Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-01-Speech-3-089"
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"en.20000301.6.3-089"2
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"Mr President, I should also like to thank the President-in-Office of the Council and the Commissioner for good speeches on their part which I think provide hope for real optimism, especially given the will and commitment radiated by both women. I think it was an excellent example the Commissioner gave when she said that no one would have dreamed of having a situation in which the fifteen countries of the European Union were not equally represented but that it was a different matter when it came to equal representation for women. It could hardly have been made more abundantly clear, what we are concerned with here. I do hope that the Commissioner will have the necessary perseverance to also produce the necessary reforms within the Commission – but then, of course, she is young and full of energy. I am convinced that it will be hard work, when all is said and done. If the Commissioner asks for support from Parliament, she can in any case count upon the support of the Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party. We have a very strong interest in seeing equality introduced to the Commission and in seeing the necessary basis for decision making secured so that the Commissioner can implement her views on equality.
I would say to the Portuguese minister that I completely agree with her that what is at issue here is the fact that you cannot obtain equal rights without equal power. That is absolutely crucial. It should also be remembered, however, that no one voluntarily relinquishes power, and that applies to both men and women. Men have never wished to surrender positions of power when they had them, but there are also very few women who have been willing to give up their positions of power, and I am thinking here, in particular, of positions of power in relation to children. Moreover, I would also say that this may also be one of the reasons why there are so few men here today. Inevitably, we should like, for the same reasons of power politics, to be allowed to have this debate more or less to ourselves. What I want to emphasise by saying this is that it is a matter of both sides’ surrendering power.
The Commissioner emphasised that what is needed is a very broadly-based political mix, and she specifically mentioned Finland and Sweden. Just for the record, I would say that she might well also have mentioned Denmark. And I say that, of course, because I come from Denmark. In fact, 45% of the Danish government is made up of women, and that is, in reality, a touch more than in Finland. We still do not have a female president but, on the other hand, we have a queen, and that must no doubt, in certain contexts, amount to the same thing.
I should like to broach some of the points the Commissioner mentioned, notably the question of financial resources. It is crucial we accept that there is a price to pay if women are to have equality in the short term. In the short term, we also need to invest in making sure that children are properly cared for and, of course, also properly educated. The issue is therefore one of appropriate structures. One might well wonder if traditional industrial culture has been a particularly good thing, and I am therefore very happy that the Portuguese ministers are to participate very actively in the Lisbon Summit, which is, of course, to be partly concerned with IT developments. I think that this field offers some quite distinctive opportunities for women, specifically because it is characterised by flat, rather than hierarchical, structures. In Denmark, we have, in any case, seen developments to suggest that quite a lot of women entrepreneurs are on the way up.
There are two points which have not been seriously mentioned and which I should just like to mention here finally. The first is the issue of the media’s influence. I think it is very important that we should investigate what kind of stereotypes the media establish. Do we have a special problem in this regard? I have to say that I do not know the precise answer to that question. I have a suspicion that this is the case, but I am not certain. The second point is the enlargement of the Union. I think it very important that we should emphasise straight away that a number of demands are to be made in connection with enlargement as well, specifically that the new Member States should arrange to be represented by both men and women so that in that way they are improving the status of women in the countries concerned."@en1
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