For women the goal is for 57 per cent to be employed in 2005. Common standards are to be established by 2002 to enable comparison of access to childcare between EU countries. Similar standards are also to be set up for care of the elderly. Quality in work is to be improved, for example through improved working environment and organisation of work, through increased development of professional skills, strengthened gender equality and better opportunities for disabled people to participate in working life. Participation in working life by disabled people is to be promoted.
Common standards are to be drawn up by the autumn.
In Stockholm the heads of state and government supplemented the Lisbon strategy by adding some other areas. One important addition is the issue of the demographic challenge facing Europe as a whole, with its ageing population and declining birth rates. That fewer and fewer people will have to support a growing segment of the population in the future affects the labour market and puts demands on the pension and social insurance systems. Read more in the conclusions of the Stockholm summit. The concept of quality in work is central to the employment sector.