The women who drafted Parliament's report is Portuguese Socialist Edite Estrela. Maternity leave of at least 20 weeks “is the appropriate period of time to help workers to recover from childbirth, foster mother-child bonds and encourage breastfeeding in the first months of life,” she said.
 
In addition, longer maternity leave would act as a spur to childbearing in Europe, which has a falling birth rate and ageing population, she said.
 
Longer maternity leave could discourage employers
 
However, Slovak Christian Democrat Edit Bauer said the new rules would discourage companies from employing women:  “There are countries, such as Germany, where the maternity leave is paid by the employer. These countries are in regards of current economic problems resolutely against the prolongation of maternity leave.”
 
The report also calls on member states to provide for a minimum of two weeks paternity leave.
 
For Ms Estrela “the right to paternity leave is crucial to promote a balanced participation of men and women at work and the sharing of family responsibilities.” Paternity should also provide “further support to women while recovering from childbirth and encourage the involvement of the father in the life of the child.”
 
Ms Bauer said that parental leave should be dealt with separately. “The directive is particularly on protecting the health and security of pregnant and breastfeeding women. I think that parental leave does not belong to this directive. Of course we have to find a way to better balance work and family life as well as to find more just division of labour and responsibility in family - but not in this directive.”
 
The issue will be debated on Monday in and voted on Tuesday in plenary during Parliament's Strasbourg session.