The European Parliament has voted in favour of a proposal to extend maternity leave to 20 weeks with full pay.
The vote to increase the minimum maternity leave entitlement from 14 weeks was adopted by 390 votes in favour, 192 against and 59 abstentions.
The European Commission's had recommended minimum maternity leave be extended to 18 weeks.
However, some EU governments, notably economic powerhouse Germany, may be reluctant to back the draft law, designed to boost flagging birth rates, in the face of shorter-term budget austerity measures needed to ensure recovery from recession in Europe.
But economists say Europe's ageing population is a financial time bomb that could damage economic growth rates in coming decades unless there are more young people to help foot the bill.
EU projections show the number of elderly people will almost double in the next 50 years, straining health care and pension budgets.
"Europe needs more children to safeguard its economic future," Edite Estrela, a socialist member of the European Parliament from Portugal, said.
EU governments will discuss the proposal in the coming months and will likely vote on it next year, but Germany has already hinted it could oppose it.
Under parliament's proposal, workers on maternity leave must be paid their full salary, equal to their last monthly payment or their average monthly pay. Countries that offer workers family-related leave would have some flexibility in how they implement it.
The decision to amend maternity leave regulations came after the European Commission review of the current legislation in October 2008.
The vote also follows the narrow approval in March by the parliament’s women’s rights committee of a report that called for 20 weeks of fully paid maternity leave.
An entitlement to paid paternity leave of at least two weeks was also approved by MEPs today.
In addition, the European Parliament adopted amendments to ban the dismissal of pregnant workers from the beginning of a pregnancy to at least six months following the end of the maternity leave. It also said that women must be entitled to return to their jobs or to "equivalent posts" once their maternity leave ends.
As revealed in The Irish Times today, half of all Irish women in employment receive full pay when they are on maternity leave, according to a recent survey.
Dublin-based Principle HR found that more than four in five women receive some contribution from their employers when they are on maternity leave and 19 per cent received nothing at all.
