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Commission launches consultation to make websites more accessible for the disabled The European Commission recently launched a public consultation on further measures to make websites in Europe accessible, starting with those of public administrations, and invites stakeholders to give their views. It also addresses other technologies like digital television. The consultation is open until 27 August 2008. 15% of Europeans suffer from some form of disability, and many face barriers such as reading a website's small text or even knowing how to access websites and online services. Despite repeated calls by the EU and government leaders to improve this situation, progress remains limited. public consultation can be found on the following web page: http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=accessibility&lang=en
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“No Modern European Democracy without Gender Equality”: In view of the European elections taking place in June 2009 and given that a number of EU top jobs will be filled in the course of the year 2009, the European Women's Lobby is launching a European-wide cross-party Campaign with the support of Margot Wallström, Vice President of the European Commission and the ministerial chair of the Council of Women World Leaders. The EWL campaign aims at putting pressure on political parties and decisions makers to make sure that women are equally represented in political parties' lists for the 2009 European Parliament elections, in the next European Commission and in all top political posts. The first step of the EWL campaign is to gather the support of high level personalities from all European countries, political parties and all walks of life for the Campaign Call for Action. The EWL is therefore in the process of collecting support from personalities for its Campaign prior to the launch in September 2008. If you want to support the EWL Campaign, please contact Cécile Gréboval at the EWL Secretariat: greboval@womenlobby.org
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European Parliament to adopt report on partnership within cohesion policy The European Parliament's draft initiative report on “Governance and partnership at national and regional levels and a basis for projects in the sphere of regional policy" (rapporteur Jean Marie Beaupuy, ALDE, FR) which was discussed by the Regional Affairs Committee on 16th July represents a positive step in recognizing the current gaps and the need to move beyond rhetoric. Noting that the “requirement to hold public consultations on the issue of programming (….) and that the efforts to involve the public in the preparations for the operational programmes for the period 2007-2013 were not entirely successful", the draft report calls on the European Commission to draw up an assessment of the implementation of partnership by the Member States, as well as guide designed to improve the current situation. It also calls on Member States and managing authorities to make sure that partnership covers all the phase of structural funds programming. EAPN believe the report should be strengthened in the sense of a more equal partnership by mentioning more explicitly the role of civil society. MEPs had an opportunity to propose amendments until 21 July, and the report should be adopted by the REGI committee on 9th September. Partnership between public authorities, social partners and civil society play a major role to ensure better transparency, democracy and outreach to potential project promoters within structural funds. However, much remains to be done to ensure that such partnership really takes place in practice, and social NGOs are concerned that no major step forward has been taken for this new programming period. The report is also available in different languages by going to the link below: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/organes/regi/regi_20080716_1500.htm
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Minimum income standard for Britain: public consultation shows what people find acceptable “A minimum income standard for Britain: What people think”, published recently by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, reveals what the public believe people need to earn to have an acceptable standard of living today This report is the culmination of two years research, based on work with 39 focus groups involving more than 200 people, who were actively engaged in shaping the research, in combination with input from experts on heating and nutrition. It sets out a series of minimum income standard budgets for 4 household types: single adults, couples with two children, lone parents with one child and couple pensioners. The press release, report and other publications are available from the project website: http://www.minimumincomestandard.org/ ---------------------------------
The latest issue of FRA's magazine deals with the fact that women's experiences of racism and discrimination often differ from those of men because they suffer from multiple discrimination due to their gender as well as on the basis of ethnic origin or race, religion or belief, disability or age.
This report elaborated by the Commission' s High Level Advisory Group of Experts (HLG) on the social integration of ethnic minorities and their full labour market inclusion examines barriers which prevent members of ethnic minorities from fully participating in the labour market. It also identifies good practices in public policies and in business strategies which can help to overcome such barriers.
Living with hardship 24/7: the diverse experiences of families in poverty in England This ground-breaking report from The Frank Buttle Trust, University of York and the NSPCC looks in depth at the experience of families living on a low income in both affluent and deprived neighborhoods. Families who participated came from a range of ethnic backgrounds. Based on interviews with parents, children (aged five–11) and professionals, the findings highlight the need for more recognition of the many ways in which poverty impacts on families' lives and for a holistic approach to supporting parents and children.
source:The European Anti Poverty Network (EAPN) newsflash
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