Traduction de «Encouragement à l'activité indépendante » (Français → Anglais) :

In order to take the specificities of self-employed activities into account, female self-employed workers and female spouses or, when and in so far as recognised by national law, female life partners of self-employed workers should be given access to any existing services supplying temporary replacement enabling interruptions in their occupational activity owing to pregnancy or motherhood, or to any existing national social services.

In the area of self-employment, the application of the principle of equal treatment means that there must be no discrimination on grounds of sex, for instance in relation to the establishment, equipment or extension of a business or the launching or extension of any other form of self-employed activity.

If we want to encourage entrepreneurship, these issues now being considered regarding the application of the principle of equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity in a self-employed capacity are of key importance and are a part of this debate.

The proposal for a directive provided for significant advances from the point of view of guaranteeing equal treatment of men and women engaged in an activity in a self-employed capacity, assisting spouses included. It sought, for example, to deal with the obstacles preventing women from taking up a self-employed occupation and to that end made provision for positive action or specific measures to enable the underrepresented sex to engage in such activity more readily. As regards the establishment of companies, Member States were called upon to take binding measures to ensure that national law would no longer rule out the possibility for ...[+++]businesses to be set up between spouses or life partners. Maternity protection was to be granted to self-employed women and assisting spouses or recognised partners (they were to be entitled to the maternity leave provided for in Directive 92/85/EEC and to an allowance at least equivalent to any sickness allowance payable under national law; and temporary replacement services were to be offered as an alternative to the allowance). Assisting spouses were to enjoy a level of social security at least equal to the provision for self-employed workers, and it was to be granted on the same terms. However, the proposal did not alter the system allowing the spouses of self-employed workers to join contribution-based schemes on a voluntary basis.

13. Urges governments to examine barriers to self-employment by Romani women, and to create programmes to enable accessible, fast, and inexpensive registration for Romani women entrepreneurs and self-employed persons, to establish avenues for accessible credit – including micro-credit – for the financing of undertakings by Romani women, and urges the Commission to support these activities through relevant funding mechanisms;

11. encourage the development of self employment by examining, with the aim of reducing, any obstacles which may exist, especially those within tax and social security regimes, to moving to self-employment and the setting up of small businesses as well as by promoting training for entrepreneurship and targeted support services for entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs.