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resulted in a detachment from what is local and a familiarity of that which is far away. So, as much as progress and modernisation has made our lives much easier, the way in which it has evolved has stripped families of their natural support mechanisms that supply many of the family services that local governments now find themselves having to supply. What can the European Union do to help local governments to step up their game in ensuring families can live happy balanced lives? Naturally different countries will have varying approaches to how much taxpayer or
welfare money should be spent on family related services. What kind of policy should the EU have when on one hand you have states like Finland where high taxes provide for universal daycare, big family benefits and generous parental leave and on the other hand states like Latvia where parents have to juggle multiple jobs just to stay afloat? Society has changed, family needs have changed. Most countries in Europe offer family services but not at the same level, what can the EU do to ensure equal living standards for all citizens in Europe? We have come a long way from Esan’s Comic Dictionary’s definition of family, the values have stayed the same but
in the name of progress we now strive to ensure that no woman’s, man’s, a citizen’s professional ambitions are held back by their wish for a family life. As the playwright George Bernard Shaw once said: ‘Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to this country and to mankind is to bring up a family’. •