Home The Council Membership Views & Publications InfoWomen Links Photo Gallery Contact Us
Left Banner Right Banner
 
The National Council of Women Annual General Meeting “Towards a regeneration for the Future”
NCW Malta Annual General Meeting 2021 was held at The Palace Hotel Sliema on Thursday 22 July 2021 In her opening address, outgoing NCW President, Mary Gaerty, called on the Assembly to join her in a prayer for past members of NCW, for those who lost their life due to the Covid-19 and for the women whose lives were taken away due to femicide, which saw an increase during Covid-19.
Elimination of Violence against Women - 16 Days of Activism
Elimination of violence against women – 16 Days of Activism. You too can do something about it! The 25th of November is the kick off date for the annual international campaign of 16 days of activism against Gender Based Violence. It starts on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and runs till the 10th of December, Human Rights Day .
Human dignity should be respected at all times.
The National Council of Women would like to express its concern about the video posted online portraying men pelting a woman with eggs during a stag party. Human dignity should be respected at all times. As a society, we should condemn any type of abuse even if this is done by consent for financial gain.
OSCE/ODIHR anti-trafficking survey for survivors of trafficking in human beings
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has received numerous responses and has decided to extend the submission due date for the survey of survivors of human trafficking to Monday 26 August 2019.
NEW TASK FORCE AT EUROPOL TO TARGET THE MOST DANGEROUS CRIMINAL GROUPS INVOLVED IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING
On 2 July, the Joint Liaison Task Force Migrant Smuggling and Trafficking in Human Beings (JLT-MS) was launched at Europol. This new operational platform will allow liaison officers from all EU Member States to step up the fight against constantly adapting criminal networks.
Malta is EU country with highest rate of tertiary education graduates in employment
A report in the Independent states that Malta stood above the EU average in 2018 when it came to the employment rate of graduates aged 20-34 who had attained a tertiary level education within the previous three years,
European Commission
On 2 July 2019, Ursula von der Leyen was nominated by the European Council to the position of President of the European Commission; she will be the first women and the first German since Walter Hallstein
Equal opportunities and access to the labour market
1. Education, training and life-long learning Everyone has the right to quality and inclusive education, training and life-long learning in order to maintain and acquire skills that enable them to participate fully in society and manage successfully transitions in the labour market. 2. Gender equality Equality of treatment and opportunities between women and men must be ensured and fostered in all areas, including regarding participation in the labour market, terms and conditions of employment and career progression. Women and men have the right to equal pay for work of equal value.
The gender pay gap in the EU and the European Pillar of #SocialRights
1. The gender pay gap in the EU is 16.2%, that’s 16.2% higher than it should be! Gender equality is the second key principle of the European Pillar of #SocialRights for a reason 2. The European Pillar of #SocialRights supports the right to equal treatment and opportunities regarding employment, social protection, education, and access to goods and services available to the public. Something NCW Malta has supported since its creation!
Gender Equality in the Media Sector
This study was commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. It examines key elements of the European policy agenda pertaining to gender equality in the media sector. It also reviews existing research on women's representation within media content and the media workforce. The study provides analysis of actions to promote gender equality in the media at both EU and Member State levels. Finally, it presents case studies of gender equality in the media sector in four Member States: Austria, Malta, Sweden, and the UK.
Empowering women and girls in media and ICT
On the occasion of the International Women's Day, the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality is holding an inter-parliamentary committee meeting on empowering women and girls in media and ICT. The meeting, which will bring together EU institutional representatives, members of EU national parliaments, experts and stakeholders, will take place on 08 March 2018. The presentation and debates will deal with the topics of women shaping media, empowering women and girls through digital inclusion and women’s movements and advancing equality in the digital age.
Digital healthcare / health insurance
In the view of the EESC, given the digital revolution in the field of health, it is vital to maintain and promote a health insurance system which serves the needs of everyone, and is solidarity-based, inclusive and non-discriminatory. Inclusion and fair access for all to good quality health services (digital or otherwise) and commitment to these are in fact prerequisites for universal health coverage.
Gender equality in European labour markets
In order to improve gender equality in labour markets, the EESC considers it necessary to draw up an integrated and ambitious European strategy to tackle systemic and structural obstacles and lead to adequate policies, measures and EU funding programmes for improving equality between women and men, thus fostering "more equal economic independence of women and men" . This would also contribute to the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights.
Services to the family
Developing services in private homes in order to achieve a better work-life balance Every family has a home and clothes to maintain, meals to prepare, children to care for, elderly parents or ill or disabled family members who need help. Women often have to work part-time in order to carry out these tasks, missing out on the career for which they have trained or on time they would use for training.
Women and girls digital gender gap
This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the FEMM Committee, attempts to reveal the links between the different factors (access, skills, socio-economic and cultural), which prevent women from having equal access to digital technology. It then suggests ways of dealing with online and offline inequalities to the effect of closing the digital gender gap and improving women’s and girls’ digital inclusion and future technology-related career paths.
Plastics, human health and environmental impacts: The road ahead
Plastics have been with us for more than a century, and by now they’re everywhere, for good and for ill. Plastic containers and coatings help keep food fresh, but they can also leave behind neurotoxins such as BPA in the human body. PVC is used for everything from pipes and flooring to furniture and clothes, but it contains compounds called phthalates that have been implicated in male reproductive disorders. Studies have also shown that childhood exposure to environmental pollutants can have significant negative effects later in life, including reduced labor force participation and even earnings.
European Commission aims to significantly reduce the gender pay gap
The European Commission plans to use a series of measures aimed at significantly reducing the pay gap between men and women over the next five years. The average gender pay gap in the EU currently stands at 18%. To lower this rate, the Commission plans to raise awareness among employers, encourage initiatives to promote gender equality and support the development of tools to measure the gender pay gap.
NCW Annual General Meeting 2019
NCW Annual General Meeting 2019 The Annual General Meeting of the National Council of Women was held on Saturday 26th January 2019, at The Victoria Hotel, Sliema. President Mary Gaerty spoke about the work which the Council has embarked on during 2018. This included pensions, education, violence against women, work and entrepreneurship, work life balance and the challenges faced by women on a daily basis. She also highlighted the fact that the National Council of Women is looking ahead at the constant changes
Work-life Balance
Better work-life balance for EU citizens: Presidency reaches provisional agreement with the European Parliament
The National Council of Women supports the Act to provide protection for human embryos
NCW has always advocated for legislation of alternative IVF treatment not least because of the sensitivity and the consequences for both parents and society if it had to remain unregulated. NCW believes that IVF treatment should be for heterosexuals within a stable family environment The Council has always supported the protection of embryos as the first cell of a human life and, with the development of alternative treatment over the past years this has become possible successfully.
Women on Boards: Vice-President Viviane Reding meets with leaders of Europe's business schools and i
Today, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding met with European Industry Associations, European Business Schools and Senior Executive Women to discuss progress being made on improving the gender balance in company boardrooms.
UfM adopts new project to support women’s empowerment in the Mediterranean
A project aimed at developing women’s empowerment in the Mediterranean through the development of effective field projects and the setting up of networks and platforms, was adopted by Senior Officials of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) at a meeting held last month.
Date: 02/11/2009
 

SMEs: A favourable business environment: supporting enterprise and job creation

'Think Small First': A Small Business Act for Europe At a time when there is a global financial and economic crisis, it is companies, in particular SMEs that are the most sensitive and at the same time the most important elements in terms of job creation and recovery capacity. SMEs are a crucial part of our economy and a major source of employment, entrepreneurial skills and innovation   NCW Recommendations
• That the European Commission initiates the steps to establish and enact a separate legal framework to specifically address the needs of Small and Medium Sized Business (SMEs).
• The adoption of national legislation to give binding effect to the 'Think small first' principle proposed by the EU Commission in its communication 'Think Small First: A Small Business Act for Europe' with a view to the specific situation and needs of various types of SMEs (COM(2008) 394 final drawing up a Small Business Act National Plan (separate from the NRP).
• Appointing a national SME envoy charged with both managing implementation of the Small Business Act European style (SBAE) and ensuring that national laws transpose EU legislation that comply with the fundamental principles of Think Small First; (Malta Enterprise).
• Policy measures other than suitable financing that would help SMEs to grow and develop, recognising SMEs as the rule and not the exception.
• The establishment of obligation to ease the administrative burden for companies. More SME-friendly pubic service through specialised SME training in particular in the VAT department.
• Putting in place the framework conditions to the process of reaching the ambitious 3% of the GDP target for R&D spending in the next five years.
• Pilot measures on energy efficiency for SMEs  in particular in the construction sector.
• “Half of the women of the world are in ‘vulnerable jobs’, that is, they are self-employed in the informal sector or work as unpaid family members” ILO.  Falls in public spending increase women’s care burden. There is therefore the need to strengthen the capacity of government to promote gender equality (in this case) through Gender and Trade.The link between poverty and economic empowerment of women should be addressed through Gender responsive Budgets (GRB).  Identifying good practice in Gender and alternate trade and investment models (eg: Cyprus, Australia, UK etc).  Investment policies need to be based on female values (putting female values into finance).
• The need to increase the rate of women on Boards of State Banks Management, thus ensuring that the specific needs of women entrepreneurs are addressed to increase their participation in economic activity. There is also the need for legal recognition of self-employed separate from employee legislation.
• Addressing obstacles for self-employed women who cannot make full use of social benefits such as maternity and sick leave, who due to the nature of their work  cannot stay way from work for long.
• Strengthening the innovation capacity of SMEs by facilitating access to technology and finance, providing  innovative support services.
• Improving the availability, access (meeting the needs of working mothers) and quality  of adequate training offers for individuals both women and men and the physical infrastructure ( roads and transport) to facilitate access to and by clients.
• Nurturing a national entrepreneurial mindset through the National Curriculum at all levels of education for both women and men to encourage risk-taking, innovation and opting for non-traditional choices, involving companies in training and education schemes.
• Ensuring effective and full use of Community instruments, either for the development of regional infrastructures or to support transitions in sectors affected by structural changes through the European Social Fund (ESF) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in particular in the Tourism and Manufacturing Industry.
• Strengthening financial mechanisms by making better use of the European Investment Bank  (EIB) in taking part of the risk on the SMEs and to look at ways in which banks in Malta can still further boost the support they provide to SMEs, in particular those run by women, as outlined in the European Commission’s Small Business Act 2008 ((COM(2008) 394 final).
• Organising courses in ICT for small enterprises (such as village groceries, salons etc) to gear them towards setting up ICT facilities to provide facilities for a better service to clients and to reach a wider consumer range.
• Taking the necessary measures to encourage the development of initiatives in the social economy in particular to attract young people to this sector of the labour market.
• Ensuring that priority is given to educational systems at all levels to invest in  future skills for future jobs in areas such as ‘green’ jobs, ICT, environment, health and long term care for the elderly to stimulate the creation of new jobs in small and medium enterprises.
Grace Attard, NCW President, EESC member

 
 
 
Back to Archive
 
Developed by Alert Communications