Perplexity and optimism

The environment, energy, foreign affairs, maternity: over the past few days the European Parliament staged various occasions for debate. The conference of February 9 on Low Carbon economy, featuring Charles of England as a keynote speaker, registered the largest number of attendants. It is an environment-friendly theme with strong social and economic implications, as repeatedly pointed out. The summit’s results. The next plenary sitting in Strasbourg (February 14-17) will address the theme of pension-systems reform at European level. In the meantime the EU parliament seat hosted the debate between MEPs and the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, who reported on the outcome of the summit held last weekend. “Innovation, research and energy are the keys to future growth”, said the Belgian politician. However, he pointed out, Europe is “lagging behind as far as research and development is concerned compared to the United States and soon even to China”. Conversely, Van Rompuy presented a positive forecast of the trend of the economy: “business indicators show confidence and optimism”. Then, the usual emphasis: “It is not a time for complacency”. The EU Council president said the financial market and budget supervision tools must become effective, and that investments must be encouraged. MEPs’ criticism. EU Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, gave a positive evaluation of the commitments undertaken by EU27 heads of Government or State to step up concerted action on economic issues. He announced that the Commission “is determined to act to reinforce economic governance in the EU, (the theme of the end-of-March summit). He then made known that in 2011 the Commission “is due to submit a communication on external energy policy”. Moreover, widespread perplexity was conveyed in the EP seat. The summit’s outcomes were viewed as “weak” and even blatantly insufficient. According to EPP Group chairman Joseph Daul “none of the EU 27 should see its energy security threatened by the lack of connections”, for this, “there should be more convergence” as regards infrastructures, outsourcing, research, efficiency. “The solution is more Europe” Daul pointed out. The so-called “Competitiveness Act”, reportedly co-designed by German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy, was the object of hot criticism as relates to both method (“national governments, and not Community Europe, prevail”) and content (“you can not reduce debt if you don’t create economic growth”.Single mothers: poverty-risk. A few days earlier the Parliamentary Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality held a meeting with experts to discuss the situation of “single mothers’, whether divorced, legally separated, widows… Speakers highlighted the fact that the condition of single mothers is such that could bring them on the brink of poverty or social exclusion. The debate was accompanied by survey findings and personal experiences, legislative proposals and dubious stands on delicate themes linked to the family, parent-child and affective relations. Commission president Eva-Britt Svensson, conveyed the need for an in-depth analysis on the “new kinds of family” that are developing across Europe, “which differ from the traditional model”. More services to families. During the meeting it was pointed out that common-law marriage is becoming widespread in Europe, that divorces are on the increase and that ever more children are born “out of wedlock”: reportedly representing 37% of all children in the EU and up to 50% in some Nordic countries. Moreover, although 91% of all single parents are women “we must not forget there are fathers in their same situation”, underlined MEP Marina Yannakoudakis. According to a survey carried out by the European Survey of Mothers, whose findings were presented during the meeting, single mothers are in dire need of reconciling work and childcare, through flexible working hours. Anne-Claire de Liedekerke, who presented the research, said, “it is necessary to recognize the major role of maternity” across European societies. Zita Gurmai delved into the possibility of sustaining public programs “that may lead to the creation of working places that can be reconciled with the needs of the family and of single mothers (part-time jobs, tax cuts to enterprises, etc.). Most speakers called for the need to step up services for the family and for parents, starting with kindergartens and nursery schools.