Autism-Europe (AE) welcomes the clear improvements that the Work-Life Balance (WLB) Directive offers for autistic people, their families and carers, and the fact that it strengthens existing employment rights. Autism-Europe is part of a coalition of European networks and NGOs with COFACE Families Europe and ten other associations, who want to move towards a swift transposition of the WLB Directive.
The Directive on Work-Life Balance is an important stepping stone in the consolidation of existing rights and the establishment of new ones, and it must now be swiftly approved and followed up with enforcement and monitoring.
This Directive will bring positive changes to the lives of many Europeans.
Once the European Parliament and the Council have formally adopted the Directive it will send out a strong message and demonstrate to all autistic people, their families and carers that the EU works with and for them.
It is now time for national governments to take up their political responsibility and ensure that citizens recover trust in the European project and its social dimension, especially in view of the upcoming European Parliament elections this May. Our European civil society coalition expect European minimum standards to drive upward national reforms throughout the transposition phase, which we will continue to monitor closely.
Read the open letter to the EPSCO Council from the work life balance coalition here