Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 16-10-10

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] EU Commission and EESC hold public consultation in Nicosia on

European Pillar of Social Rights

[02] Bundestag delegation says there's a great opportunity to achieve

the reunification of Cyprus

[03] Foreign Officials express support to Cyprus' struggle for

reunification

[04] Cyprus Stock Exchange

[05] Air passengers in Cyprus reached 7,591,000 in 2015

[06] Labour Minister announces new vocational training and work experience

schemes for GMI beneficiaries

[07] Cypriot MPs to attend PACE autumn session

[01] EU Commission and EESC hold public consultation in Nicosia on European Pillar of Social Rights

A public consultation on the European Pillar of Social Rights took place on Monday in Nicosia, organised by the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee.

Throughout 2016, the Commission will engage in a debate with EU authorities, social partners, civil society and citizens on the content and role of the Pillar with the aim of moving towards a deeper and fairer Economic and Monetary Union.

The outcome of this debate should feed into a final text of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

The Commission has already put forward a first, preliminary outline of what should become the European Pillar of Social Rights.

Barbara Kauffman, from the DG Employment of the European Commission, said that this outline includes equal opportunities to access employment, training and life long learning, social rights at work, fare working conditions, balancing rights and obligations between workers and employments, more flexible employment contracts and adequate social protection systems.

"In order to shape the pillar we are doing these consultations and one of the questions that we have is to do sort of stocktaking in the essence of looking at the acquis as we have it today and asking the question to which extent the existing rights are still practiced and whether they are still relevant," she said.

A second question, she said, is how working life has changed and the welfare systems have to be adjusted, noting that new trends, such as in technology, may have an impact on how to construct the European labour market institutions and social systems.

She added that the consultation seeks to identify which areas covered by the Pillar are particularly important to strengthen the European Monetary Union and whether minimum social standards should be imposed in the Eurozone.

"In consultations we have had so far we see that there is a strong commitment to social Europe, and there is a will to strengthen the social dimension" Kauffman said, adding that "we also think that people are responding very positively to the idea that we need to take a holistic approach".

According to Kauffman, some emerging messages from the consultation is that is important to enhance social fairness and tackling inequality, a lot of emphasis is put on fair income distribution and on strengthening skills, and the need to upskill people throughout the professional life.

Minister of Labour, Welfare and Social Security Zeta Emilianides stressed that establishing common principles for the implementation of employment policies and social policies with special emphasis on the needs and the challenges Europe is facing is necessary, but taking into account the specific problems and characteristics of each country.

Proper human resource management and ensuring workers` rights, is also necessary she noted.

The Minister pointed out that to achieve growth and job creation, the EU must invest in human capital with targeted policies to enhance people`s skills, promote self-employment and entrepreneurship.

Gender equality must also be promoted, she said.

The European Pillar of Social Rights can be an important tool for social and economic progress and aid in addressing the challenges faced by the Member States, said the Minister.

CNA/KD/GV/2016

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

[02] Bundestag delegation says there's a great opportunity to achieve the reunification of Cyprus

There is a great opportunity, perhaps the last, to achieve the reunification of Cyprus, Head of the European Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag GunterKrichbaum has said.

Krichbaum, who headed a delegation from the Bundestag currently visiting Cyprus, had a meeting on Monday with the members of the Cyprus House Foreign and European Affairs Committee. He said that if we achieve "more Europe" then both sides in Cyprus can be satisfied.

(CNA)

*The full text of the news item is available in the paid version of the CNA web service.

*CNA reserves the copyright to the news stories it files, which is granted to subscribers for specific use only.

[03] Foreign Officials express support to Cyprus' struggle for reunification

Parliamentarians from Greece and officials from local and regional authorities from Greece, Britain and Slovenia, were briefed on Monday by the House President Demetris Syllouris on the current developments regarding the Cyprus problem. The officials visited Cyprus in order to attend the anti-occupation rally organised on Sunday by the occupied Morphou municipality and communities.

The delegation met with House President and expressed their support to the struggle by the Cyprus people and government to reunite the island, divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion and occupation.

(CNA)

*The full text of the news item is available in the paid version of the CNA web service.

*CNA reserves the copyright to the news stories it files, which is granted to subscribers for specific use only.

[04] Cyprus Stock Exchange

The Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) All Share Index closed at today`s stock exchange meeting as follows:

MEETING DATE: 10/10/2016

INDICES BASE VALUES: FTSEMed=5000, OTH

EURO (€)

TRADED VALUE 233.339,56

INDEX VALUE % DIFF. VALUE (€)

[05] Air passengers in Cyprus reached 7,591,000 in 2015

A total of 7,591,000 passengers travelled by air in Cyprus in 2015, representing growth of 3.6% since 2014. Some 5,345,000 of the total travelled in the EU and 2,246,000 out of the EU. That traffic earned Larnaca airport the 64th place in the155 busiest airports in the EU.

Overall, in 2015, 918 million passengers travelled by air in the European Union (EU), up by 4.7% compared with 2014 and by 22.0% compared with 2009. Over this period, air passenger transport has steadily risen in the EU.

In 2015, intra-EU transport represented 45.2% of total air passenger transport in the EU, followed by extra-EU transport (37.2%), while national transport accounted for fewer than 1 in every 5 passengers (17.6%). On the EU territory in 2015, 155 people were killed in commercial air transport accidents with EU aircraft. Since 2009, 211 persons were killed.

*The full text of the news item is available in the paid version of the CNA web service.

*CNA reserves the copyright to the news stories it files, which is granted to subscribers for specific use only.

[06] Labour Minister announces new vocational training and work experience schemes for GMI beneficiaries

Labour Minister Zeta Emilianidou said on Wednesday that her ministry will promote new schemes for vocational training and work experience for Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) beneficiaries, which will be applied by the Human Resource Development Authority.

Speaking during a press conference for the presentation of the Authority`s work during 2015, the minister described the results of two other Schemes implemented by the Authority, aiming at the employment of unemployed persons by businesses and organisations so that they get work experience, as very encouraging.

Emilianidou noted that until September 2016, 5,553 young unemployed university graduates benefited from the first Scheme since its beginning in 2013, with a total cost of 18.

(CNA)

*The full text of the news item is available in the paid version of the CNA web service.

*CNA reserves the copyright to the news stories it files, which is granted to subscribers for specific use only.

[07] Cypriot MPs to attend PACE autumn session

A Cyprus parliamentary delegation, comprising MPs Stella Kyriakides as its head, George Loucaides, Christiana Erotokritou and Costis Efstathiou will leave on Sunday for Strasbourg to attend the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) autumn session taking place on October 10-14.

French President François Hollande, German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu, and Estonian Foreign Minister Jürgen Ligi (who will present the activities of the Committee of Ministers, which he currently chairs) will address PACE.

A current affairs debate has been requested on the situation in Turkey in the light of the attempted coup d'Etat.

(CNA)

*The full text of the news item is available in the paid version of the CNA web service.

*CNA reserves the copyright to the news stories it files, which is granted to subscribers for specific use only.

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