Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-17-Speech-3-320"
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"en.20000517.15.3-320"2
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"Mr President, I should like to start by congratulating Mrs Gröner and Mrs Smet on their exceptional and remarkable report. Apart from the 28 specific recommendations, which are particularly helpful, both for Beijing and the Commission’s fifth programme – and I should like to assure you that complete account will be taken of them – I must also highlight the fact that they are accompanied by a particularly interesting political analysis containing information and views which is an excellent tool and which I think the Member States would be well advised to reproduce.
Five years on from Beijing, we shall be assessing the past five years. As the speakers have said, a great deal has been done and a great deal remains to be done. And, of course, Afghanistan will have to be discussed and reported and voted on in New York because it is one of the worst disgraces of our century, one of the worst disgraces of mankind in the year 2000.
We made commitments in 1995; these commitments have been honoured up to a point and we shall be analysing them in full at the Beijing Conference. One question which arises is whether or not we have the information needed at European Union level. I should like to inform you that the Commission has been endeavouring for a long time now to collate information on all the Member States, to obtain answers to questionnaires sent out more than once, to obtain answers to individual issues of legislation, infrastructures, action and statistics. We have managed, after a great deal of trouble, I must admit, to collate a set of data and we shall be publishing a paper as quickly as possible – within a fortnight I hope – containing the data for 1999. That was the reason for the delay.
As far as the report is concerned, I should like to refer to three points which, according to the questionnaires sent in from the countries of Europe, take priority there. The first is new changes in the information society. The new changes, which are changing the economy, society and the work model, are throwing up both huge challenges and huge problems, especially for the weaker groups, and huge problems for women, who are less involved in the new world of technologies and who, of course, have higher unemployment rates. We therefore need here to highlight the new objective of education, lifelong learning, retraining and special programmes to ensure that women participate in the new information society and, hence, in the labour market.
The second point concerns democracy and is linked to the information society, which is creating a new type of communication between citizens and politicians and opening up a new route, which you need to be aware of and for which you need the right vehicle. And, of course, there is the traditional problem of the representation of women, which all the speakers have already touched on.
The third point, which also proved to be the issue to which the Member States attach importance, is the issue of violence against women, the most important problem being trafficking in women, i.e. the modern version of the slave trade. Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we must assume that the new era is bringing with it not only electronic commerce, as defined in the economy, but also electronic commerce in women and children. These are issues which call, of course, for innovative solutions and new approaches and cannot simply be seen as the price paid for the new era. I think that these are the basic points which need to be assessed and, more importantly, where we need to renew our commitments.
I should like to stress that Beijing will obviously give rise to negotiating problems. I agree that there will be centres of power and organised powers which will try to reverse all this progress and review the agenda which we have agreed on. How we organise ourselves at all levels and how our lobby operates at all levels are extremely important, because we want to prevent any review of the agenda or a return to the past, renew our commitments and create new momentum so that our commitments are implemented in the new era.
I think that, since all negotiations depend on preparation and on being fully aware of one’s own situation and the situation of those sitting on the opposite side of the table, we at the Commission and the European Parliament need to cooperate very closely with the Portuguese Presidency. It is, I think, superfluous, to assure you that the Commission – and I personally – am at the disposal of the Portuguese Presidency so that we can prepare for these negotiations in the best possible way."@en1
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