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Work-life balance

Request number: 103302

Requested by: LESKOVEC Leon
Requested for: Ressler Karlo Office
Date of request: 28 October 2019
Answered by: KERN Verena, KUNERTOVA Linda

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Work-life balance

28/10/2019

Work-life balance
Dear Mr LESKOVEC,

The text below is in answer to your enquiry. The structure follows your questions.

Summary note on the work life balance directive for parents and
carers - which is the role of the EU, and which of MS
The Work-life Balance Directive introduces a set of legislative actions designed to modernise
the existing EU legal and policy frameworks, with the aims of

 better supporting a work-life balance for parents and carers,

 encouraging a more equal sharing of parental leave between men and women, and
 addressing women’s underrepresentation in the labour market.

Supporting parental participation in the labour market is also one of the key pillars of the 2013
Recommendation for Investing in Children.

The Directive, which was passed by the European Parliament in April 2019, entered into force
on 1 August 2019. Member States now have three years to adopt the laws, regulations and
administrative provisions necessary to comply with the Directive.

Measures under the directive include:

 The introduction of paternity leave: under the directive, fathers must be able to take
at least 10 working days of paternity leave around the time of birth of their child,
compensated at least at the level of sick pay.
 Ensuring that two out of the four months of parental leave are non-transferable
between parents and compensated at a level that is determined by the Member State.
 The introduction of carers’ leave: workers providing personal care or support to a
relative will be entitled to five days of leave per year.
 Extending the right to request flexible working arrangements to carers and working
parents of children up to eight years old.

The directive is also accompanied by a set of policy measures that are designed to support
Member States in achieving the aims of better work-life balance and more equally distributed
caring responsibilities. These include

 encouraging the use of European funds to improve the provision of formal care
services,
 ensuring protection for parents and carers against discrimination or dismissal, and
 removing economic disincentives for second earners within families.

As a result of these measures, the directive aims to improve not only work-life balance but
also contribute to an increase in women’s employment and families’ economic stability.

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What else can Member States do?

On a more general note, a 2013 EPRS briefing on Promoting fertility in the EU discusses
policy tools to tackle shrinking population, most of them are at the hands of EU Member States.
The discussed measure include (p. 4-6):

 financial incentives
 child-related leave
 childcare provision
 gender-balanced leave policies
 flexibility of work hours
 affordable and available housing

The author points out that impacts of these policies on fertility rates are not fully clear-cut as
the empirical evidence is in some cases weak (housing or paternity leave) or mixed (duration
of maternity leave). There seems to be some academic consensus on positive fertility effects
of financial incentives (can take form of cash transfers or tax reductions), policies supporting
accessible childcare (,,..a number of researchers argue that childcare is the family policy with
most influence on fertility”). A strong emphasis is put on synergies that the aforementioned
policies can create, if well-implemented together:
,,Experts attribute, in part, the relative success of the Nordic countries and France in
maintaining high fertility rates to the coordinated and consistent nature of those countries'
policies. If the goal of promoting fertility informs family policy but also housing, gender, fiscal
and employment policy, the effects (though perhaps individually weak) may be reinforced.”

What has the current European Commission done on the topic so far,
but also in terms of support for young families
Family policy (in the sense of parental leave, maternity leave, family benefits, family law (not
cross-border), child support etc.) is mainly decided at national level. The EU has mostly a
supportive role to foster cooperation and mutual learning through the exchange of best
practice. However, there are some areas (such a social security coordination; minimum
standards on maternity leave etc.) where EU legislation has been adopted. More information
on where and how the EU can act and has acted can be found in the section below.

Soft law

Europe 2020 & Social OMC

The main policy frameworks in the field of EU social protection are the Europe 2020 strategy
and the open method of coordination for social protection and social inclusion (Social OMC),
which aims to promote social cohesion and equality through adequate, accessible and
financially sustainable social protection systems and social inclusion policies. Through the
Social OMC the EU provides a framework for national strategy development for social
protection.

The European Semester / country-specific recommendations

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In the context of the European Semester the European Commission annually releases
country-specific recommendations (CSR) to set policy objectives for each Member State for
the next year. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is currently a high priority topic
on the EU agenda, following the adoption of the Council Recommendation on High Quality
ECEC Systems in May 2019. Several Member States received recommendations on ECEC.
Member States were advised to make childcare more affordable (Cyprus, Czech Republic,
Ireland, Slovakia), of a higher quality (Austria, Ireland, Slovakia), and more generally
accessible (Czech Republic, Poland).

In addition, the European Commission recommended that four countries improve access to
high quality and affordable early childhood education and care in order to support women’s
participation in the national labour market (Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland).

Recognising inequality across the EU, the CSRs also include several suggestions for
improving access to education, training and employment for disadvantaged groups, including
migrants and people with disabilities (Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary,
Latvia, Romania, Slovakia).

In addition, four countries received recommendations to increase efforts to improve the

integration and inclusion of Roma people (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia).

The European Commission also issued recommendations regarding social assistance to

eleven countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, Finland, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia,
Portugal, Romania). Suggestions included improving access to and quality of various
employment and social services and extending or refining income support and taxation
systems.

Recommendations regarding education also included suggestions about how countries

might improve educational outcomes, the quality of education and training services, and the
inclusiveness of provision (Cyprus, Estonia, Spain, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Slovakia).

The European Pillar of Social Rights

The European Pillar of Social Rights is a set of 20 principles to make social rights a reality for
citizens. One of the deliverables of the European Pillar of Social Rights is the Work-life
Balance Initiative, which addresses the work-life balance challenges faced by working parents
and carers.

9. Work-life balance
Parents and people with caring responsibilities have the right to suitable leave, flexible working
arrangements and access to care services. Women and men shall have equal access to
special leaves of absence in order to fulfil their caring responsibilities and be encouraged to
use them in a balanced way.

Secondary legislation

Social protection

The rules on social security coordination to protection social security rights when moving within
Europe apply also to national legislation on family benefits: Regulation (EC) No 883/2004
on the coordination of social security coordination

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A proposal for a Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers

and the self-employed has been brought forward in 2018. Some national parliaments still
need to approve the agreement before its final adoption in the Council. Member States
committed themselves to develop their national plans within two years.

EU legislation on reconciling family and professional life / work-life balance

The Directive on self-employed workers and assisting spouses (Directive 2010/41/EU) grants
a maternity allowance that is sufficient to enable an interruption of occupational activities for
at least fourteen weeks for female self-employer workers or female spouses of self-employed
workers.

The Directive on work-life balance for parents (Directive (EU) 2019/1158) and carers aims to
increase the participation of women in the labour market, increase the take-up of family-related
leave and flexible working arrangements by men and provide opportunities for workers to be
granted leave to care for relatives who need support.

EU funding

The EUR 80 billion European Social Fund (ESF) is the predominant central funding
mechanism for projects focusing on social policy initiatives. Funding is allocated to Member
States and regions based on their GDP per head relative to the EU average (with three
separate funding levels for ‘less developed’ regions, ‘transition’ regions and ‘more developed’
regions), and projects are 15- 50 % co-financed by national funding.

At least 20 % of the total ESF resources in each Member State is earmarked for activities
aimed at promoting social inclusion and combating poverty. Various projects have been
funded under the four thematic objectives (employment, education, social inclusion and public
services) to further opportunities for children, such as funding for childcare provision; support
for children in social care; training and information for prospective foster carers; and targeted
educational services for Roma children.

The cross-cutting principles of the European Structural and Investment Funds include
“Promotion of equality between men and women and non-discrimination”, and
“Addressing demographic change” which includes improved balance between working and
family life. In addition, the ESF thematic objective ‘promoting sustainable and quality
employment and supporting labour mobility’, includes a section on “Equality between men
and women in all areas, including in access to employment, career progression, reconciliation
of work and private life and promotion of equal pay for equal work”.

Tackling child poverty and social exclusion in the EU. How EU funding mechanisms can help.
European Commission, April 2018.

What are the suggestions of the UN (Family and beyond) to support

young families and areas with demographic decline?

Issue of family policies are tackled within the UN’s system in the Division for Inclusive Social
Development (DISD) and the Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). There

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are no publications specifically focussed on support to young families, but there is some
research into family polices in general.
A set of policy recommendations was issued in 2019 by the UN’s children agency (UNICEF)
in the Family-Friendly Policies: Redesigning the Workplace of the Future Policy Brief.

,,UNICEF calls on governments and businesses to redesign the workplaces of the future, to
enable parents to give their children the best start in life, while boosting productivity and
women’s empowerment.

1. Sufficient paid leave to all parents and guardians, in both the formal and informal
economies, to meet the needs of their young children. This includes paid maternity,
paternity, and parental leave, and leave to care for sick young children.
2. Supporting the ability of mothers to breastfeed exclusively for six months, as
recommended by global endorsed standards, and to continue breastfeeding for as
long as they choose. Affordable, accessible and quality childcare services.
3. Ensuring that all children have access to affordable, quality childcare and early
education.
4. Providing child benefits and adequate wages to help families provide for young
children.”

Earlier this year, UNICEF also issued a report on cross-country ranking of the EU and OECD
countries in terms of family policy friendliness. The report creates a compound score
using the four following indicators to evaluate how family-friendly the regional policies are:

 paid leave available to mothers

 paid leave available to fathers
 childcare enrolment for children younger than 3
 childcare enrolment for children older than 3 before school age

Each of the benchmarks was equally weighted in the final score. The countries with the best-
performing score were Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Estonia, whereas Switzerland,
Greece, Cyprus ranked worst.

Current trends in the EU with statistics if possible (when do young

people decide to start a family, what are their obstacles, which
support mechanisms best answer their needs etc)

Household compositions and young families

There is a clear increasing trend of the average age when EU citizens marry for the first
time. In 2015, the average age at which men wed was 32.4 years, while for women the age
was 29.9. This is a substantial growth compared to 1995 with 28.3 years being the average
for men and 25.7 for women.

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Eurostat, Being Young in Europe Today

Next to getting married, a complementary trend that can be observed in the EU is a
preference for consensual union without a legal basis. As the figure below shows, there is
a stark contrast between the Northern and Southern countries. While consensual union
without any legal bases is favoured in countries like Finland, the UK, France or Estonia, the
opposite is true for Greece, or Croatia:

Eurostat, Being Young in Europe Today

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Just as the average age for first marriage grows, there has been a substantial and
continuous increase in number of births outside of marriage in the EU over the past two
decades.
,,The share of children born outside of marriage in the EU-28 rose from 21.6 % in
1995 to reach 33.0 % by 2005, before continuing to increase during the most recent decade
for which data are available, reaching 42.0 % by 2014.”

Eurostat, Being Young in Europe Today

Fertility and demography projections

The most recent in-depth analysis by EPRS (2019) takes a look at the demographic trends
in the EU.
,,..Whilst the EU population is now growing only slowly and is even expected to decline in
the longer term, the world population continues to grow strongly. Indeed, it is projected to
pass 10 billion in 2055. And despite its growth being expected to slow, the world population
is nonetheless forecast to be over 11 billion people in 2100. So, the EU represents an ever-
shrinking proportion of the world population, at just 6.9 % today (down from 13.5 % in 1960),
and is projected to fall further to just 4.1 % by the end of this century.”

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Total population in the EU yearly projection Retrieved

,,In common with many other developed (and developing) parts of the world, the EU population
is also ageing, as life expectancy increases and fertility rates drop compared to the past.. the
numbers of children being born has fallen from an EU-28 average of around 2.5 children per

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woman in 1960, to a little under 1.6 today. This is far below the 2.1 births per woman
considered necessary in developed countries to maintain the population in the long term, in
the absence of migration. Indeed, migration has become increasingly important for expanding
or maintaining the EU population. In both 2015 and 2017, the natural population change (live
births minus deaths) was slightly negative, and net inward migration was therefore key to
the population growth seen in those years.”
Due to the falling fertility rate and inward migration, the European population is also aging.
,, Combined, these trends result in a dramatically ageing EU-28, whose working
population (aged 15 to 64) shrank for the first time in 2010 and is expected to decline every
year to 2060. In contrast, the proportion of people aged 80 or over in the EU-28 population is
expected to more than double by 2050, reaching 11.4 %.”
The following figure represents a breakdown of EU median age projection in 2070 per Member
States:

Living with parents

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More statistics on the current trends of young people living with their parents: Bye Bye
Parents: When do children leave their parents nest?, EUROSTAT

We trust this will be useful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again if you need further
information.

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Yours sincerely,

Verena KERN & Linda KUNERTOVA

0032 2 28 46394

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