Equal Treatment of Self-Employed Women and their Life Partners (Directive)

With its Proposal for a Directive the EU Commission mainly wishes to improve the social protection of self-employed women and their spouses/life partners engaged in their businesses. Accordingly, spouses assisting self-employed women are to have the same access to social security schemes as self-employed persons and self-employed women are to be provided with maternity protection. Moreover, access to self-employment must be practicable irrespective of gender or family status.

cepPolicyBrief

The Proposal reaches beyond the Commission's competences. Besides, several of the measures proposed constitute an illegitimate intervention into the basic principles of national social security schemes. Moreover, the Commission justifies its proposal on grounds of the principle of equal treatment between men and women, but actually aims at equal treatment between self-employed workers and their spouses/life partners engaged in their businesses.