A bill on parental leave is expected to reach the House Plenary for a vote next Thursday, deputy minister for Social Welfare Anastasia Anthousi said on Tuesday.

Speaking to the House labour committee, she also announced a proposal to support families with a subsidy for nurseries will also be submitted on Wednesday to the Council of Ministers, from where it is expected to be approved and then submitted to the House.

Disy’s Fotini Tsiridou reminded that the issue of parental leave concerns paid parental leave of 18 weeks shared between mother and father with children up to the age of 8.

Edek’s Andreas Apostolou meanwhile welcomed the announcement about the crèches. “We are pleased to hear that in tomorrow’s Council of Ministers the plan is to be finally approved and the amount of support that 16,000 families will receive in September to cover the costs of nurseries is announced.”

Apostolou added that “we must say that these are two projects that were personally promoted by the late Labour Minister Zeta Emilianidou and will be implemented immediately to support families and young couples. Our goal is to continue our efforts at the parliamentary level but also in cooperation with the executive, so that we can continue to design and implement policies to support families.”