M. whereas older workers are the most likely group to be long-term unemployed; whereas only half of the workers aged 55-65 were working in 2012; whereas older people suffer more from reductions in public expenditure on social services, health services and social benefits; whereas some categories of older people, such as people over 80, older women, older migrants and older members of ethnic minorities, are especially at risk of falling into poverty;

55. Emphasises that decent working conditions, for men and women, which are stable and compliant with Member State law and practice, coupled with regular quality training and the participation and empowerment of users, taking gender perspectives into account, are essential for the delivery of quality social services; stresses that volunteers have a valuable role to play in the SSGI sector, but that they cannot take the place of an adequate number of professionally trained specialists such as social workers and general staff;

Hungary aims to train 2 000 Roma women with the help of the European Social Fund and ease the acquisition of practical experience in social, child welfare and child protection services, and also as family support social workers, community developers, employment facilitators and healthcare mediators.

11. Calls on the Member States firmly to support forward-looking investments, by promoting investment and emulation in research, including basic research, and development, high technology, environmentally-friendly technologies and trans-European infrastructures and networks and education and lifelong learning; recommends increasing public funding for science and research; highlights the importance of a climate which is conducive to the promotion of research and development and of a better integration of product markets and a more positive attitude of the financial markets towards riskier forms of investment; takes the view that investment in social services ...[+++], in particular in childcare, is essential if there is to be genuine equality between men and women and if female employment is to increase; draws the Commission's attention to the under-exploitation of many latent skilled jobs in the services sector - which are all the more valuable because they are essentially local - in both the private sector and the public sector; stresses the need to invest in and promote jobs in services, in particular educational services, local social services, childcare, care for the elderly and help in the home; believes that account should be taken of the ageing of the population, since this will necessarily lead to the working population itself ageing; notes that older workers often have career problems and are sometimes regarded as too old and too expensive to be promoted or trained; considers accordingly that it is essential to provide them with tailor-made initiatives such as counselling, advice and specific training systems;

For example: a research study on the identification of indicators of child vulnerability in order to make preventive intervention by educators, teachers, and parents more prompt and effective; research and transnational data collection producing a pilot study examining the problems of deliberate self-harm among young people in Europe; exposing the situation of unaccompanied migrant minors in the EU and focusing on asylum seeking or migrant children from three Member States; Muslim girls' negotiation between parents and social professionals; how to integrate different social services ...[+++]; how confidentiality is perceived and interpreted in cases of sexual abuse; the reviewing and refining of the first draft of an international manual for staff of residential institutions to combat sexual abuse of young people; . an analysis of the prosecution of reported rape cases across Europe to identify key problem areas and a plan of action; a structural plan for a lesbian anti-violence programme at EU level; compilation of statistical data on sexual harassment in the workplace.

Being a fully integrated member within the host society requires, among other things, access to affordable housing and health and social services.