Online Signature Legitimateness for Pregnancy Leave Policy in European Union

How to eSign a document: online signature legitimateness for Pregnancy Leave Policy in European Union

[Music] hello welcome back to talking europe on france24 today we're talking about one of the most special and life-changing moments anyone can experience becoming a parent here in france dad's just got some big news the amount of paternity leave they're entitled to just doubled meaning proud papas now have the right to 28 days paid leave what's more one of those weeks off will be mandatory under the new legislation that just came into effect in june of this year and it all applies to the second parent in same-sex couples as well whether they happen to be male or female now this means that france now has one of the most generous paternity leave policies in europe and it inspired us on talking europe to take a look into the situation around the continent so here to discuss some of the key issues are ninisto who as a member of the finnish parliament was the first politician in his country to take a lengthy paternity leave he's now a member of the european parliament with the greens and joins us from brussels and we have also from the center-right european people's party lucas mandel an mep from austria where the chancellor sebastian kurtz just announced he is going to become a dad in december and where paternity leave is a little bit newer it was only voted in in 2019 and offers new dads one month of unpaid leave so hello thanks very much both of you for being with us thank you for having me thank you good good day from brussels well let's get started uh villani nisto i mentioned that you've got this distinction of being the first uh elected member of the finnish parliament to take a lengthy paternity leave why was that important to you well in 2007 when my daughter was born i thought it was important to show as a as a as a father also an example for other artists that it's in all chaps you can take the parental leave so i was actually five months on apparently while i was an mp uh some had done the short three weeks apparently which is in the beginning of the the parenthood when you are together with the mother at home but for me it was important that i'm solely in charge of everyday uh uh affairs with my child and that has carried my relationship with my now teenage daughter uh to being very deep and and very profound by being the present for her when she was a small child lucas mental you also have experience of paternity leave actually yes i was already an elected official when i became father and father of three children and in former times it was not that easy for elected officials to leave to join the child today it's easier and this is a good example for all society that we cover both for parent the work obligations as well as the parents obligations which are so important especially for the children in our structures and this means a children friendly family friendly society no lucas mental just staying with you uh i mentioned that uh paternity leave is somewhat newer in austria if voted in in 2019 it was a policy that was initially pushed and initiated by the socialists by the far left you sit on the center right of parliament was there resistance from your side of the political divide it's actually a so-called father's month in a daily language in our country and that's something we ran for but the question was who will pay for it uh this question is answered is solved now and now it's important that many many fathers really take advantage of this opportunity to have father's month because it's good for children uh mothers of course as well and for fathers the whole family situation uh actually uh of course always in public life with the question who pays for something but it's worth it that's it's a paid father's month and that's also a good example i tried to spread all over europe um villeneuve coming back to you uh you're from a country that's uh seen very much around europe and around the world as being a very egalitarian between men and women uh the french president emmanuel macron has talked about paternity leave as actually being something that benefits not just fathers but also women uh and one of the ideas between the e behind the eu's paternity law um was to keep women in the labor market is that something that you see happening as a result of paternity leave existing being somewhat generous as well in your country i think the idea is is pretty much that that when both parents have a chance and they get the support and also their own quota for being at in maternity or paternity leave with their child that makes it automatic from the start that both parents have an everyday uh role to feel in in in the child's life and it's easier for both to get back to the labor market after the parental leave is over so in finland the current new system that has been introduced recently is such that both parents have three months of their own leave and then there is a six-month period which which you can share as you like and this has increased the use of of apparently by farthest and it has also created a positive incitement for also for labor market to realize that you can't even indirectly discriminate women that boats can take paternity or maternity relief and both have a right to come back to the labor market and that is being supported so i think the labor market is very much involved in this as well many employee employers want to emphasize that they they want to support this development yes lucas mandel you mentioned that there was an argument or divide about who will pay for the paternity leave here in france just as an example most of the cost will be borne by the social security system costing about 500 million euros each year and employers ask to cover just three days of leave and that is a large amount of money is that is that a worthy use of public funds or should employers actually be paying a bit more it's maybe one of the best usages you can have with public money with taxpayers money because it's clearly for the common good that families have good conditions especially when a new child is born and that's why i totally agree with paying for that with public money and for better conditions for families for parents especially for children and as you have mentioned the labor market families need time in the first place children need time with both parents in the best case and that's the priority but of course families also need the opportunity to earn money and that's why the connection with the labor market is obvious and that the builder of president agree with michael lee and specifically on how much money men or the second parent will receive in austria lucas mendel um they can apply to the state to receive 22 euros 60 per day under the austrian paternity leave up to a maximum of 700 euros in total now that obviously is some money but it's it's really not a lot is it uh that's uh not a huge amount of money but it's only for the father's month the the for mentioned one what's even as important or even more important for all the families in austria is that if both the parents take leave to join the child they can do it up to two years and they can have money then of 80 of their income before the birth of the child and that's even more important for daily life for especially these first two years of a newborn child villeninista you you mentioned as well that there's an element of parental leave in finland as well an important distinction of course between parental leave that could be shared between both parents and paternity that's just for fathers so on this issue of parental leave do fathers take that up because obviously if it's optional uh it's an option yeah obviously since it's now a quota so so it's optional to take it but you can't uh move it back to the matter for example so that has increased the use of of of parental leave a lot so it used to be when i was apparently parents shared so that women use 93 of all parental leave related days but now with the amount of fathers using those has increased to somewhere around 20 percent so it does have an effect and i think it's a very positive effect that the society encourages uh because in the long term it's a it's positive also for the labor market so even though the the society and the state base vast majority of the costs employers are also taking a small share there in the long run it's good because you increase the employment of both sexes in labor markets since since both can work and we try to also make it easier to do part-time jobs for parents as well so you can choose to work part-time so you can still you know have a shorter week and and then then spend one day a week with your child when the child grows so you can have a flexible system that keeps you integrated in the labor market lucas mendel coming back to you i mentioned before this eu directive on paternal leave that came in in 2019 it imposes a minimum of 10 days paternity leave they can be taken in a non-continuous manner to allow more flexibility and this is coming in around the continent there's just i think three states left to introduce this um austria did not have paternal leave specifically when this was introduced uh why did austria go further than the ten days um as you've mentioned there are costs on the employers and that was a big issue but it's of course worth it to invest at least this father's month uh and also something that applies for the other members the european union as in other policy fields the good examples of some member states will on the long run have effect on the other members that in order to put them in the position also to guarantee others at least one month of others a month the father's leave and that's something we run for on european level but it's on behalf of the member state and once they see that it's good for both the children and the parent and for the republican and family obligation adults may have uh and they do actually then uh all the other member states uh this this will work in the future i guess and that's what we work on on european parliament by a vast number of us all right well we have to see where this uh story goes in the future but i'd like to thank you both very much for taking part in this discussion uh shedding some light on this issue of paternity leave lucas mandel and villani ninisto thanks very much for your time thank you thanks our pleasure and thanks to you for watching the program hope to see you soon here on talking europe for more european news very soon [Music] you