Time and again we hear about plans to gain more transparency in regard of the EU institutions. However, yet it is still useful, even if difficult at times, to read the ‘secret papers‘. Fortunately, we could open a channel by which the following document reached us – one more in a series of important information. Even if confidential information we could fortunately get access to this highly discrete document.

The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short). In the first year, 's' will be used instead of the soft 'c'. Sertainly, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard 'c' will be replaced with 'k.' Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced by 'f'. This will make words like 'fotograf' 20 per sent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent 'e's in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing 'th' by 'z' and 'W' by 'V'. During ze fifz year, ze unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou', and similar changes vud of kors; be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters. After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil b no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum

tru.

The article looks at the phenomenon of begging as a structured activity: at how the begging is organised, at the incomes of beggars and at the interaction between the beggars and the members of the public. It claims that disguises that the beggars adopt are just adaptations to their extreme poverty. Finally, it discusses the policy implications of begging. Begging raises the questions of how we can collectively ensure well being for all.

Over the recent years the chase of the poor has had a troubling international outbreak

In France the new eruption of begging in the streets has led to a number of municipal decrees, which are called "anti-begging" regulations.

In the middle of 1990s in France and in other countries there was a return to the public activities which seemed to be forgotten – a chase of the beggars. When a municipality or a country would take measures, they would always concern identification and sending away of the undesirables. The presence of the destitute in the streets risks to spoil the image of the tourists cities or "civilised" countries who try to preserve or obtain certain collective identities.

The municipal acts of the French authorities since 1993 have tried to restrict begging. It must be said that these decrees almost always are limited in effect to tourist season and certain parts of the cities. The circular of the Ministry of the Interior supported, under certain conditions, measures to restrain the begging, as from March 1994 (reform of the Penal Code) begging and vagrancy have stopped to be criminal offences. In April 1997 in Nice, after a municipal referendum which was positive about the local decree, the administrative tribunal, despite the demand for annulment from the state minister, did not consider the anti-begging decree illegal, reinforcing the position of the mayor.

These municipal decrees mark a beginning of a new criminalisation of poverty. Collectively they are dangerous as they can lead to a domino effect when all the cities adopt such decrees to push away their undesirables. We are not yet there and at the moment the public action in relation to the homeless is a seasonal one, when, in winter, they are accommodated, and in summer forced out.

Public opinion on the mayors’ actions is split. In a survey conducted by a research centre CSA in 1996, 57% of the public opposed the decrees and 38% supported them.

There is an eternal oscillation of public action about the destinies of the poor between assistance and punishment, repression and concern, apprehension and comprehension, between "power and pity", with resurfacing myths of a "beggar- millionaire".

It is necessary to present different forms of begging and suggest description of various situations in which it is possible to find the beggars. It is necessary to answer the question of earnings. It is necessary to look at the interactions between the beggars and the passers-by before looking at the problems of the activity, which to a certain extent presents the problem of incivility.

The author looks at begging as a kind of work. In it there is competition, there are colleagues and sometimes clients, there are methods and techniques, hours of work, provision of services, evaluation of the market etc. The beggars themselves use these terms while speaking about their occupation.

People who are begging with an open hand at the corners of the streets, who offer to wash cars, who recite their difficulties in the metro or train stations, or sell journals such as "l’Itinerant" or "La Rue" became the symbols of social exclusion. Normally these people are called "without fixed abode". But perhaps it is not homelessness, but economic activities at the labour market which is particularly unstable and precarious, which put them under our gaze.

Not all the homeless beg, and not all the beggars are homeless. Also, begging is close to other activities which people practise in the public space. Street musicians and entertainers, pavement artists, young people who wash the car windows, those who sell the journals for homeless, are very close to beggars as they are engaged in activities where requests of the public are not, or a very little, regulated, protected, declared.

A beggar is a "public person" who in the public space solicits attention through oral or written presentation of their misfortunes. Together with street traders, artists, illicit vendors, pickpockets, prostitutes he represents a universe of "street" occupations. This is a heterogeneous universe, with the beggars are at the bottom of the street occupations.

The organisation of beggars exists in a limited form – they interchange at certain times and places and can use their revenues together. But still this organisation is very weak and temporary. The self-regulation is based on more or less violent individual arrangements. The increase in the numbers of beggars has led to the acceleration of tensions.

Two principal modalities of begging are causing pity and fear. The begging tactics were always criticised for involving deceit. But they are just technical repertoires of the beggars’ labour. The relative professionalism of begging gave the observers in the 19th century, the period of a crusade against the beggars, a pretext to engage into energetic persecution of the poor. They were opposing the "professionals" who exploit the good will of the public to really unfortunate people, who are ashamed of their poverty and have to hide. A study of begging needs to surpass the categories of professionals and amateurs, real and false beggars, as begging is always characterised by a system more or less elaborated behaviour to adapt to destitution.

The beggars also have careers. This concept, which had initially come from the sociology of labour and was later adopted by the social anthropology, is perfectly applicable here.

Entrance into the career is the most difficult. It is a considerable shock for a human being. This is an outcome of a process of social dequalification (loss of work, family crisis etc). To beg means to publicly expose these difficulties. Being constantly exposed to the eyes of many, the novice can find that he cannot carry on. He is forced constantly to exaggerate his line. If he is an unemployed with precarious housing, he is obliged to present himself as a homeless person. He must suppress his shame. It is difficult to maintain yourself being exposed to the situations generally considered degrading. In order to overcome this shame, people tend to use alcohol or drugs.

Eventually, if nothing happens to prevent the beggar from continuing with his career, begging becomes routine. At the same time, the process of social disqualification progresses. With several colleagues he can organise rotation of labour. Begging can become his only occupation. The revenues go to buy alcohol, medicine or drugs. Having had become the prisoner of his career to which he has adapted and which he sometimes rationalises, the beggar enters the final phase, of indifference. He abandons routines, any organisation, becomes sedentary and his activities become sporadic, aimed only at satisfying the most basic needs. Alcohol, violence and contempt burn him out. At this point his career is finished, together with his life.

This description is just a model and does not represent necessarily linear progression.

In certain circumstances, the produce of begging, plus various benefits, family help and his other activities allow a beggar to get income, which is not that negligible. However it does not allow the homeless beggar to get a stable housing, as he is not able to present a payment slip from the bank. The beggars are in a poverty trap. Many beggars receive RMI – Revenue Minimum d’Insertion, a social security benefit available to those over 25 (or people under 25 but with small children). Young beggars do not receive RMI.

Whether begging is a unique resource or extra remuneration, there is an interesting analogy with informal labour. Informal labour is costly for the society because of lost charges and taxes. On the other hand, it gives many people additional incomes and allows a big number of artisans and self-employed not to lose their patents or become bankrupt. Begging is similar to this in a way that it lets a big number of the homeless, and also of housed unemployed, to get extra incomes. As informal labour, it is criticised because the incomes in it do not follow normal paths and do not correspond to precise balance between contribution and reward.

The incomes and working hours of 209 New York people involved in street level economic activities were studied by B.O’Flaherty (Making Room. The Economics of Homelessness. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1996 ) The research showed that beggars work long hours and receive little incomes. However, according to the author, it is very hard to generalise across the group.

Begging can be rejected because it questions the redistribution modes, but it can also be accepted if it is considered to be the last resort. As informal labour, it is relatively tolerated, as it is known that it allows to diminish the social cost of unemployment.

When we decide what to give and to whom, we make cognitive judgements. We assess verity (reality of misery), inoculation (lack of nuisance if we give), remediability (whether the donation will change anything), and communicability (can it be that such poverty awaits me?) We have a strong tendency for derealisation of the situation by rationalising our choice; often to avoid moral suffering that arises with the sight of begging. (Pharo P., Solicitation et derealisation de malher. Problems de sensibilisation, L’Annee sociologique, 1994, vol.44, pp.53-82) Whatever the personal tactics, it cannot leave us satisfied.

While begging causes legitimately a lot of emotion, one should not fall into "miserabilism" or "angelism". "Miserabelism" is a tendency to attribute all begging to destitution. Although the majority of beggars are miserable and disorganised, there are groups that exploit the misery. It is particularly unacceptable when their families push children to these extremes. The system of social protection is still quite solid to find other solutions to situations, which are collectively judged to be unacceptable.

The new Criminal Code, which came into force from 1 March 1994, made it a crime to involve a minor into begging (article 227-20)

"Angelism" which assumes that all the beggars are socially excluded, neglects the reality of racket, menace and aggression. Such menacing behaviours should be condemned. But we should condemn the behaviour but not the status. "Anti-begging" decrees, being directed at "aggressive begging", target the category of beggars which is judged undesirable. It is not their unacceptable behaviour, but their very presence, which is attacked.

Criminologists and the defenders of public space are concerned today about "incivility". This term embodies a group of different behaviours such as untimely solicitations, acts of malevolence and aggression. Being at the frontier of delinquency, they escape as a rule penal sanctions or statistical accounts. They are the problem of citizens, the problem, which becomes central during the municipal elections.

Certain American criminologists support the measures taken by municipalities to reduce these behaviours, in particular "anti-begging" arrests (Kelling G., Coles C., Fixing Broken Windows. Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in our Communities", New York, Free Press, 1996.) Those who oppose such measures argue that it is necessary to protect the rights of the poor and homeless and tolerate all the forms of non-violent deviance as a manifestation of liberty.

The criminologists, in order to assure the collective reappropriation of the public space, want to criminalise certain uncivil behaviour as "aggressive" begging. This is a part of a more global reform of urban policing directed at greater prevention, establishment of pedestrian zones and a bigger co-operation with the citizens (Declerck P. La vie pour rien. Ethnographie des clochards de Paris, Les Temps Modernes, mai 1986, n. 478, p330). These orientations can respond to the municipal and electoral problems. They cannot respond to the collective problem at the level of the more important issues and larger communities and risk to make the problem pass from one city to another, and exacerbate the tensions and polemics.

A just policy would be not to tolerate aggression and to intervene if somebody is in danger. By leaving the beggars to survive (those who can) and not intervening if only they leave us in peace, people relinquish control over the phenomenon with which they have to live. Apart from the desirable evolution of the macroeconomic and political context of the phenomenon, we must learn to consider just one question. When we see a homeless on TV, we are ready to see in him the universality of human dignity, but the particularity of a beggar in the metro or near our shop makes us react differently. However beggars will not disappear.

We need to help them without tolerating aggression or insult. This is a delicate business, as one has to surpass egoism or local tribalism. Without excessive jacobinism, the State should try to better regulate the problems of solidarity and security, which are primarily collective goods.

* Dokumentation zur Bestandsaufnahme und Bedarfsanalyse von Mädchenarbeitskreisen und Mädchennetzwerken in NRW,

* 7 DM + Versandkosten

* Dokumentation der landesweiten Fachtagung `Gewalt gegen Mädchen hat viele Gesichter; 5 DM + Versandkosten

* Dokumentation `Verschiedenes und Gleiches´ - Entwicklungen und Perspektiven interkultureller Mädchenarbeit

Unter dem Titel Verschiedenes und Gl;eiches hatte die FUMA-Fachstelle Mädchenarbeit NRW am 20. November 98 nach Oberhausen zu einer Fachtagung eingeladen. Zentraler Bestandteil der gut besuchten Tagung war eine Auseinandersetzung mit dem Begriff "Interkulturelle Mädchenarbeit". Stellte die AusländerInnenpädagogik der letzten Jahre die "armen, unterdrückten ausländischen Mädchen" und damit eine Defizitorientierung ins Zentrum des Interesses, so hat sich mit dem Begriffswechsel von den AusländerInnen zu den MigrantInnen eine Bewegung zur Differenziertheit in Gang gesetzt die Ressourcen berücksichtigt.

Will interkulturelle Mädchenarbeit nicht Etikettenschwindel betreiben, so forderten die Podiumsteilnehmerinnen, muß diese Arbeit die Vielfalt der Lebenslagen von jungen Migrantinnen sehen und mögliche Ressourcen wahrnehmen, so daß die Mädchen diese nutzen können.

In der Abschlußrunde wurde besonders eindrücklich eine breite Forderung nach interkulturellen Teams gestellt. Fachlich qualifizierte Migrantinnen sind für die interkulturelle Mädchenarbeit Grundvoraussetzung.

Moderation: Helga Kirchner, WDR

Podiumsdiskussion mit:

Forschungsstelle für interkulturelle Studien, Universität Köln. MONA e.V. Internationale Kontakt- und Beratungsstelle für Mädchen und Frauen, Bochum

Vortrag zur Zukunft der interkulturellen Mädchenarbeit in NRW:

Prof.Dr. Ursula Boos-Nünning, Uni GHS Essen

Die gesamte Veranstaltung inclusive Podiumsdiskussion, Arbeitsgruppen und Vorträgen ist als Dokumentation ab Juni 1999 für 10,- DM + Versandkosten in der

FUMA-Fachstelle Mädchenarbeit NRW zu bestellen.

19.8., Unna, (in Kooperation mit der LKD)

Mädchen und neue Medien

- Fachpraktische Fortbildung -

4.11., Oberhausen, (mit Unterstützung des Päritätischen Landesverbandes NW)

Mädchen im Übergang zwischen Schule und Beruf

Also, unterschreiben, jetzt!

Der Tod von Marcus Omofuma markiert den Tiefpunkt einer jahrelangen Entwicklung. Seit Jahren werden in Österreich Menschenrechte abgebaut, Bürgerrechte eingeschränkt und das Asylrecht beschnitten. Flüchtlinge werden abgeschoben, Menschen mißhandelt. Der Schutz der Privatsphäre ist durch neue Polizeigesetze deutlich eingeschränkt worden. Mit dem geplanten Militärbefugnisgesetz und einem neuen Sicherheitspolizeigesetz sollen Heeresnachrichtenamt und Staatspolizei einen gesetzlichen Freibrief zur Überwachung kritischer BürgerInnen erhalten. Noch nie waren Menschen- und Bürgerrechte so in Gefahr.

Menschenrechte wiederherstellen, Grundrechte sichern, mehr Sicherheit schaffen und die Polizei erneuern - mit "Charta 99" legen die Grünen ein Paket für einen Neubeginn der Sicherheits- und Menschenrechtspolitik vor. Es ist Zeit für eine Wende.

Menschenrechte für alle

Die Menschenrechte gelten für alle. Menschenrechtsverletzungen und Übergriffe der staatlichen Institutionen sind keine Kavaliersdelikte. Darum müssen klare Instrumentarien geschaffen werden, die Menschen vor Übergriffen und Rassismus schützen.

Verfassungskonforme Anwendung des Fremdenrechtes

Ein Fremdenrecht, das die Europäische Menschenrechtskonvention zur Gänze erfüllt.

Fairer Zugang zum Asyl

Das Recht auf Asyl ist durch die Genfer Flüchtlingskonvention gesichert. Auch Österreich hat diese unterzeichnet.

Schaffung eines Antidiskriminierungsgesetzes

Jede Diskriminierung, so auch jene auf Grund ethnischer Zugehörigkeit, Herkunft, sexueller Orientierung, Religion oder Behinderung muß untersagt werden. Trotz aller Verzögerungen: Parlamentarischer Untersuchungsausschuß zum "Fall Omofuma". Trotz aller Verzögerungen: Parlamentarischer Untersuchungsausschuß zum "Fall Omofuma"

Polizeireform, Jetzt!

Nur eine zufriedene Polizei ist eine friedliche Polizei. Die Beamten leiden unter unzumutbaren Arbeitsbedingungen, Überlastung, schlechter Ausbildung und schlechter Bezahlung. Eine große Polizeireform schafft die Basis für die Achtung der Menschenrechte durch die Exekutive. Aber: Das Disziplinarrecht darf Beamte, die ihr Amt mißbrauchen, nicht weiter schützen.

Menschenwürdige Arbeitsbedingungen für die Exekutive Dienstzeiten verkürzen, Bezahlung erhöhen, Unterbringung verbessern.

Verbesserung der Aus- und Weiterbildung

Schaffung einer unabhängigen Beschwerdekommission, die Übergriffe der Polizei prüft Unabhängige ExpertInnen können Wachzimmer besuchen, erhalten volle Akteneinsicht und sind weisungsfrei.

Änderung des Disziplinarrechts

Das Vetorecht der Personalvertretung schützt "Schwarze Schafe".

Meinung bleibt frei

Nein zum Überwachungsstaat. Wir treten der Aushöhlung der Grundrechte entgegen. Wir lehnen alle weiteren Befugnisse für Polizei- und Heeresgeheimdienste ab.

Kein Militärbefugnisgesetz

Die militärischen Geheimdienste dürfen keinen Auftrag zur Überwachung kritischer Bürger erhalten.

Keine neuen Sonderrechte für die Staatspolizei

Die Staatspolizei braucht wirksame Kontrolle – und keine neuen Vollmachten.

Offenlegung der Spitzelakten des Heeresnachrichtenamtes und des Abwehramtes

Schutz von Handy und Mail

Weder Polizei noch Militär sollen unkontrollierten technischen Zugriff auf die neuen Netze bekommen. Hier wünschen wir: mehr privat, weniger Staat.

Demokratie braucht Sicherheit, und Sicherheit braucht mehr Demokratie. Mit "Charta 99" wollen wir eine Wende beginnen.

NAME

__________________________________

ADRESSE

___________________________________

BERUF

____________________________________

UNTERSCHRIFT

Mag. Helena Randerborg. Grüner Klub im Rathaus. Phone: 0043-1-4000-81805. FAX: 0043-1-4000-99-81811.

10.30 am – 4 pm, Tuesday 14 September 1999. Innovation Centre Board Room. University of Teesside

Nina Wakeford, University of Surrey: Machining Desires: new feminist theories for the study of technologies

Karen Littleton and Simeon Yates, Open University: Understanding Computer Game Cultures: A Situated Approach

Eileen Green, University of Teesside: Gendered Use of Technologies in the Household

Helen Richardson, University of Salford: Popping to the Virtual Shop – gender and the use of ICT’s in home shopping

The total number of places for this seminar is 30 and the seminar itself, with refreshments, is free. In order to spread our limited resources as fairly as possible we would be grateful of participants who can obtain travel funding from their institutions or elsewhere would do this. We are able to fund travel costs of some participants (especially postgraduate students). We will do this on a first come first served basis. If you require help with travel costs please indicate this in your reply.

A VR Opportunity: a visit to the Hemispherium in the Innovation Centre will take place after the seminar so participants will be able to take a Virtual Reality trip.

IN CONJUNCTION WITH PEDAGOGICKA FAKULTA UK BRATISLAVA, KATEDRA SOCIALNEJ PRACE

The European Commission has finally approved the (revised) budget for the third year activities of the Thematic Network for the Social Professions 'ECSPRESS'. Despite this long delay we are now looking forward to holding this important event as planned. It will follow on from the success of the ECSPRESS conference in Ostrava, Czech Republic, last August and will bring together educators and practitioners from all parts of Europe for a fruitful exchange of views, experiences and plans.

The aim of this conference is to draw conclusions from a decade of European exchanges in the social professions and to disseminate the best of those experiences to new partners. The conference is therefore of interest to those experienced tutors and practitioners who want to evaluate, share and further develop their understanding of contemporary developments in the social professions in Europe as well as to those who want to gain more information.

The conference will feature

1. plenary papers by leading experts in the field of European collaboration

2. the 'AGORA' - our market place of ideas and experiences with

a) thematic workshops

b) contact sessions for the formation of partnerships

3. working parties for the production of new publications

A draft programme is attached.

Because of this announcement coming so late, due to circumstances beyond our control, we would like to ask you to indicate your interest in the conference as soon as possible by sending us an e-mail or fax with your complete address. Suggestions and ideas for the programme are also welcome. You can visit our website on

We shall then be sending you the full programme and registration form as soon as these are available.

Modra by the way is a small town in the south-western Slovak Republic not far from Bratislava and Vienna.

• Developments in trans-national academic recognition (e.g. Sorbonne Declaration)
• Use of IT
• Balance academic status - vocational/practical orientation
• Ensuring professional standards

2. Towards a Social Europe

• European exchanges promoting innovation in practice - the case of regional co-operation
• Changing professional boundaries and titles
• Practice projects and their educational potential

3. Europeanisation as intercultural competence

• Personal and ethnic identity as an element in training
• Approaches to diversity
• Transforming the educational institution

ECSPRESS Offices

Currently, one of the most discussed issues of social policy and working life in particular is the regulation of working time. This is not only on the agenda because of its meaning in regard the organisation of work. Here, anyway, it marks an important dimension insofar as it tackles the structuration of working life aiming on the increase of the capacity of the workforce. Thus we are at least in part confronted with a repetition of the debate on humanisation of work and the like. Since its early years this debate, however, never stopped at the gates of enterprises. For example a poster of the German trade unions (as far as I remember in the fifties) underlined the requirement for a shorter working week with the slogan – pronounced by a small child: On Saturdays my father belongs to me. And just this in fact traditional orientation is revived currently in a much broader and at the same time more limited sense.

The meaning of working time arrangements is broader insofar as it takes working time and family time basically as two productive times, distinct, nevertheless part of an entity. Of course, this is not the full recognition of housework as central element of the whole (re-)productive circle as it would eb challenged by the feminist movement. Nevertheless, it is a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, just this step is limited by the direction of the debate. Namely, the factual burden of family work as women’s work is taken as somewhat not scrutinised pattern. Second, it is limited insofar as the working life is taken as point of departure. Thus, reconciliation has the meaning of integrating two spheres of women’s’ life instead of accepting housework, child-rearing as a task with an own value per se. Furthermore, the requirement is set as central focus for women while it is nearly just wishful thinking for shaping the life of men. Finally, it launched not least as part of the employment strategy (e.g. no. 21 and 22 of the 1999 employment guidelines) thus being again reduced on existing as part of an economically rather than socially led issue.

The book on Work-Family Arrangements in Europe, edited by Laura den Dulk, Anneke van Doorne-Huiskes and is the result of an international expert meeting and it gives a broad and fundamental overview over the respective patterns in six member states of the EU, namely The Netherlands, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden. What marks it as a milestone is the fact that it is looking far beyond formal questions of the various arrangements. Instead the contributions provide an insight in the different social and societal embeddedness of sometimes seemingly equal formal structures. Thus, we see that the so-called reconciliation of working and family life, as it is currently at the centre stage of various debates cannot be solved by any monolinear approach. Rather it is necessary to take various levels into account. These can be listed as follows – without providing an exhaustive list:

* framework of overall legal structures in the respective country;

* role and function of the level of enterprises in the context of the national respectively statutory framework;

* relationship between and meaning of formal and informal structurations;

* provision of complementing services as crèches/Montessori schools/kindergartens and as well provisions for elderly, requiring care;

* family boundaries, traditions and their ongoing value, meaning in a respective society;

* subjective aspects as the prestige of family, of the division of labour within society and within the families, the patterns of education etc.

* and in no way meaningless the material constraints and chances.

The last item in particular points on a further aspects, lying across all others, i.e. regional and social or even class peculiarities.

In this way, the book covers

* a detailed overview on formal conditions of working time arrangement in the concerned countries and the political conditions of being set up in different frameworks and under different political conditions;

* the broader framework of their meaning, including the cultural patterns lying behind them;

* a setting for a necessary reinterpretation of dominant views on welfare state regimes.

Since the cultural embeddedness and background is particularly neglected in some of the main stream discussion, furthermore because any comparative research and political decision making has to take these factors into account instead of leaving them somewhat outside as specific features for cultural studies. They are the background, which makes any system understood even if the actual processes and forms are highly defined in material terms. For this reason I want to recap at least some single points which are mentioned in the book.

A general overview is given in a graph on page 36, clearly indicating that decisions in regard of introducing respective measures and providing them as matter of fact alike are strictly depending on decision, i.e. showing themselves as a question of decision, political will and economic power. This means as well, that any debate on the issue cannot be reduced on arguments of competitiveness.

Moreover, even based in and structured by objective features, the workplace has to be acknowledged as matter cultural settings, thus influencing behaviour and expectations and as well recognised by the employees and employers alike as environment in a wider sense. The following quotation shows the necessity and evidence of such a broader approach: ‘A range of family-friendly policies, whether in the public or private sectors, does not guarantee a change in workplace culture to make it easier to balance work and family. In many UK organisations, including public sector organisations with long standing policies on flexible working, job sharing and other forms of reduced hours, there is a lack of awareness among employees about what they are entitled to, and often the entitlement to reduced or flexible hours depends on management discretion, inconsistently applied … . Take up of leaves is often blocked by line management, many of whom continue to believe that that good employees should not allow family to interfere with work.’ (51) Even hostility is mentioned against those who just refer to legal rights, guaranteed by law and even by agreements on company levels.

The anyway complex situation gets even more complex when we consider that the enterprise as space of workplace-culture is complemented by the total of societal and social patterns, expectations and opportunities. And of course, one important element in this regard are the images of families in a respective society. This is not just a question of family work in a strict and limited sense. Rather it is concerned with a specific feature how societal work is organised (and recognised) in more general terms. For example with view on Italy it is stated that ‘we must show clearly how women’s paid work in Italy has, for the most part, retained the traditional "confusion" with women’s unpaid work and is thus, in many respects, socially invisible.’ (76) In other words we have to envisage the danger to oversimplify the questions just by looking at the division between employment and housework.

Even if concerned with Spain and there with the formal sector, the report by Anna Escobedo highlights the importance (and the neglect) of working conditions – and at the same time the responsibility of negotiating partners: ‘Results of research on collective bargaining … highlight the lack of attention given to women’s working conditions, protection during pregnancy, maternity leave to care for sick children, in contrast with the importance given to matters related to business and trade union representation, or to other social security issues.’ (117)

Put it in a wider frame the limitations of approaching reconciliation are especially concerned with the reduction of ‘work-family arrangements [which] are perceived as a women’s affair and social benefits rather than as social rights for both parents.’ (121)

Besides general views starting from the various specific backgrounds of the countries and a bulk of information on specific and detailed regulations and factual features the book provides a sensitive interpretation of the country studies in the light of European integration. And again, this contribution makes clear that we are concerned with a complex field: ‘While the promotion of equal opportunities was still focused very much on employment as a world apart, the causes of unequal treatment more often than not can be traced to the interaction between the public sphere of labour and the private sphere of family life and care. As a result, the European Union (EU) has become more and more active in the last decade in promoting reconciliation of work and family life. …

While measures taken in the 1970s and 1980s arose from the ideas of justice, i.e. equal opportunities for men and women, a substantial shift in thinking took place in the 1990s. Economic arguments have been foregrounded concerning the importance of labour participation and employment of women, but also, for example, childcare as a new growth industry and a source of employment. Nowadays, work-family policies have become an integral part of the social and economic policy of the EU, and it could even be argued that the discussion of women’s employment as is relates to family responsibilities has contributed much to the integration of social and economic policy at EU-level.’ (151 f.)

This opens a debate, which should be taken seriously not only by politicians or professionals in the social field who are as such politically engaged (of course, everybody should take this part of his professional responsibility). Moreover, it is an original concern of the profession in its own regard: Assuming that the remark on the shifting stress between social and economic matters is correct it would be necessary and possible to redefine the role and function of social professions in regard of their societal position. These professions could gain the position of an important and more active actor in shaping society or, if missing the opportunity, they could go to the dogs, forced in a more and more subordinated position by further marketisation, deliberation, and as well completing a Fortress Europe etc.

If we go beyond the book, which is a highly recommended document, we can make a strong link between questions of reconciliation and the organisation of work. The latter is currently another issue, which had been put high on the agenda in particular with the launch of the Green Paper on partnership and new organisation of work (communication [97]128 fin.; http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg05/soc-dial/social/greenen.htm) and the more recent communication: Modernisation of the organisation of work (COM [98] 592 fin.. Brussels, 25.11.1998; http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg05/soc-dial/labour/com98-592/com592de.pdf). Especially, when we look at the issues as they are tackle in the Commission’s documents we can se easily that they are in fact tackling questions of the societal role of work/employment rather than simply work arrangements. Nevertheless, the lack of proper localisation of the matters being at stake leads to an oversimplification, which does not meet reality. On the one hand, challenges are reduced to questions ‘for specific social groups’ instead of being tackled as matters of societal organisation. Thus, on the other hand, the responsibilities and actors are not determined. In consequence, we find cum grano salis – with the grain of truth for the non-Latin speakers – many of the shortcomings as they are discussed in the book on work-family arrangements. Now, however, the field of application is much wider – concerning all aspects of employment, family and social life, education and training etc. – thus repressing any fundamental progress in a field as reconciliation even further.

Finally it should be mentioned that besides the requirement of a wide approach, aiming on soci(et)al changes rather than organisational changes the latter are not superfluous. One aspect of this may be for example the integration of measures building up an appropriate infrastructure for childminding in the framework of the ESF. Thus a complex picture of ESF measures opens up, if we look at the Irish example – just one among others: Just recently IR£ 1 million has been provided for childcare initiatives. ‘The Chairman … said "while most spending within the Programme is on target the Committee agreed that some savings elsewhere should go towards the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme being undertaken by the Department of Justice, Equality & Law Reform".

The funding provided will be used to expand the service of the National Voluntary Childcare Organisations through research into family friendly policies and through training/staffing grants for Community Support projects … .’ (ESF provides extra IR £ 1 million for Childcare; in: EU Structural Funds. Ed.: EU Structural Funds Information Unit; Issue no. 9. Summer 1999: 5) In short: employment policies, reconciliation, childcare measures and voluntary sector measures work hand in hand and, thus, the employment measures go beyond there original aims, approaching a multidimensional approach.

* Working Time Patterns in the European Union: Policies and Innovations from a Gender Perspective. Report of the European Commission’s Group of Experts on ‘Gender and Employment’ – Fracesca Bettio, Emilia Del Bono, Mark Smith. European Commission, DG V: July 1997, revised May 1998. Report in the framework of the Mid-term Community Action Programme on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men [1996 – 2000] (Employment & Social Affairs. Equality between Women and men)

* Forthcoming a documentation of a EU-seminar on parental leave including research reviews from 7 member states plus five other papers on issues such as fathers' use and the impact of parental leave. There was also an up to date review of parental leave arrangements in all member states and Norway.

* Hans-Böckler-Stiftung (Ed.); Verantwortlich: Gudrun Linne: Arbeitszeit zukunftsfähig gestalten. Impulse aus der Forschung. Düsseldorf, April 1999

The European Funds – even if they can truly be characterised as means of employment policy they are – or least they can be made to be – even more, not least an important instrument for the development of social professions in a wider sense.

The European Commission’s DG V published the Conclusions of the ESF mid-term evaluations, which gives some insight in the potential and of course the limits of the respective framework in this regard. Mainly concerned with the mainstream of the programmes there are some more implicit information given in regard of a wider approach.

An important thread running through the debate is the importance of just thus – developing approaches, which take the life situation and the wider social circumstances. This includes, for example, the availability and accessibility of a suitable infrastructure to secure family services. ‘The great progress made compared with the previous programming period is due to the extension of eligibility criteria for the supporting measures, in particular the advice and guidance schemes, and all the schemes which allow individual responsibility for people, as well as schemes aimed at easing the family burdens.’ (157)

Another section points out a specific classification of various projects, e.g.:

‘The German EMPLOYMENT typology:

1. qualification projects (e.g. mainly training for new professions);

2. mediation projects (e.g. support for the handicapped to find work);

3. projects that create new jobs (subsidised work in the public sector):

4. projects that address new target groups …

5. projects which address the development of skills … .

The Dutch EMPLOYMENT typology:

1. conventional projects enhanced with a development component …;

2. existing measures applied to new target groups of regions …;

3. projects without participants (e.g. new forms of co-operation between welfare and unemployment agencies, such as creating a single contact point vis á vis the client).’ (148)

Furthermore, an important matter is – in fact – the challenge that all efforts are in vain if jobs are simply structurally short. In other words, here we find the real challenge, i.e. the end of blaming the victims. It is not the unemployed who fails to adapt to job opportunities rather than the lack of jobs (e.g. 91). Proposed ‘pathways to integration’ are surely an important a challenge and field of action for social professions.

This report underlines the analysis as it is given in the Mid-term review of Structural Funds programmes: Objectives 1 and 6 (1994-99), published by the European Commission under the title Better management through evaluation (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications for European Communities, 1999). There it is stated as one main point under the policy implications and future challenges: ‘In discussing the Mid-Term Reviews, the point was frequently made that monitoring procedures tend to place greater emphasis on financial execution than on physical achievements. The majority of Mid-Term Evaluations have pointed to the need for new sets of indicators enabling better measurement of programme results and impacts. The identification of such indicators – as well as ensuring reliability and proper quantification – will increase the quality and scope of the next round of Mid-Term Evaluations.’ (39)

Readers following the newsletter closely will be aware that the issue of necessary qualitative rather than simply quantitative and ‘product-/outcome’ oriented indicators is at stake for quite a while. And it cannot be mentioned enough that social professions of various kinds should see their own important role in this regard – those being immediately involved and those working in a wider sense on respective issues alike.

By the way, it should be mentioned, that this issue is seriously neglected in measures aimed at regional cohesion: The summary of the main findings of the Sixth Periodic Report of the regions (see as well Fact Sheet, 04.02.99 EN. inforegio. European Commission. DG XVI. Contact: Telecopie +32.2.2966003. http://inforegio.cec.eu.int/6rp) is an example just showing this: Measures are simply developed according a line of macro-economic developments. Thus, the results are somewhat disappointing: Even if some progress had been made, significant disparities remain. Moreover, the historical background against which the measures are undertaken, causes in many cases the mal-adjustment of policy instruments.

Another and this time more sincere attempt to tackle or at least rise those questions which are important from the viewpoint of social professions and institutional actors in the field can be taken from the Proceedings Report: The European Social Fund: investing in people. ESF Congress. Birmingham, 26.-28.5.1998 (Luxembourg: Office for official Publications of the European Communities, 1999 [series: Employment & social affairs. Employment & European Social Fund]). Even if the account pretends to be a strict record, which is not the case, it gives many examples of shortcomings of the official policy in the field and as well shows that the ESF can be used at least as a kind of gateway for social professionals. Not least the report gives some insight in the work on the spot and the real problems of a coherent employment policy, i.e. the challenges of bringing the peoples needs and capacities to the fore.

Das Hessische Sozialministerium führt die Reihe von Tagungen zur Altenhilfepolitik auch nach dem Regierungswechsel fort. Nunmehr ist als Thema Geriatrische Rehabilitation und Altenhilfe angegeben. Die Tagung, die wieder Gelegenheit für den Internationalen Austausch in der und über die EU hinaus gibt, findet am 15. – 17. September 1999 im Elisabethenstift, Darmstadt statt

* Das regionale geriatrische Konzil am Modellstandort Wiesbaden

* Begleitende Hilfen bei der Entlassung aus der stationaeren Rehab

* Modellprojekt Geriatrische Rehab., Hanau

* Modellprojekt Hufelandhaus, Frankfurt/M.

* Geriatrische Rehab. Und Altenhilfe in der Region Loire, Frankreich

* dto. Region Emilia-Romagna, Italien

* dto. Den Helder, Niederlande

* dto. Ukraine

* Strukturelle Anlage und Konzeption des Zentrums für Geriatrie und Altenhilfe des Elisabethenstifts, Darmstadt

* Hat der Grundsatz Rehab. vor Pflege eine Chance?

* Statements von Verbaenden

Viel Raum wird auch der Diskussion und dem informellen Austausch gegeben.

Ireland can be seen at two fronts of poverty near to records. At least in the European Union it is one of the poor countries – individual/household poverty rates and the global economic figures point in this direction. Nevertheless the picture changed in recent years – the rising tide of so called tiger-economy lifted the boats even if serious doubt can be put forward that really all boats had been lifted to the same level: Some landed in a safe shore, while others run aground on low shores.

Having said this we nevertheless approach the other record. Necessitates not least by the extremity of poverty and made possible by the prosperous conditions Ireland developed and strengthened sound anti-poverty efforts – probably unique in Europe.

One pillar is the maintenance of the Combat Poverty Agency [CPA] (http://www.cpa.ie, e-mail: info@cpa.ie), the other and more recent pillar is the National Anti-Poverty Strategy, launched in fulfilment of the Social World-Summit in Copenhagen.

Recently, the CPA published its Strategic Plan 1999 – 2001. In the mission statement we find the following key objectives mentioned:

* ‘Ensuring that the National Anti-Poverty Strategy will have made significant progress in reducing and preventing poverty.

* Narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor through promoting a fairer distribution of resources, services and employment opportunities in favour of people living in poverty.

* Achieving a coherent and planned public policy on child poverty.

* Advancing the opportunity offered by peace to build a more inclusive and participative democracy on this island.’ (6)

This points already on the other pillar, i.e. the National Anti-poverty strategy (for a brief overview see Peter Herrmann: Poverty, Social Exclusion and the Possibilities of a Participative Strategy. Experiences of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy [NAPS] in the Republic of Ireland [Armut, soziale Ausgrenzung und Möglichkeiten einer Partizipationsstrategie – Erfahrungen der National Anti-Poverty Strategy [NAPS] in der Republik Irland]; in: Nachrichtendienst des Deutschen Vereins für öffentliche und private Fürsorge; Frankfurt/M., issue 9/1997 – September 1997; Our little tiger [Unser kleiner Tiger]; in: SOCIALmanagement. Magazin für Organisation und Innovation; Editor: Gerhard Pfannendörfer; Baden-Baden: Nomos-Verlagsgesellschaft, Issue 6/1997). Recently the Inter-Departmental Policy Committee published the annual report for 1998/1999 (contact: National Anti-Poverty Strategy. Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. Aras Mhic Dhiarmada. Store Street. IRL-Dublin 1. Ph: +353.(0)1.7043827. Telecopie +353.(0)1.7043868). The heading meanwhile changed – slightly(?). Now it reads Social Inclusion Strategy. This may be justified by stressing the more inclusive, holistic strategy which is urgently required and which is, indeed, the only way of approaching the ongoing challenge. Nevertheless, there is always some suspicious feeling because of the danger of watering down the severe material stress. The problem remains, in any case, that it is difficult to develop a multidimensional approach in the social field. Anyhow, basically the report points on many successes since the launch of the programme under the recent government. Then it had been installed as answer of the Copenhagen-Summit. Indeed many of the set targets are already fulfilled or the figures reached a level, which is already far beyond the supposed interim goals.

Despite this positive development three main drawbacks should not be forgotten:

* The price for to escape poverty is in many cases a high burden by being forced to accept relatively low-income jobs, thus being forced to undergo long working hours, adopt to poor working conditions and in many cases with insufficient social security. Not least, self-employment is only seemingly a way out, might work for a short time – without changing the life circumstances of the respective people (and their families) seriously to the better it adjusts the statistics (see in general for information about low-paid jobs in the EU http://www.eco.rug.nl/lower/html/).

* Besides the progress in combating poverty there remain nevertheless serious cases of material and social exclusion, effecting social groups and/or specific regions rather than individuals as such. The CPA points on a serious problem, namely poverty of children. (The recent supplement of the CPA journal poverty today [July/August 1999] looks in some detail at the question of Poverty Proofing Childcare in the Context of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy; copies can be obtained from the Combat Poverty Agency. Bridgewater Centre. Conyngham Road. Islandsbridge. Dublin 8. Ph: +353.(0)1.6706746. Telecopie: +353.(0)1.6706760. e-mail: info@cpa.ie).
Moreover, the setting of targets remains behind the pretension to aim on the development of a social inclusion strategy as far as the indicators remain simply quantitatively fixed, not leaving much space for a qualitative approach. In addition, the own efforts of the people concerned, the real life situation (for example begging, street level activities, neighbourhood support, which clears statistics but not the miserable life circumstances) remains unobserved. The reduction on a quantitative approach leaves some space for redefining statutory work: In some cases it seems that business as usual is now put into a new framework: What is supposed to be a core task of any governmental policy in regard of material safeguard is now interpreted as step of a new startegy, particularly targeted against social exclusion.

* Another and fundamental problem is concerned with the approach of the NAPS. According to Hugh Frazer, Director of the CPA, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights welcomed the adoption of the NAPS; however, ‘the Committee regretted that the NAPS’ does not adopt a human rights framework towards the objectives of the Covenant’ (in: poverty today, July/August 1999: 2).

This leads to the general question of – the Irish and more general: European – view on poverty and how to combat it. Poverty respectively social exclusion is not approached as a fundamental problem of the lack of human rights. Rather it is put into a frame of pragmatic understanding of social challenges and answering them. Indeed, this is currently a general trend in EUrope. In this connection we can point on the wider frame in which the NAPS is located, i.e. a strategy of modernisation. One aspect here is the Green Paper on Voluntary Organisations and the Community Sector and its Relationship to the State. Another aspect is the so-called Strategic Management Initiative. And finally we have to mention in this connection the efforts to reform the local government structure – even if somewhat half-heartedly it aims on a decentralisation of the highly centralised Irish system, including the involvement of the non-governmental sector and a more professionalised approach to local government (recently: Interdepartmental Task Force on the Integration of Local Government and Local Development Systems: Preparing the Ground: Guidelines for the Progress from Strategy Groups to County/City Development Boards. Dublin: Department of the Environment and Local Government, April 1999).

Stressing the pragmatism of the three approaches, as they are just mentioned, is not to say that the three elements are useless. On the contrary, they are more than overdue. Nevertheless, it stays insufficient to serve as basis for an anti-poverty strategy on them. The main problems are the trend to reduce soci(et)al participation on employment and the opening of participation on the political level by a so called way of modernisation. Anyhow, the latter is based on the assumption of a strict individualism, i.e. the assignment of any responsibility to the individuals. The responsibility of statutory bodies is mainly seen in just the extensive handling of information, meaning the provision and as well the procession of data, which are held from the individuals.

Especially for Ireland one can see the shift from a direct involvement of NGOs in developing the NAPS-approach to defining and taking the respective organisations more and more as service providers.

The Irish approach of modernisation is one of three models and we can name it tentatively as conservative-centralist pattern – the two others may be seen especially in the UK – where we can speak of a pattern of local voluntarism – and in Germany – as well tentatively we may speak of a centralist-corporative pattern.

Es nimmt keine Ende: so, wie Rassismus ein fortwährendes Problem darstellt, so ist der aktive Widerstand eine Angelegenheit, die fortwährend betont werden muss. Politisch bewusstes Handeln und ebenso (sozial-)pädagogisches Einfühlungsvermögen sind zugleich gefordert. Ein weit gefächertes Angebot auf dem world wide web findet sich unter http://www.aric.de/. Überzeugend ist, dass eben keiner der beiden Aspekte vernachlässigt wird. Zudem vereinigt das Angebot des Anti-Rassismus-Informations-Centrum sowohl Information im eher theoretischen Sinn also auch vielfältige Hinweise auf praktische Arbeit. Nicht zuletzt ergänzt eine link-Sammlung das Angebot, die Qualität über Quantität stellt.

Erlaubt sei an dieser Stelle die Wiederholung des Hinweises auf die Schrift Verschiedenes und Gleiches, die FUMA. Frauen unterstützen Mädchen-Arbeit vorgelegt hat. Sie ist sicher auch ein Beispiel für eine gelungene Diskussion um Antirassismus-Arbeit, insofern das Thema in seiner großen Reichweite, d.h. mit den unterschiedlichen Facetten einer interkulturellen Mädchen-Arbeit behandelt wird und gleichzeitig Unmittelbare Schlussfolgerungen für die praktische Arbeit deutlich werden (xyz link zu anderer Stelle im newsletter xyz).

In June 1998 the second European Social Policy Forum took place in Brussels. Supposed to be a major event to discuss the challenges as set out by the European non-governmental organisations in the social field the biannual gathering is always a mixture of the official and the unofficial strands of European social policy. Here, as in the relation to the Council, the Commission has a strong position as agenda setter. Nevertheless, the conference is a place to meet people working in the same field, and thus giving the opportunity to build up new networks. And it is a place to confront the agenda as it is set by the officials with the challenges of the non-governmental positions. And it has to be admitted that at least these gatherings are marked by tolerance from the side of the Commission and – besides the objective of public relation – some honest interest.

Es handelt sich um ein Angebot der Bundesministerien für Bildung und Forschung sowie für Gesundheit in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Statistischen Bundesamt.

Aus der Selbstdarstellung:

‘Ziel der GBE des Bundes ist es, schrittweise ein Berichtssystem aufzubauen, das seinen Nutzern an zentraler Stelle einen umfassenden Überblick über das Gesundheitswesen in Deutschland bietet. Die gesammelten Informationen sollen dabei so aufbereitet werden, daß medizinische, soziale und ökonomische Sachverhalte themenübergreifend in einen Zusammenhang gesetzt und beurteilt werden können.

Für die GBE des Bundes lassen sich die folgenden Besonderheiten nennen:

* Sie baut im wesentlichen auf bereits vorhandenen Daten auf und führt die an den verschiedensten Stellen zum Gesundheitswesen vorliegenden Informationen systematisch zusammen.

* Die GBE des Bundes ist eine Gemeinschaftsaufgabe, an der zahlreiche Experten beteiligt sind. Die Erfahrungen und das Fachwissen möglichst vieler Institutionen und Personen können so für die Zwecke der GBE genutzt werden.

* Wichtige Zielgruppen der GBE des Bundes sind die politischen Entscheidungsträger, die wissenschaftliche Forschung und die interessierte Öffentlichkeit.

* Den vielfältigen Informationsbedürfnissen der unterschiedlichen Nutzergruppen wird durch verschiedene Produkte, Präsentationsformen und Veröffentlichungsmedien entsprochen.

* Die behandelten Themenfelder sind hinsichtlich inhaltlicher und statistischer Aspekte aufeinander abgestimmt und vernetzt. Die Daten werden verständlich präsentiert und sind leicht zugänglich.

* Um der hohen Dynamik des Gesundheitswesens Rechnung zu tragen, ist die GBE des Bundes als flexible Aufgabe angelegt. Sie steht im ständigen Dialog mit Datenhaltern, Nutzern und Wissenschaft und ist jederzeit offen für neue Fragestellungen und Erweiterungen.‘

Violence against children and women in the home is not limited to distant countries. Nor is it the work of a handful of mentally disturbed men and women, or of criminals, as some cases in recent years may lead one to think. European Union (EU) citizens in fact believe that domestic violence against children and women is an all too common phenomenon in their country, according to the Eurobarometer public opinion poll, conducted this spring and published in early July as Eurobarometer No. 51.

Those who took part in the survey also believed that the EU must join the fight against these scourges. Nearly eight out of ten Europeans held that violence against children is very, or at any rate fairly, widespread in their country. This was particularly the case in Italy, France and the Netherlands, where 85% and over of those polled held this view. Next were Belgium, the UK and Portugal; all three were above the EU average. While Denmark and Finland were at the other end of the spectrum, even so nearly six out of ten people believed violence towards children to be widespread.

As for violence against women in the home, nearly three out of four Europeans held that it is fairly widespread in their country. The highest percentages (80% and above) were recorded in Spain, Italy and Portugal as well as in the UK and Ireland. Greece was also above the EU average. Countries below it included France and Sweden, followed by Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Finland and Luxembourg. Only in Denmark were the two sides evenly balanced, with 49% of those polled taking the view that violence against women was not very, or even not at all, common in their country.

Some nine out of ten Europeans took the view that the EU must join in the fight against domestic violence directed against children and women.

Nearly one in five inhabitants of the European Union (EU) was living below the poverty line in 1994. The poorest 20% of the population received just 8% of the total income, the richest 20% almost 40% of it, or five times as much. This, in a nutshell, was the situation at the level of income distribution in the 15-nation EU.

It is set out in a statistical pocketbook, entitled "Living Conditions in Europe," published recently by the European Commission and the EU's statistical office, Eurostat. In 1994 -which is the latest year for which we have comparable data - the income of 18% of the EU's inhabitants was some 60% below the median income of their country of residence. In other words, they were living below the poverty line. Median income is half-way between the highest and lowest incomes.

The proportion of the population living below the poverty line varied a good deal from one EU country to another. It ranged from 9% in Finland and 10% in the Netherlands to 22% in Ireland and 24% in Portugal. Single parents with children were the hardest hit, with 35% of them living below the poverty line in the EU as a whole. But here, too, there were substantial differences between member states: one went from 8% in Denmark and Finland to 51% in the UK and 56% in Ireland.

Income distribution at the individual level also varied a great deal from one EU country to another. Thus 20% of the poorest enjoyed only 6% of the national income in Portugal, while the corresponding figure for Finland was almost twice as high at 11%. At the same time, while the richest 20% accounted for 44% of the national income in Portugal, they received just 33% of it in Denmark and Finland.

Eurostat experts have been using a special index to measure income inequality: the higher the index, the greater the level of inequality in the country in question. As a result, they were able to designate Finland as the most egalitarian of EU countries, followed by Denmark and Sweden. At the other end of the scale was Portugal, followed closely by Ireland and Greece.

Income is not the only measure of poverty; it is also reflected in your ability to pay your bills and to buy the things you feel to be important. Here it is the way you view your situation which counts. Six percent of Europeans, for example, felt they could not afford to eat meat or fish every other day. But this figure rose to 37% in the case of Greece, whereas it was below 10% everywhere else.

Similarly, 14% of the EU's inhabitants claimed they were not in a position to buy new clothes. At one end of the scale were Portugal (49%) and Greece (35%), at the other, Denmark and Luxembourg (4% in each case). While nearly one in three European households claimed it could not afford a week's annual holiday away from home, the proportion was well above 50% in the case of Portugal, Sweden and Greece, but below 15% in Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Nine percent of EU households were unable to pay their rent on time in 1995. This was the case as regards more than one in three Greek households and one in five Irish households. That same year 5% of households were unable to pay their electricity, water or gas bills. Nearly one in three Greek households found itself in this situation. Single parents with children were especially likely to face this problem.

The principle that men and women must be treated on a basis of equality at the workplace is enshrined in several pieces of European Union (EU) legislation. But despite this, women's gross monthly earnings are only 72% on average of the earnings of their male colleagues. Their earnings, in other words, are 28% below those of men in the EU as a whole, according to a recent study carried out by Eurostat, the EU's statistical office. The study covers industry and the services sector, to the exclusion of the civil service, education and health. The statistics relate to 1995, the latest year for which comparisons can be made between member states.

Why this persistent inequality between men and women? It is partly because women very often are employed in jobs which require fewer qualifications – and are therefore less well paid, than the jobs held by men. It is also because women often interrupt their career in order to have children, or to bring them up. And, finally, it is because jobs which pay overtime are more likely to go to men, as they are manual jobs.

Many women probably still suffer, in their professional lives, from the consequences of the discrimination which was prevalent a long time ago. While younger women are better off, even in the 25-29 age group, women's earnings are 86% on average of men's earnings. But as the Eurostat report notes, women in this age group have had equal access, in principle, to education and work.

The average gross hourly wages of women working full time are 76.3% on average of those of men in the EU as a whole. There are important differences, however, between individual member states and, in the case of Germany, between the new Länder and the old.

Women's gross hourly wages come closest to those of men in the former East Germany, where they amounted to 89.9% on average of men's wages in 1995. Denmark and Sweden were not far behind that year, with 88.1% and 87% respectively.

In another three member states – Belgium, Luxembourg and Finland – women's wages were also over 80% of men's wages in 1995. West Germany, France and Italy were slightly above the EU average that year. Spain, Ireland, Austria, Portugal and the UK were below this average, along with Greece, where women's earning were only 68% of those of men, the lowest percentage in the EU.

© EUROFOCUS. News Items of general interest. Information newsletter published by the European Commission. Weekly. No.22/99. 21 – 28 June 1999