58 Amendments of Miriam LEXMANN related to 2021/2253(INI)
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5
Citation 5
— having regard to the revised European Social Charter, in particular its articles 15 on the right of persons with disabilities to independence, social integration and participation and 23 on the right of older persons to social protection,
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 6
Citation 6
— having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as referred to in Article 6 TEUin particular its articles 25 on the right of older persons to lead a life of independence and dignity and 26 on the integration of persons with disabilities,
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 6 a (new)
Citation 6 a (new)
— having regard to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as referred to in Article 6 TEU,
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7
Citation 7
— having regard to the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), in particular its principles 17 on inclusion of persons with disabilities and 18 on the right to long-term care,
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 8 a (new)
Citation 8 a (new)
— having regard to the UN Decade on Healthy Ageing 2021-2030 and the WHO Framework for countries to achieve an integrated continuum of long-term care1a, _________________ 1a https://www.who.int/news/item/14-03- 2022-who-launches-new-framework-to- support-countries-achieve-integrated- continuum-of-long-term-care
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 11
Citation 11
— having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) and the EU’s ratification of this Convention,
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 22
Citation 22
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the EPSR Action Plan sets out concrete initiatives for the implementation of principles that are essential for building a stronger social Europe for just transitions and recovery, whereas principles 17 and 18 jointly promote an individual right to long-term care and define the aim of care and inclusion services to support full participation in society;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas persons in need for care and support are persons who are challenged in their daily activities by disability or chronic health condition; whereas care encompasses all services to addresssupport autonomy and independence of persons in need for care through supporting their physical, psychological and social needs of dependents, as well as support to, as well guaranteeing the equal exercise of rights, dignity, autonomall their rights, promoting dignity, inclusion and well-being for all members of society;
Amendment 136 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas the stigma surrounding dependenceisability, disease and frailty and the need for care and support intersects with othervarious grounds of discrimination;
Amendment 138 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) are among the world’s most prevalent, disabling and burdensome non- communicable diseases, affecting over 100 million Europeans, and account for over 50 percent of Years Lived with Disabilities (YLDs) in Europe; whereas due to their prevalence, disabling consequences, and links to high incidence of co-morbidities, people with RMDs are a significant source of demand for long- term formal and informal care in Europe;
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas there is a lack of quality, accessible and affordable care in nearly all Member States; whereas this shortage is more severe in remote and rural areas; whereas the monitoring of care is hampered by the lack of disaggregated data and the lack of quality indicators;
Amendment 181 #
E. whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the existing challenges in terms of access to formal care services, showcasing many structural problems entrenched in Europe’s social care system, i.e. in terms of the ability to access and afford formal care services, the overreliance on informal care or undeclared work, lack of relief services, psychological or social support to informal carers etc.;
Amendment 190 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas sidelining of long-term care settings in the response to COVID- 19, by not providing an adequate access to protective equipment, testing and medical treatment, emphasises the undervaluation and underfinancing of long-term care in our societies; whereas more than half of COVID-19 related fatalities in the EU were recorded in long-term care settings; whereas blanket social isolation measures have increased the risk of abuse and neglect, as well as deterioration of mental and physical health of persons in need for care and support;
Amendment 214 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas the provision of quality care depends on the existence of a sufficiently large and well-trained workforce, the creation ofattractive and decent working conditions and, decent pay, integrated services, and adequate funding for supporting services for persons in need for care and support;
Amendment 244 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the structures of care need to be changed from centralised institutions to person-centred and community-based care; whereas that shift has been too slow; and in some cases, non-existent;
Amendment 254 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
Ga. whereas patient-centred, community-based services and home care can better support the autonomy of persons in need for care and support; whereas residential care often does not meet the standards of supporting independence of persons using these services;
Amendment 269 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas the undervaluation and invisibility of care work are closely linked with the fact that women are predominante in the care sector;
Amendment 275 #
Ha. whereas provision of informal care shall be a matter of choice instead of a result of necessity and lack of available care services;
Amendment 310 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K
Recital K
K. whereas 80 % of all long-term care in Europe is provided by informal carers, which makes care an extremely gendered issueoverwhelmingly women who are mostly relatives of the persons in need for care and support; whereas overrepresentation of women in care sector has a clear negative impact on women’s employment opportunities, work-life balance and contributes to the pay gap and pension gap between men and women as well as increases the risk of poverty, social exclusion, mental health problems, social isolation and loneliness;
Amendment 331 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas the high numbers ofinformal care recipipresents who are dependent on informal care are directly linked tothe default choice in many Member States because of the inaccessibility and unaffordability of quality professional services; whereas in the EU, 44 million people are providing informal long-term care at least once a week; whereas 12% of women and 7% of men providing informal long-term care do so for more than 40 hours per week;
Amendment 352 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
Recital M
M. whereas women in the EU carry out 13 hours more of unpaid care and housework per week than men; whereas 7.7 million women in the EU remain out of the labour market owing to their informal care responsibilities;
Amendment 371 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N
Recital N
N. whereas several Member States and regions in the EU are still failing to meet the goal of providing childcare for 90 % of children between the age of three andemands for childcare; whereas childcare provided by parents is not adequately valued mandatory school age and for 33 % of children aged three and under translated in the pension schemes of Member States;
Amendment 381 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital P
Recital P
P. whereas access to quality care services, especially long-term care, is increasingly preconditioned on individual and family income, geographical availability as well as free capacities of the providers; whereas two in three persons in need for care are estimated to not have access to care services, mainly due to their unavailability and unaffordability; whereas persons with lower incomes are also a group in which care needs are more prevalent;
Amendment 436 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. NotStresses that it is vital to ensure quality care across the life course; independence, autonomy and dignity across the life course and that quality care is a major tool to support this goal; underlines the importance of the accessibility, availability and, affordability of care, and that all users and their carers should have a genuine choice when it comes to care servicesand adequacy/quality of care;
Amendment 451 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Stresses the importance of an integrated approach to common European action on care that pays equal attention to people’s physical, psychological and social needs of both persons in need for care and support and carers;
Amendment 472 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Highlights the dire need to increase funding for both formal and informal care across the EU to guarantee equal access for dependantspersons in need for care and support to affordable quality care services, as well as an active professional lifeto ensure fulfilling and sustainable professional life and relief services for carers, and; calls therefore calls on the Member States to make the best use of the European structural and investment funds, including the ESF+, as well as the Recovery and Resilience Facility, for investing in care;
Amendment 511 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the Member States to exchange information and best practices with a view to developing a common European quality framework for care, encompassing all care settings, encouraging upward social convergence and guaranteeing equal rights for all citizensbased on the rights to independence and autonomy and inspired by the WHO Framework to support countries achieving an integrated continuum of long-term care;
Amendment 518 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the Commission to set ambitious targets for the access and quality of care services in consultation with the Member States as well as other relevant stakeholders including the organisations representing informal carers and persons in need for care and support with the particular focus on persons with disabilities;
Amendment 539 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Commission to present an ambitious European care strategy that builds on everyone’s right to affordable, accessible and high-quality care, as well as on other principles set out in the EPSR and EU strategic documents, and the individual rights and needs of both care recipients and carers, and that encompasses the entire life course, is based on reliable and comparable data, and includes concrete and progressive goals with a timetable and indicators to evaluate progress;
Amendment 545 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Stresses that the European care strategy should be based on reliable and comparable data, and should include concrete and progressive goals with a timetable and quality indicators to evaluate progress and measure social impact; emphasises that the strategy should promote social innovation through partnerships between public authorities, social care providers, and service users in an integrated way, invest in digital as well as other technologies including AI, modernise social infrastructure, strengthen the social economy sector, improve working conditions, pay, and social protection for care workers, ensure the choice of providers by enabling plurality and fair competition, and enhance volunteerism in social care;
Amendment 567 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Welcomes the Commission’s plans for the revision of the Barcelona objectives as part of the European care strategy package; calls for upward convergence to be encouraged and for further investment in high-quality care for every child in the EU;
Amendment 582 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Recalls that social protection and support to families with the special focus on big families, single parent families or families with a child with disabilities is essential and calls on the competent national authorities to ensure adequate and accessible social protection systemsfor all and integrated child protection systems;
Amendment 591 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Member States to provide continuous holistic support to parents, including parental entitlements and adequate translation of the value created during the periods of maternity and parental leave into the retirement pension schemes; Calls on the Member States to adopt measures that encourage a more substantial role for men in the sharing of care responsibilities, including for very young children;
Amendment 617 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Member States to reform and integrate their social services and protection systems in such a way as to provide effective and equal access to care services throughout the life course, taking a patient-centred personalised approach, in order to enhance thedignity, continuity of care, preventive healthcare, rehabilitation and, whenever possible, independent living;
Amendment 626 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Notes that accessibility derives from a combination of availability of a diversified spectrum of care services, affordable costs and flexibility; believes that in this respect different forms of care service provision should be available, such as in in-home and community-based settingin particular that provision of in-home and community-based care services should be upscaled alongside residential care; emphasises that the increase of care needs induced by demographic change, occupational and stress related diseases, requires significant investments from the EU and Member States to fill the gap of care services;
Amendment 647 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to develop the tools required for the regular assessment of the accessibility of care services and a comprehensive benchmark for monitoring the quality of both formal and informal care services, availability and affordability of care services as well as for monitoring the quality of care services; calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote accessible, available, affordable and quality care by ensuring a work-life balance, promoting healthy lifestyles, prioritising not-for-profit provision of care, setting quality standards of care services and organising quality control, ensuring the availability of care services in rural areas, and ensuring affordability through a collective insurance and service users’ contribution related to income;
Amendment 665 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Stresses that the free movement of persons and workers is one of the key pillars of the EU, but that challenges to cross-border care remain; calls for the protection of the social security rights of all migrant and mobile care workers and care receivers, as this contributes to both dignified working conditions and reduction of the propensity toward undeclared work;
Amendment 670 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Repeats its call for a common definition of disability, as well asthorough assessment of different definitions of disability across the Member States and based on this assessment, to consider developing a common definition of disability that would take proper account of the most prevalent causes of disabilities including rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs), heart diseases or stress- related diseases; Calls furthermore on the mutual recognition of disability status inacross the Member States;
Amendment 685 #
17. Calls for the prioritisation of mental health within public health policy at EU level and to ensure, particularly in the context of long-term care, that mental health and access to mental health care are effectively available, affordable and of good quality and as such, able to contribute to the improvement of quality of life;
Amendment 694 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Calls on the Commission and Member States to improve the provision and access to palliative care for all persons diagnosed with a long-term condition or disability; emphasises that palliative care comprises a spectrum of services improving quality of life with a health condition or disability beyond medication, such as emotional, psychological and spiritual and religious care and support;
Amendment 703 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls on the Commission to establish a comprehensive set of indicators for long-term care, and corresponding targets and tools for disaggregating and monitoring the accessibility, availability, affordability and quality of care, similar to the Barcelona objectives for childcare; notes that targets and indicators are needed on decent work, involving care service users, care workers and informal carers; calls on the Commission and Member States to elaborate a ratio of care workers per population size, which could be used as an indicator for investment, funding and training; Stresses that targets and indicators focusing on quality of care should be based on the rights of the persons in need for care, the maintenance of their independence and autonomy as well as social inclusion, and focussing on the expected outcomes of long-term care, such as the improvement of well-being of persons in need for long-term care and support as well as the evolution of healthy life years;
Amendment 779 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Urges the Commission to propose a common coherent package of actions at EU level on informal care, to identify and recognise the different types of informal care provided in Europe, and to guarantee carers financial support and other additional support services, including time off for carers, and a work-life balance and rehabilitation services for carers and and identify different needs of different groups of carers including young carers or mobile carers and to guarantee carers financial support and social protection such as care credits, pension credits, as well as other support services, including counselling and peer exchange services, clearly stipulated time off, a healthy work-life balance, holidays, respite services, job- reintegration services, psychological and rehabilitation services for carers; notes that rehabilitation services should be applicable to care recipients as well;
Amendment 792 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21a. Calls on the Commission to recognize challenges limiting access to appropriate care for persons with specific diseases that require increased level of care like rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs); Highlights that for persons with RMDs, the biggest obstacle in accessing appropriate care is the lack of rheumatologists and medical training in rheumatology in the Member States; Calls therefore on the Member States to make Rheumatology a standard element of the medical training curriculum and to increase the number of practicing rheumatologists;
Amendment 805 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 6
Subheading 6
Decent working conditions and training opportunities for all workers in the care sector
Amendment 810 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Urges the Member States to place adequate staffing levels and investment in care staff at the centre of their care policies, and to support the creation of quality jobrecognise value and importance of care professions mainly connected to promotion of fundamental rights and well-being of persons in need for care and support and to place adequate staffing levels and investment in care staff at the centre of their care policies, Calls furthermore on the Commission and the Member States to support the creation of quality jobs with decent remuneration and further training and development opportunities in the sector;
Amendment 823 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22a. Calls on the Member States to ensure enforcement of labour standards for all workers in the sector, regardless of migration or residence status, work arrangements (live-in, live-out, single or multiple employers), employment relationship (placement agencies, provider organisations, contract with end- users or domestic workers operating as self-employed). This must include, in particular, providing information and effective complaints mechanisms that enable workers to know their rights, file a complaint, and access remedies without any immigration enforcement consequences;
Amendment 832 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 b (new)
Paragraph 22 b (new)
22b. Urges the Member States to tackle the exploitative conditions applied by private recruitment agencies, often engaged in organising the rotation of care workers in and out of exploitative conditions;
Amendment 835 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Calls on the Member States to ensure decent working conditions for all workers in the care sector, both formal anfor all forms of care, formal and paid informal as well as unpaid informal care, and to adopt high standards of occupational health and safety, in line with and beyond the ambition of the recently adopted EU strategic framework on health and safety at work 2021-2027 and in particular the aim of reducing rheumatic and musculo- skeletal diseases and improving mental health, tackling in particular stress and burn-outs in the whole spectrum of care professions; Recalls that this is especially important considering that live-in carers are particularly at risk of extreme working and on-call hours without adequate privacy, rest periods and holidays, as well as isolation, often being expected to take on tasks beyond their job and training, such as carrying out domestic work for other relatives and certain health care treatments;
Amendment 878 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Calls on the Member States to strengthen social dialogue and promote collective bargaining and collective agreements in the care sector, bothpublic, profit and non-profit, as crucial mechanisms for the improvement of employment and working conditions and for tackling the gender pay gap, and as the most effective tools for securing an increase in the minimum wage and in wages in general;
Amendment 880 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 a (new)
Paragraph 24 a (new)
24a. Expresses its concern about the phenomenon of elderly abuse, including non-assistance, neglect and the undue use of physical or chemical restraints, particularly in the field of long-term care and support; calls for the development of trainings for informal and formal carers to avoid elderly abuse as well as for establishment of independent and effective mechanisms to report and redress situations of elderly abuse; calls on the Commission and the Member States to explicitly include the fight against elderly abuse in all its forms in the European Care Strategy;
Amendment 895 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Recalls that intra-EU mobile and non-EU migrant workers, including undocumented workers, play a significant role in the provision of both residential care and home care in the EU; insists that decent work should be integral to definitions and priorities around sustainable and quality care systems;
Amendment 916 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Calls on the Member States to swiftly and fully transpose and implement the Work-Life Balance Directive; stresses that only an equal share of care responsibilities between men and women by means of non-transferable and adequately paid leave periods would enable women to increasingly engage in full-time employment and achieve a work- life balanc and consider to be more ambitious and go beyond its minimum requirements with regard to carer´s leave;
Amendment 933 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 a (new)
Paragraph 27 a (new)
27a. Calls on the Member States to draw on the EU Skills Agenda to ensure further skilling and upskilling of care workers, and provide publicly-subsidised opportunities for all carers – including migrant informal carers and care workers - to participate in vocational education and training and gain qualifications;
Amendment 940 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 b (new)
Paragraph 27 b (new)
Amendment 989 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Calls on the Member States to adopt approaches to measuring and valuing the contribution and outputs of care, in particular informal/unpaid care and housework, and to address the prevalence of undeclared or under-declared care work, often in exploitative conditions, impacting on the rights and well-being of workers, their families, as well of care recipients;
Amendment 1012 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)
Paragraph 31 a (new)
Amendment 1015 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the EIGE, Eurofound and other relevant agencies have adequate resources to monitor disaggregated data and analyse if and how policies are making the intended improvements in the care sector, including in terms of gender equality between men and women, infrastructure and work- life balance;