]. While some truth can be found in this statement, it has also been a double edged sword. The formal care sector is nowadays overwhelmingly feminine underpaid and offers precarious working conditions, while domestic care in the family sphere still puts a disproportionate burden on women. The poor attractiveness of the formal care sector is due to low investment in staff training and retention and low wages. Additionally, the image of the care sector as being low qualified, is a downward spiral and an open door for the informal economy which is highly developed in this area. To increase the attractiveness of the formal care sector, the upcoming Care Package needs to work on both the employment conditions and on the measures to attract a gender-balanced work force and break the gendered narrative around care, whether it is in early childhood education and care or in long term care, revalorisation also comes from the realisation that the low valorisation, unfair working conditions and low attractiveness of the sector comes also from the gender aspects and that they are mutually reinforcing. At the household level, the uneven share of care and chores is also a strain on women’s resources, moreover often leading unemployment for mothers as the economically rational choice for the household. Public policies and programme can help shifting the narrative and support an equal redistribution of tasks within the households, notably by providing families with high quality, affordable and community based services, and of course by taking strong action to lower the gender pay gap. The Gender inequalities in care and pay in the  EU  should be addressed in the upcoming Care Package.

Creating a sustainable care sector from birth to old age requires a societal shift and not only a reform of what is currently considered as the care sector. The development of the future community and family based care infrastructures needs to be mainstreamed and linked to other initiatives, such as transport and buildings for example. Similarly to the approach that COFACE presents in its guide S.H.I.F.T. for the meaningful inclusion of persons with disabilities and their families, the EU Care Package needs to see beyond the traditional stakeholders in order to trigger a societal transition. Building carer-friendly workplaces, ensuring accessibility from the start and applying the universal design principles in all sectors is very much in line with the idea of independent living, inclusion and participation in the community. Hence to take this whole-society approach, the EU Care package must suggest ideas on how to better integrate these considerations in the future and present policy initiatives. (45 examples of initiatives to boost the transition towards independent living and meaningful inclusion in the community can be found in our recent S.H.I.F.T. in practice report.)

Inclusiveness and human rights compliance must be at the core of the thinking, as they are necessary from an early age. Quality inclusive ECEC is not only a requirement to provide special responses to children and families that have been excluded from the system, but also the building blocks to construct inclusive societies, boost independence and boost the care economy by developing a clear framework of competence and requirement for the sector and the staff.  This also implies recognising the societal and economic value and diversity of the work provided by families as both economic units and natural safety nets which needs to be appropriately supported in order to carry on with this role. The role of the EU is to ensure that this thinking is coherent across the different Member States: family and family solidarity does not stop at a border, but is very much a cross-border issue in line with emerging transnational family realities. It is crucial that the question of care in cross-border families is addressed in the Care Package.

In other words, with the upcoming Care Package, the EU has the possibility to extend further the vision put forward by the European Pillar of Social Rights and presents a Union with a vision for the future of its citizens. This global leadership is needed to rise to the challenges that the COVID-19 crisis has imposed on us and the ones it has brought centre stage. It is high time to present a coherent, sustainable vision based on human rights on how we want to support the members of our societies who need care and/or support and the ones that are already providing this support, formally,  informally and within the family.

For more information, contact Camille Roux croux@coface-eu.org

COFACE’s resources

• COFACE POLICY BRIEF – Early childhood education and care: A tool for child education, reconciliation of work and family life, and a caring and inclusive economy
• European Charter for Family Carers
• S.H.I.F.T. – A guide to shift towards meaningful inclusion of persons with disabilities and their families
• From Words to Actions: Shedding light on the S.H.I.F.T towards meaningful inclusion in Europe
• Long-term care: The family dimension
• Towards an economy which cares: COFACE Economic Principles
• Child Compass 2030: Shaping a healthy society, environment and economy fit for children
• Who Cares?: Study on the challenges and needs of family carers in Europe
• COFACE Position Paper: Family on the Edge
• Key Findings: Study session on gender inequalities in care and pay

Going Further

• Looking beyond COVID-19: Strengthening family support services across the OECD
• Study on exploring the incidence and costs of informal long-term care in the EU
• Gender equality and long-term care at home, EIGE.

[1] According to the data included in the gender equality strategy the 44% of Europeans think that the most important role of a women is to take care of her home and family. 43% think the most important role of a man is to earn money

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The #IwantWorkLifeBalance campaign was launched in 2017 to shore up citizen support for the EU Work Life Balance Directive as a first channel to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights and make a real contribution to achieving more gender equality in Europe. We invited everyone to join the #IwantWorkLifeBalance Social Media campaign. How? By tweeting, retweeting or sharing our messages and/or pictures using #IwantWorkLifeBalance hashtag.

COFACE Families Europe has been pushing the EU for years now to recognise the social, economic and demographic needs of our societies to meet the pressing challenge of work-life balance, calling on the EU to recognise the current societal shift in parenting and working roles.

The shift of families towards more dual earners with dual, or multiple carer needs (for children, older family members, relatives with disability, or other support needs) is leading to new 21st century challenges for families such as reconciling family and work, parental burnout, and more) and the need for modernised 21st century family policies focusing on a reconciliation policy mix of Resources – Services – Time.

Families struggle to cope with their multiple responsibilities and thus helping them reconcile their work, family, care and private lives is fundamental. This is an essential driver for women to be able to enter and stay in the labour market but also to promote more gender equality at all levels, from inside the family to employment and the broader society. This helps in breaking the stereotypes of what is a “man’s or woman’s job” both in the family and in the labour market and it will improve the sharing of family, house and care responsibilities.

After two years of discussion, the EU Workk Life Balance Directive was finally approved in 2019. The following rights have been adopted:

• 10 working days of paternity leave for fathers, Remunerated at least at the level of sick-pay
• 4 months per parent, out of which 2 months are non-transferable between parents and remunerated at adequate level by Member States
• At least 5 working days with additional flexibility on how to allocate them.
• Right to request by parent of children up to at least 8 years old and carers for the following Flexible working arrangements: reduced working hours, flexible working hours, tele-work

Do you know why we use penguins?

The logo of the #IwantWorkLifeBalance is the Emperor penguin. We have chosen it because penguins are natural examples of sharing of responsibilities in parenting. We use penguins on our campaign materials because they support the idea to promote the breaking down of stereotypical gender roles, and to ensure true gender equality in both spheres of family life, within the caring and the working roles.

Get in touch

Policy – With a number of partners of the civil society we hold regular monthly meetings to update one another and strategise. If you want to be involved in the campaign or to receive our regular policy updates on this topic, contact Pascual Martinez at pmartinez@coface-eu.org

Communication – We invite everyone to join the social media campaign. For media inquiries or any request on the campaign please contact Bettina Guigui at bguigui@coface-eu.org

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Brussels, 7th March 2021

First impressions by Elizabeth Gosme, Director of COFACE Families Europe

Twenty principles, three headline 2030 targets, a revised EU Social Scoreboard, a clear timeline of initiatives, and a shared political commitment and responsibility from European to local level. Using the COFACE recommendations as a benchmark, here below are my first impressions on the  European Pillar of Social Rights action plan published on 4th March 2021.

1.Two-generation approach to policy-making.

The interrelated well-being of children and their parents is reflected to a great extent in the action plan. Different types of family supports are referred to, directed at children and their parents: work-life balance measures which will have a strong social and economic impact, investment in early childhood education and care (ECEC), poverty reduction with an explicit target also on child poverty, as well as the upcoming Child Guarantee (in the form of a Council recommendation later this month). I am looking forward to the full EU work-life balance directive transposition (by August 2024, but hopefully well before); the revised Barcelona targets on ECEC in 2022; the implementation of the new indicator on the At-risk-of-poverty rate or exclusion for children (0—17) in the EU Social scoreboard; and finally the allocation of European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) resources to combat poverty including child poverty, even if it is a binding measure for only a select number of countries with higher child poverty rates. The Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027, launched separately to the Pillar yet strongly linked to the 2030 Social Pillar targets (“at least 80% of those aged 16-74 should have basic digital skills”), will be useful to bridge the digital divide for all generations, prevent further digital deprivation and empower digital citizens to ensure human rights are implemented online – something COFACE has been advocating for over 10 years.

2.Automatic social rights for families in vulnerable situations.

There was a call from some stakeholders to mainstream family policy across the action plan, and this has been done to a great extent, acknowledging also the importance of families as first social safety nets. The needs of families have been considered from birth to old age, and in many cases actions are based on an intergenerational approach. Families with children require automatic rights like access to family benefits, ECEC and flexible working, many of which are (sub)national public responsibilities. However, local measures can be backed by sound legislative and non-legislative EU frameworks, like the upcoming EU Child Guarantee targeting poorer families and children via a series of instruments and guidelines for all EU countries. Vulnerable situations occur during different life transitions, including in old age, which also requires automatic social rights for older persons to receive the health and social support they need, but also acknowledging the family members who support and/or care for them in the absence of adequate social protection systems. Family carers are recognised in the Pillar action plan, and we look forward to initiatives to boost automatic social protection rights for them as well. The Commission’s plan to map best practices in providing pension rights for care-related career breaks in pension schemes and promote the exchange of practices, as well as the upcoming initiative on Long-term care in 2022, must support the reforms urgently needed to support family carers.

3.Use real-time evidence provided by civil society.

The length of the EU public consultation on the Pillar action plan was extensive lasting nearly a year, allowing for many responses, including many contributions from civil society (local to international). The Staff Working Document in the Pillar action plan provides a useful overview. COFACE Families Europe waited until November 2020 to submit its response in order to take into account the latest feedback from its network on challenges for families, the impact of COVID-19, and to include the 2030 Child Compass launched on World Children’s Day (20th November) calling for family policy-makers to think beyond social policy when developing measures to address child and family well-being. There is a huge diversity in the civil society organisations heard in the consultation, including networks of NGOs (representing families and family support providers like COFACE), social economy players, public authorities, businesses, trade unions, to highlight but a few. A full understanding of the nature and strengths of different civil society networks is essential to understand the positions of each and how they can contribute to the implementation of the Pillar. The European Commission has acknowledged several COFACE recommendations (most of which have emerged through COFACE expert groups and statutory meetings), including on indicators. First the need to measure the number of hours spent by children in childcare, on top of enrolment in childcare, since access to childcare is not always full-time and even less for children with disabilities. Secondly, the recommendation to develop complementary (sub)indicators on work-life balance in the EU Social Scoreboard. I think EU policy-makers are fully aware that such participatory methods to co-shape the action plan must be sustained up until 2030 and beyond to ensure full implementation of the Social Pillar.

4.Monitoring, reporting and impact measurement.

There are some clear figures to be used as 2021 benchmarks to measure progress in 2025 of the targets set out in the action plan. COFACE will especially monitor the targets relating to halving the gender employment gap (although hoping that most countries will close the gap entirely), and increasing provision of ECEC to contribute to reconciliation between professional and private life, to supporting stronger female labour market participation, and also and especially to support healthy early childhood development (which is not explicitly stated in the action plan). However, given that the care responsibilities of families are not only for children (including children with special needs), but increasingly for the ageing population, a complementary target to boost professional care and family carers would have better reflected societal needs today, in line with the Commission’s Ageing Green paper. The Commission and the Social Protection Committee plan to map out areas in which further work is needed to ensure equal access to quality and affordable long-term care across the Union – it will be essential that in the transition to more performing social protection systems, family carers be socially recognised and supported adequately through access to a mix of rights (respite, financial compensation, adequately paid leaves from work, pension rights). Such investments would also help prevent further poverty and exclusion, potentially contributing to a stronger result than the Pillar action plan tentative ambition of a 15 million reduction of people at risk of poverty by 2030.

5.Concrete and priority actions to trigger real change.

The action plan has prioritised targets on employment, skills and tackling poverty, which broadly cover the 20 principles; while also developing a multitude of sub-actions which will be monitored closely by different EU civil society networks, and making links to other EU strategies relevant for social rights implementation. COFACE will be in a position to monitor closely the EU Gender equality strategy and Disability Rights Strategy, and to assess the impact of the future Council Recommendation establishing the European Child Guarantee, as well as the initiative on Long-Term Care to be proposed in 2022 to kick off policy reforms for more sustainable, affordable and quality services, including support to family carers. This was called for by many respondent organisations to the 2020 public consultation, highlighting the lack of adequate care leaves or systems to support informal carers, often women. Concrete actions also include various good practice measures taken by public authorities such as Belgium improving or creating family-related leaves for the self-employed (maternity leaves, paternity leaves, foster parent leaves); the use of the ESF by Lithuania to provide integrated social care and nursing services at home for older people or people with disabilities, including children; the use of the ESF by Croatia to enhance social protection of informal carers by redefining their status, reviewing the policy framework for long-term care services and implementing a new social benefit for informal care delivered at home; and the commitment of the city of Ljubljana to continue investing in family supports of different types (accessible childcare, schemes of parental rights and cash benefits, co-financing programmes of NGOs to provide out-of-school activities). The identification of specific examples of social rights implementation like the ones above are extremely helpful to replicate and upscale similar approaches across countries.

6.COVID-proofing and ensuring recovery policies fully respect social rights.

The action plan includes the intention of the European Commission to propose a Council Recommendation on minimum income in 2022 to effectively support and complement the policies of Member States – which will be useful leadership to trigger appropriate reforms, but will not be enough to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on families. The work in progress to adopt by end 2021 a delegated act to define a methodology for reporting on social expenditure under the Recovery and Resilience Facility will be essential to ensure the recovery is in line with the 20 principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights. The 2030 headline targets are deemed ambitious and realistic by the European Commission, in line with the most recent economic forecasts and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, highlighting that “the pandemic and its consequences on our societies and economies does not allow to predict fully the progression expected in the coming years”. But given the magnitude of the post COVID-19 challenge, and the huge efforts of mobilisation by the EU and its Member States, this crisis must be an opportunity for a political shift away from social policy dependence on economic forecasts, towards a European social policy that drives economic policy objectives towards a balance of growth and well-being through sound long-term public investments. This is not reflected in the Pillar action plan, but COFACE will continue to build bridges between social, economic and finance stakeholders, as will be the case on the 21st April 2021 during our webinar on unlocking new economic thinking for a sustainable future.

7.Upscale NGO-driven good practices through European networks.

The freshly adopted ESF+ (earlier this year), with EUR 88 billion from 2021-2027, will continue to be the EU’s main financial instrument to support the implementation of the Social Pillar. According to the ESF+ regulation, Member States must dedicate an appropriate amount to the capacity building of social partners and civil society organisations: 0.25% of ESF+ resources should be programmed when Member States have a country-specific recommendation (CSR) in this area. I hope that ESF+ authorities will use this opportunity to award operational grants to civil society organisations representing or supporting families, to give them the human resources needed to engage actively in policy and funding processes linked to the implementation of the Social Pillar. While the Employment and Social Innovation Programme (EaSI – now integrated in the ESF+) continues to help national authorities, social partners, civil society and other relevant actors to organise communication and engagement activities by collecting and exchanging the best practices across Europe – COFACE does this in various ways, including through its freshly launched European Family Lab. The EaSi-funded networks of course do much more than good practice transfer: they build capacity of their members to understand the European Pillar of Social Rights, build consensus across countries to have a strong voice in the EU policy/legal discussions, address common challenges like COVID-19, strengthen the civil society sector essential for European democracies, boost cross-country transfers of knowledge and innovation, maximise use of data for evidence-based policy systems.

8.Develop and consolidate EU legal frameworks with a social impact.

The Social Pillar can have a huge impact on society and the economy via non-legislative frameworks with strong operational guidance for governments, which we hope to see in the upcoming Child Guarantee as a key channel to help reduce family poverty. But legislative frameworks based on the European Treaties are also essential and have already been put forward, like the Directive on Work-Life Balance which entered into force in August 2019 with 3 years for transposition (plus two extra years for some specific provisions). This is one of the pieces of legislation supported actively by COFACE from 2017 to 2019, introducing minimum standards for family leaves and flexible working arrangements for workers with caring responsibilities, and promoting their equal take-up by women and men. Even before its adoption in 2019, this directive led to reforms across countries, and now in this transposition phase COFACE is pushing for upward reforms beyond the minimum standards of the directive. The European Parliament, ETUC and several countries, are now calling for a regulatory framework on the ‘right to disconnect’ to take into account the major telework developments in the last year. This has been acknowledged in the Pillar action plan, but is being left to the social partners to negotiate. Is the Autonomous Framework Agreement on Digitalisation adopted by the social partners in 2020 enough to ensure workers can exercise their right to disconnect from increasingly digital workplaces? Only time will tell.

9.Think beyond social and employment policy. 

Annex 1 of the action plan shows a multitude of EU frameworks and initiatives, which is quite overwhelming and confusing to read. Yet if all these frameworks are monitored and coordinated under the leadership of President von der Leyen herself, they should be complementary creating implementation dynamics in a wide range of fields linked to the 20 pillar principles. As stated in the Staff Working Document COFACE, together with other stakeholders, argues that social and employment policies can only be successful if there is consistency with wider economic, budgetary and fiscal policies. While the action plan mentions that the European Semester will allow for a coordinated monitoring of the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Plans to ensure they invest in policies “for the next generation, children and the youth, such as education and skills” (the sixth pillar of the RRF), consistency is also needed with initiatives in other areas. The action plan mentions an upcoming report in 2022 on access to essential services – this will surely need to include information on access to basic financial services, consumer credit, access to internet and digital infrastructure, also considering the links between digital deprivation and severe material deprivation. There is no mention of the Digital Services Act proposed in December 2020 to boost inter alia  effective protection of users’ fundamental rights online; but the action plan does mention an upcoming “2030 Digital Decade” initiative, as well as a white paper on artificial intelligence planned for later this year, which would focus among other things on redirecting algorithmic decision-making toward the promotion of human rights. The action plan also mentions the various measures which are part or linked to the recently launched Renovation Wave initiative in 2020, including a Commission recommendation on energy poverty, the revision the Energy Efficiency Directive, and the launch later this year of an Affordable Housing Initiative piloting 100 renovation districts.

In conclusion, this renewed Social Pillar package undoubtedly provides a strong EU ecosystem for national governments and stakeholders to implement social rights in their communities, and to engage COFACE civil society leaders across Europe. All in all, it’s a great effort and national governments should use this framework as guidance to urgently trigger the reforms needed, where this is not already the case.

The post European Pillar of Social Rights action plan: turning principles into action appeared first on COFACE Families Europe.

Here in Belgium, we are starting our fourth week of school closures and our third week of kindergarten closures. So far, parents have managed as best they can to combine work and childcare.

But this situation cannot go on forever. As time goes by, the situation becomes unbearable in certain families. Many of them approach us daily on this subject, whether it is parents who cannot manage to telework and care for young children at the same time, or particular situations of parents who still work out of the house.

To try to get a good picture of the situation we launched a survey and received 3 500 answers in one week. The main conclusion of this survey is that parents are no longer able to telework properly and care for their children as they would like at the same time.

However, employers’ expectations do not necessarily change: many parents tell us that their employer’s demands on productivity stay the same, even if they (tele) work while looking after (young aged) children. “I have to tell my employer what I do throughout the day. If I had to answer honestly, I would write “dispute management”, “napping the little one”, “tinkering with the big one who is bored”, explains a mother to us by e-mail. “My employer tells me that teleworking must be productive and that if this is not possible, we must take time off … but I don’t have enough time off!” says another.

Parents have no solution. Children under 12 years old require constant supervision. Grandparents caring is not an option at the moment, they must be protected. Paid holidays are not inexhaustible and must still be used during the remaining school holidays. Unpaid leave is not an option for most parents. Parental leave is (very) insufficiently remunerated and too inflexible.

That is why, La Ligue des familles asked our national government for specific COVID-19 parental leave for working parents. We questioned Belgium’s National Security Council on this subject via the Prime Minister on Wednesday March 11, as soon as the first schools closed their doors. We then spoke to the group leaders in national parliament on March 17 and made our request known through the media. Our Belgian colleagues from Gezinsbond (Flemish League of Families) have taken similar steps with Dutch-speaking elected officials. Finally, we issued a joint call to the Federal Minister for Employment, Nathalie Muylle, on March 20. We have received some positive reactions, but without any concrete progress yet.

What we want is a specific COVID 19 parental leave. It may be an adaptation of parental leave, better paid, more flexible, and in addition to the existing 4 months. Or an absence compensated by health insurance. In all cases, the leave must be compensated correctly, accessible to employed, civil servant and self-employed parents. It also must be applicable in the event of telework. And should be able to be divided into days or even half-days (especially so that it can be shared between the two parents, or even taken by another relative if both parents work in an essential sector).

Doing nothing has also a cost. Whichever option is chosen, it is certainly an expensive measure. It is however a one-time investment. It seems to us that it is better to support families in a positive way for a few weeks to allow them to get through the crisis, than to suffer, in the post-crisis period, serial burnouts.

Here are a few testimonies from the survey : “It’s the equivalent of 4 full-time jobs spread over 2 people”; “We are stressed and tense from having to be successful at work and successful as a parent”; “It could be paradise, but it gets closer to hell with the feeling of doing nothing right”; “The brain is consumed, battered by the impossibility of continuous thought and the obligation of permanent multi-tasking”; “I am overwhelmed and I have already cried a lot in front of my children because I cannot manage them and manage my work”; “I am afraid for the mental health of my children”.

Europe is, so far, the most impacted territory. Families around the continent live the same difficulties. They should unite in a same demand: parental leave for working parents during the confinement.

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**DISCLAIMER: All opinions in this article reflect the views of the author, not of COFACE Families Europe**

About the author:

Christophe Cocu is the general director of the Ligue des familles and member of the COFACE Administrative Council. To achieve a society adapted to the realities of families, the Ligue des familles intends to transform society on the issues of all families, with parenthood as the preferred angle of attack. For this it implements 3 modes: Citizen and political action which has an impact on legislative and social standards.Services that facilitate the daily lives of parents, based on their identified needs. Information for the parents.

The post OPINION: Extraordinary COVID-19 parental leave for all European parents during confinement? appeared first on COFACE Families Europe.

I am an educational psychologist working in the social sector for more than 28 years, offering services to families and vulnerable groups.

It is the first time in my life that I am really struggling to find answers in order to cope with all these exceptional circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Never before, have I experienced a situation where human behaviour is so greatly affected that it results in feelings of anxiety isolation and uncertainty everywhere.

The human need for connection and contact, both with our family and loved ones, is inherent, vital for everyone, from the day we come into this world, till the moment we die. But an unexpected rapid diffusion of COVID-19 forces measures on us which are increasingly requiring people to stay away from others – be isolated temporarily, or quite often until the end of life. “Holding their hand at the last minute is something out of nothing”, some doctors say and cry.

In times when people‘s actual contact falls below their usual habits, feelings of loneliness became heightened. Because of this, people now need to adjust their communication behaviours as this is a prerequisite for good mental and psychological health.

Communication technologies, such as Skype or WhatsApp, are a great way to bring people together digitally. Not everyone in society however has the knowledge to use these services and undoubtedly those people are the ones that need greater help at the moment – adults and children alike.

In such an unprecedented and especially difficult situation, Ι think that it is very hard for adults to firstly adjust and identify how to react to this new reality and secondly how to help our children understand what is going on and be able to keep up positive spirits mentally and psychologically. It is very important to strengthen our mental resilience as adults and parents to be able to keep or to create our family cohesion and make the best use of our values and psychological resources in order to manage the situation.

Sadness overcame me when I read the other day that family violence has widely increased in the times of COVID-19, due to the obligatory isolation of all family members and the tensions created by this. In fact, in some counties the situation already is so tense, that the police had to intervene with a number of drastic measures.

Families are the pillars of society. They now face the challenge to discover new paths of communication. This global crisis will come to an end eventually but a hidden suspicion of a similar crisis will stay in people’s minds forever.

Driven by my desire to find some positive elements in this situation, I ponder over the best ways how to entertain our children and have a great family time. I invite everyone to a brainstorming which may be helpful for all of us.

As a starting point, parents need to try to listen to their children with empathy and communicate with them with honesty and respect. Being a parent does not necessarily mean “use of authority” in what we say and do, nor should it burden us with this meaning. Mistakes cannot be avoided in a parental relationship. However, their correction is mainly the responsibility and obligation of the parent. The child will follow the example, will open up and will feel free to participate in a mature relationship where everyone has learned to ask and offer in a mutual way (Thomas Gordon, 1970).

Talk to your children without overestimating or underestimating the circumstances. According to the age of the child try to explain what COVID-19 is and the effort that scientists make in order to find the right medicines to save all those who are in danger. Give them hope, because they are children and have the right to build up their character without despair and fear. Don’t tell lies to them. Share their emotions and feelings, because life itself includes pleasure and pain and if we try to distract the pain with something pleasant all the time, then we run the risk not to learn to accept and overcome it. “We cannot ‘fluctuate the volume’ of emotions as we do in music. They only have one switch. That of intensity. We cannot fade out sorrow and pain and fade in happiness and joy. When you lower one, you lower everything.” (Philippa Pery, 2019)

Before children are exposed to the culture of enjoying material goods, they are well aware of what satisfies them and relieves them most; and that is the connection and contact with the people who raise them and “truly understand” them. This feeling helps children to find meaning and logic in their environment and the feeling that they belong somewhere.

So, see the current situation as an opportunity and don’t let it be wasted. We all have to spend many hours and days at home with our children, perhaps for a long time. Take advantage of this opportunity and share with them a lot of interesting activities:

Read books/fairy tales, do handicrafts and other constructions, dress up and play fantastic roles with them, play the hidden treasure hunt, get a jigsaw puzzle with them, watch a movie and make popcorn and sandwiches together. Look at old family photos and videos with them, talk about the good features of grandparents and other relatives, speak to them about the habits of an older age, do some housework together. Exercise with them, make a phone call to the grandparents or arrange a skype meeting with them and ask how their day was and if they need anything from the market. Play a board game with the children and ask them to show you how they use to play an online game with friends. For younger children try patiently to help them organise the school duties and make a simple program of the day. It is a good opportunity to do this without pressure and tension. There are so many other things to invent of course. We were never given much time and opportunity to do such things before.

Don’t forget: Leave yourself free to relax, laugh and share moments with your children. Remember how you used to play when you were very young. It’s a wonderful opportunity to do so, even if there is a little mess all around and everything is not perfect. After all, what counts more, is the quality of communication we build with our children and other people who we value.

References:
– Philippa Pery: The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (And Your Children will be glad That You Did) 2019
– Thomas Gordon: Parent Effectiveness Training – PET- (1970)

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**DISCLAIMER: All opinions in this article reflect the views of the author, not of COFACE Families Europe**

About the author:

Antonia Torrens holds an MSc and a PhD Degrees in Educational Psychology from The University of Sheffield UK. For more than 28 years she has been active in the social sector, working with families and vulnerable groups of population. She is the president of KMOP in Greece and vice president at COFACE Families Europe.

The post OPINION: Getting through the COVID-19 storm – how to communicate with our children? appeared first on COFACE Families Europe.

I am in self-isolation writing from my home, with my two daughters interrupting now and then to bring me coffee, asking me questions, telling me stories, teaching me things. My 9-year old often gives me life hack tips based on the videos she sees online. Yes of course she uses the Web, under my supervision, now more than ever before given the COVID-19 confinement. This lockdown is plunging my family even further into the digital age through the use of technology for schooling, working, socialising, leisure and staying in touch with the family, which will be our own personal experiment. This got me thinking of other ongoing experiments, more societal in nature but still close to home, and how they could lead to major transitions and even full reinvention. So I started scribbling down some notes.

In Belgium, since the beginning of the semi-lockdown on 16th March all schools are closed but with basic childcare available for working parents whose professions do not allow them to telework and for parents needed in key sectors like public health (from pharmacies to hospitals) and manufacturing. There are also new rules and working methods being phased in for care services for persons with disabilities and older people, which will likely have a huge impact on working carers. All families, including working families, have a right to support: a mix of access to resources, care services, and leaves and flexible work arrangements from their employers – but now it is also a matter of public health and survival, to ensure that workers with family care responsibilities, women and men, can still be in a position to work in key sectors related to this health crisis we are going through.

Working families was going to be one of the topics of our COFACE meeting on 16th March in Brussels (cancelled at the last minute) namely discussing with businesses and trade unions (Business Europe, CEEP, EPSU, ETUC and SME United) the challenges of building family-friendly workplaces and how to move forward. This typical debate in the COFACE crowd has now been taken to the mainstream through a massive global economic experiment of imposed teleworking and flexible work arrangements for workers across the world. While this crisis will put a huge strain on small, medium and big businesses, it might also lead them to innovate like never before, leading to an overhaul of workplace dynamics and working time. Namely using the full potential of technology to change human resources policies towards an output culture which allows workers full flexibility and autonomy to achieve results while finding true work-life balance.

We at COFACE are part of this imposed experiment with the Brussels-based team, through decentralised working, agreeing on key tasks to be achieved over the next month, and using technology to connect bilaterally or with the full team. The same goes for connecting with our member organisations across Europe. On 16th March, we replaced our original physical meeting with a short video conference to discuss the transposition of the EU work-life balance directive in ten countries – to me it was a revelation, seeing how online tools genuinely allow for effective and meaningful discussions, and seeing how many people are actually using these tools already! Sure, it was new and challenging for some, but still useful for information exchange and it brought us all together in solidarity as we collectively embraced new working methods. This crisis is pushing our network out of its comfort zone and into what I consider a European social experiment, forcing us to rethink transnational working and to stay effective so that we can be ready for cross-country support mechanisms as families across Europe become increasingly affected by the pandemic. As a network partly funded by a European Commission grant to drive innovation and forward-thinking between civil society in different countries (under the Employment and Social Innovation Programme), I feel this imposed social and economic experiment is an important time of transition which will potentially lead to lasting changes in our working methods from 2021.

The societal change and transition we usually talk about in COFACE is the demographic transition, which, in a nutshell, is the historical shift we are seeing in Europe towards societies with smaller and older populations as a result of low birth rates and low death rates, with important consequences for society, the economy and the planet. I have seen some jokes circulating on social media about the fact that imposed confinement will lead to a mini baby boom. I would be delighted to see a new generation of “quaranteens” emerge as a result of this lockdown, not only for society and the economy, but especially for the many out there who desire children. Families are and will always remain the basic unit of society, ready to support each other as a natural social safety net.

Who are you with during this lockdown? Who is supporting you right now? Who are you mostly calling these days? While this COVID-19 crisis might not lead to more babies, I would like it to trigger a move away from the “F-word” and “taboo” thinking around family policy as pro-natalist, conservative and anti-gender equality. Instead we should be referring to positive and intergenerational family policies adapted to 21st century realities such as migration flows, co-responsibility between women and men, work-life balance, family diversity, and assistive reproductive techniques so that young people can be free to fulfill their family wishes.

The imposed lockdowns across the globe are undoubtedly going to be challenging for all of us, and we are likely to suffer and see loved ones suffer. Change is hard. Transitions are tough. But they’re also great opportunities for rethinking societal priorities and the very functioning of our economic system, as well as reinventing our personal and family lives. I for one have chosen to see this unique moment to be creative and rethink everything – in my work and family life.

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**DISCLAIMER: All opinions in this article reflect the views of the author, not of COFACE Families Europe**

About the author:

Elizabeth Gosme, Director of COFACE Families Europe and mother of two rebel girls. Active in the EU political arena. A true music lover. Firm believer in the six core values of COFACE to build inclusive societies: social inclusion, intergenerational solidarity, human rights, non-discrimination, empowerment, and equal opportunities.

Twitter @COFACE_EU @lizgosme

Cover photo: <a href=”https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/business”>Business vector created by stories – www.freepik.com</a>

The post OPINION: A time of transitions, experiments and reinvention? Notes from Brussels in lockdown. appeared first on COFACE Families Europe.