“We know that we can learn a lot from our European neighbours concerning family-related policy,” says Federal Minister for Family Affairs Von der Leyen. “Now we have an instrument accessible by anyone who would like to make an effort for the interests of families – the concerned citizen, the family association, and business enterprises as well as politics. With today’s launching of the Internet portal we are opening a gate for a strong European Alliance for Families. Now it is up to the countries and the people in Europe to join the alliance and make use of it as a place of exchange on good family-related policy and successful practical examples at the European level,” says Ursula von der Leyen.
The Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth created the European Alliance for Families as one of the key sociopolitical projects in the spring this year. Against the background of demographic change in Europe, the EU heads of state and heads of government affirmed the European Alliance at the spring summit in March 2007 and at the summer summit in June 2007. The Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs have concluded further implementation steps; among others, the launching of a Web portal to promote mutual exchange within Europe on this topic and to provide information for the public.
Many links and plenty of information on the family policies of the individual European member states can be found at
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/families
as of now. Furthermore, the portal provides an overview on important studies on family policy issues and refers to current events on this issue. The information provided in the Web portal created by the German Council Presidency in cooperation with the European Commission in very short time is intended to grow continuously and be supplemented with new ideas and successful programs by the individual member states. With today’s launch, maintenance of the Web portal of the European Alliance for Families is being transferred to the European Commission.
