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EU Legislation, Initiatives, etc.
Newswire – EC: EU Member States should grant standard social protection, including at least 14 weeks' maternity leave allowance, for self-employed women and for wives or life partners of self-employed workers, says the EU Parliament in a binding proposal to update an EU directive.
Compromise amendments agreed with Council say it should be up to Member States to decide whether paying for membership of social insurance schemes (covering maternity leave, sickness, invalidity and old age) must be mandatory for self-employed women or whether they can access this system voluntarily.
The Council is set to adopt these amendments on 24 June 2010. Member States will then have 2 years to implement all these changes to the directive (or up to 4 years ‘if Member States find difficulties’ in finding the way to grant standard social protection to self-employed workers or spouses and partners of the self-employed).
