
Analysis
Women at risk from shoddy EU laws on domestic workers
Gaps in EU law mean 9.5 million domestic workers, many of whom are women and undocumented migrants, face exclusion from minimum labour rights.
Tuesday
26th Sep 2023
Gaps in EU law mean 9.5 million domestic workers, many of whom are women and undocumented migrants, face exclusion from minimum labour rights.
As summer ends, thousands of people doing back-breaking work on Europe's farms remain in limbo due to endless EU talks on seasonal workers' rights.
Every nut and bolt from start to finish: Could life cycle assessment lead to cars that are kinder to our planet and more sustainable overall?
EU space technology is increasingly becoming an essential cog in the machinery that manages responses to emergencies like floods and fires — from providing information to firefighters to alerting citizens of danger.
Up to May this year, the cost of basic school supplies rose 13 percent, while wages increased by just six percent. A situation that worsens the cost-of-living crisis and the situation of children at risk of poverty in the EU.
Job insecurity affect workers' perceptions of fairness, well-being, trust, sense of social exclusion or political participation, finds a new report. "They are less likely to vote in elections and less likely to participate in demonstrations — an indicator of disengagement."
Thousands of Greek state workers are protesting against changes to the labour law proposed by the conservative Mitsotakis government. These include a six-day week, working hours of up to 13 hours and 'on-call' contracts.
A small tax on the richest 0.5 percent would increase EU tax revenues by €213.2 billion, says a new report by the Greens.
The European Parliament adopted a report calling on the European Commission to draw up common guidelines to guarantee minimum rights for people in prostitution. MEPs also urged member states, which have the power to regulate prostitution, to review existing laws.
The commission is reviewing the 2011 single permit directive for third-country nationals to live and work in the EU. A new study shows that its design facilitates the exploitation and increases the dependency of migrant workers on their employers.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced "a strategic dialogue" on the future of EU agriculture — in response to the wave of criticism led by her own centre-right party in the European Parliament against some green policies.
Von der Leyen's speech focused on labour and skills shortages, inflation and improving the business environment. Some trade unions, political groups, and organisations felt that there were missed opportunities to outline a roadmap for a social Europe.
The 'Spotlight Initiative' was launched in 2017 with a budget of €500 million to end all forms of violence or harmful practices against women and girls in partner countries, but so far it has had "little impact", say EU auditors.
France's controversial "veggie burger ban" has now made it to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), while the European Vegetarian Union argues to embrace innovation.
Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo announced a set of 22 measures in response to concerns about crack abuse and insecurity around the Brussels Midi station — a key interchange for local, national, and international destinations from the capital city.
The EU Commission unveiled its new EU disability card to ensure mutual recognition of disabled status across the EU and access essential benefits and services — but there are still some shortcomings.
The EU Media Freedom Act, to be voted on by MEPs, could provide crucial protections to journalists and trigger a wave of lawsuits against governments. If the law fails, the decline in media freedoms sweeping Europe could become ever worse.
Moving between EU states for the 87 million European citizens with disabilities is far from a reality — due to the fragmentation of disability-recognition systems and insufficient coordination of social security systems across EU countries.
The primary victims of abusive subcontracting practices and unregulated labour intermediaries are mobile and migrant workers who, while indispensable to European agriculture, food processing, hospitality, and domestic work sectors, still struggle to attain equal treatment in the workplace.
Teachers have reported that their pupils' knowledge of Ukrainian, mathematics and foreign languages has deteriorated dramatically.
Outrage grew in Spain when prosecutors announced an investigation into the Spanish football chief Luis Rubiales to clarify whether his kiss on the lips of Jenni Hermoso after Spain won the Women's World Cup constituted an offence of sexual assault.
About four percent of global female employment is subject to potential automation through generative AI technologies, compared to only 1.4 percent of male employment. The trend is even more pronounced in high-income countries, a new study reveals.
Poland and Malta are the worst places in Europe for legal harassment of journalists, in what NGOs called a "worrying threat to democracy".
If employment is not as strong as headline figures suggest, this has important implications for monetary policy, and raises questions over whether the ECB is tightening too aggressively
Climate change has increased the severity and frequency of heatwaves, droughts, floods, and wildfires. Yet despite this, the number of firefighters has been cut in 10 EU countries in recent years.
Europe is now looking whether cell-based meat should be on the menu.
Let's focus for a moment on technology. Specifically, what might be the most important environmental technology ever developed: precision fermentation.
Drivers of this plant-based shift tend to be young, liberal, educated, female, city-dwelling, and environmentally-conscious, but not necessarily vegan or vegetarian.
EUobserver spoke to Marie Asano, head of the food and nutrition team at the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund, an independent 'dark green' venture capital fund — focused on innovative companies that aim to bring bio-based foods to the general public.
"In China, they're building skyscrapers of pigs," says Greenpeace. And in Brussels, the Big Meat lobby is spending millions to stop so-called 'vegan radicals' from shaping EU policy.
EIT Food sees alternative proteins, or 'protein diversification', as CEO Andy Zynga prefers to call it, as a promising avenue to address some of the shortcomings of our current food systems.
Antarctic Krill oil, protein extract from pig kidneys, magnolia bark extract and the mung bean. All these and many others are on a list of approved 'novel foods' for sale on the European market.
In Europe, affordability of food rather than access to food is a concern. Plant-based diets could make the entire system more sustainable, including prices.