whereas demographic changes are having a significant impact on people's personal and working lives; whereas inadequate services, low wage levels, delay in entering the labour market, lengthy successions of fixed-term contracts, and insufficient incentives for young women and men are among the reasons why they choose not to start a family and have children until later; whereas rigid working patterns and the difficulty of returning to the labour market after spending time as a carer make it difficult to enter freely into decisions, whether they are intended to achieve a work-life balance or involve alternation of work and family life,

26. Supports the recommendations of the conference of Presidents and the Bureau to ensure the consistent implementation of Parliament's internal rules on the reimbursement of parliamentary assistance expenses and to charge the Bureau working party on the Members' Statute, the Assistants' Statute and the Pension Fund with assessing in detail and as a matter of urgency the operation of the existing rules and, given the importance of the matter, to put forward proposals for amendments to those rules; calls on the working group set up wi ...[+++]thin the Bureau to put forward, together with the competent Commission services, proposals relating to a statute for Members' assistants to be forwarded as a matter of urgency to the Council for adoption under the French presidency so that it can become applicable on the same day as the new Members' Statute; believes that this proposed statute would ensure equal treatment of Members' assistants that is also transparent, and help ensure that tax and social obligations, such as salaries and social security rights, are fulfilled; welcomes the decision of the Bureau of 10 March 2008 on Members' parliamentary assistance, as a first step towards complying with the request expressed in its resolution of 25 October 2007 on the draft general budget for 2008 ; calls on the Bureau and its Secretary General to report on the progress on the matter in due time before the first reading;

26. Supports the recommendations of the conference of Presidents and the Bureau to ensure the consistent implementation of Parliament's internal rules on the reimbursement of parliamentary assistance expenses and to charge the Bureau working party on the Members' Statute, the Assistants' Statute and the Pension Fund with assessing in detail and as a matter of urgency the operation of the existing rules and, given the importance of the matter, to put forward proposals for amendments to those rules; calls on the working group set up wi ...[+++]thin the Bureau to put forward, together with the competent Commission services, proposals relating to a statute for Members' assistants to be forwarded as a matter of urgency to the Council for adoption under the French presidency so that it can become applicable on the same day as the new Members' Statute; believes that this proposed statute would ensure equal treatment of Members' assistants that is also transparent, and help ensure that tax and social obligations, such as salaries and social security rights, are fulfilled; welcomes the decision of the Bureau of 10 March 2008 on Members' parliamentary assistance, as a first step towards complying with the request expressed in its resolution of 25 October 2007 on the draft general budget for 2008 ; calls on the Bureau and its Secretary General to report on the progress on the matter in due time before the first reading;

[7] See COM(1995) 688, which also presents a more detailed definition: "innovation is the renewal and enlargement of the range of products and services and the associated markets; the establishment of new methods of production, supply and distribution; the introduction of changes in management, work organization, and the working conditions and skills of the workforce".

The use of contractor-owned IT equipment and software in organisations in support of official Commission work may be permitted by the Head of the Commission Security Office.

This is the case, for instance, with the liberalisation of services (postal services, electricity, transport, telecommunications), consolidation of the internal market (banking, insurance, construction, telecommunications), Community policies (agriculture, fisheries, transport), strengthening of competitiveness in a globalised economy (textiles, clothing, footwear and leather), professionalisation and the quality of work and services (private security, industrial cleaning and personal services), and the effect of new technologies on work organisation (telecomm ...[+++]unications, commerce).