Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-10-18-Speech-1-057"

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"Madam President, Commissioner, mothers need special protection. On that there is agreement in this Chamber. Having a child is physically and emotionally demanding, and is a profound experience for any woman. The physical changes, new life circumstances and, above all, the recovery and recuperation period – all these things make adequate maternity protection essential. This is something that society must provide. Hence, there is no dispute as to the principle. The debate concerns how this is done and the conditions under which it is done. In this regard, we should not forget that the EU lays down a minimum standard and it is up to the Member States to implement, organise and pay for maternity provision. We are not starting from nothing. The Member States have organised their maternity provision in very different ways, in some cases, supplementing this with parental leave to include fathers. Fathers need to be involved in family responsibilities – and we are talking here not about leave, but about shouldering the responsibilities involved in bringing up children and in family life. However, paternity leave is not part of maternity provision; rather, it must always be part of parental leave. Neither do fathers become ill as a result of a birth. I congratulate all the Member States that have established paternity leave; likewise, Commissioner, I am pleased to hear of the Commission’s proposal that has just been announced. We cannot allow the important matter of maternity provision to be diluted by an extension of parental leave. Maternity provision is about health. No mother is sick for 20 weeks; neither are breastfeeding mothers sick. We have a responsibility to women who participate in working life to make maternity provision justifiable. Our proposal is for 18 weeks in total, with the last four weeks of this being subject to national variation in the level of the financial payments made. This is set out in Amendments 115 and 116, which I urge Members to support. In addition, I call on the Member States to exploit their opportunities to offer all families and mothers more payments that can then be adopted on a voluntary basis. Mothers are building the future, and they need every support that we can offer them."@en1
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