Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-05-Speech-4-012"
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"en.20001005.1.4-012"2
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"Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, all of us here agree that equal opportunities for men and women must be pursued in all our policies. But beyond that, the method has to be defined. We need to be sure that what is decided in Strasbourg is real progress. In the name of equal opportunities, and thanks to Europe, French women have won the right to work at night. I am not sure they should thank Europe for that.
In spite of these remarks, we shall vote for this report because we are naturally in favour of equal opportunities, but what equal opportunities means most of all is respect for everyone.
The European method, imposing uniformity, is wrong. First, because while women, like citizens in general, have the same ideas of what is fair and what is unjust, they do not have the same ideas about their role in the various cultures of the European Union. Nature has determined that woman should carry the future of humanity in her womb. Now, the primary duty of any society is to promote life and hence do everything possible to enable women to reconcile their legitimate right to personal and professional development with potential motherhood.
In that area, there is no equality. Only women can have children. So fairness does not come into the equation when the roles of women and men are as different as that.
Rather than making abortion easier, the French government should be developing a policy aimed at eliminating every material and social reason which might drive a woman to such a negation of life. Every abortion is a condemnation of our society, but never a condemnation of an individual woman.
Since I became a Member of this Parliament, however, it has been my impression that a part of this House would rather forget this aspect of women’s lives. More serious still, I also have the feeling that the institutions of the European Union have the greatest difficulty developing a global vision of society in our countries. As the debates and regulations go by, a compartmentalised vision of our society appears. Instead of addressing everyone, we compartmentalise: minority after minority, ethnic group after ethnic group. As a French woman and citizen, this vision of the world is particularly alien to me. I am a citizen who should enjoy the same rights and the same prospects as any citizen of the other sex, no more and no less.
I do smile sometimes in this House, particularly when I hear that the group most hostile to the single currency are women, especially in Denmark. When we decide on policies targeting people with disabilities, or blind people, it is perfectly normal to add women. It is really very annoying that these women, from the depths of their kitchens or household accounts, are rejecting the radiant future of the euro. They must be re-educated.
The image of the European woman we find in the pages of our reports and directives does not correspond to that of these Danish women, the majority of whom are saying no to the euro. So, new pages describe her as ill informed, isolated, and out of step with everyone else. Danish women will appreciate that.
I take this opportunity to salute the Danish women Members of Parliament, especially Ulla Sandbaek and Pia Kjaersgaard. They come from different political backgrounds, but together they embody the courage so many men lack. It is my conviction that a method is being outlined today through policies geared to sectors, not to say minorities, in this Parliament. Any kind of national attachment must be destroyed, European societies must be reduced to a collection of isolated individuals in small ethnic, sexual, social or other minorities, all run from a distance by a European State as distant as it is pernickety.
It is not surprising, therefore, that Mrs Dybkjær’s report refers to the Beijing Platform, which uses women’s rights as a weapon to defend a particular conception of women and their rights, and impose it on the whole world. The Polish delegation to the New York conference already had occasion to appreciate the arrogance of a part of the European delegation incapable of accepting other positions more measured than its own. Other Members of this Parliament had to take up the pen to put things right, and Poland thanked them for it."@en1
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