Tatjana Ždanoka, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, my Group is of the opinion that the Commission is acting rather faintheartedly in coming up with initiatives on social affairs. You are just looking back at the possible reaction of the Council, and the Social Pillar that Commissioner Dombrovskis presented today proves, to my regret, this discouraging approach once again. There is almost nothing in this document that we could mention as a big step towards Social Europe, which is really needed now.

In the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs we are working now on the own-initiative report on minimum income and we will still insist that this fundamental right is to be guaranteed by an EU-level directive. Where the work-life balance initiative is concerned, there are of course very many positive headlines. Then there is paternity leave, five days per year for carers’ leave, four months non-transferable parental leave, and we are very happy that the Commission has finally put forward our proposals in the work-life balance report approved by Parliament last September. We have been fighting for them for a very long time. However, in order to convince European Union citizens that the Commission takes the need to enforce social rights seriously, in our opinion you have to come up with far more ambitions proposals.