Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-28-Speech-3-156"
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"en.20010228.8.3-156"2
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". – Mr President, it is a common misconception that globalisation trends and related policies are gender-neutral. This is important to bear in mind when we discuss the problems of immigrant women in Europe.
Turning to the position of women in the labour market, let me recall that the Community’s employment strategy with its priorities of employability, entrepreneurship, adaptability and equal opportunities is about supporting Member States’ efforts to introduce structural reforms into their employment, social protection and taxation systems. This is a matter of equality. It is also a matter of replacing discrimination with the economic good sense of engaging the enterprise and creativity of all those who need and want to work. This requires our social model to be reformed to engage all our people, both women and men, in an inclusive economic and social Europe with equal access to opportunity, skills, personal development and the support this implies. The European Structural Funds play a major role in this process.
To secure the rights of immigrant women is now fundamentally about good governance on the basis of shared values in a changing world for both sexes. It is about tolerance, modernisation and improvement of the various tools of policy. It is also about democracy and solidarity. Equal representation is a key issue here. The participation of women in political and civil life is fundamental to good governance, whether in Europe or elsewhere. Women’s voices are still not being heard sufficiently in major policy areas. Structural changes are required to make them more audible. Institution-building to meet the challenges of globalisation must be accompanied by equal and shared participation of women in the political process. Many of these things are well-known, well-established challenges. Hopefully the new thing we can do is to face those challenges with a more rigorous will to do what is politically needed.
The Commission considers that zero immigration is neither realistic nor justified. The policy has never been fully implemented, not only because of the legitimate need for family reunification, but also for economic reasons.
In the future, demographic factors – the ageing of our workforce and population as a whole – are likely to make immigration more, rather than less, necessary and understood. In this process we have to prevent gender-based discriminatory practices. The promotion of proactive gender equality is very necessary.
In its communication on a Community immigration policy presented on 22 November last year, the Commission stated that, in the short term, immigration can be an important element of population growth and could accompany other responses to demographic change. It will not in itself be an effective way of dealing with labour market imbalances, but can help alleviate skills shortages within the context of an overall structural strategy. Migrants, including women migrants, may have a particular role to play in some of the areas particularly affected by the increase in the number of older people, while legal migrants, the majority of whom will be of working age, will play a part in reducing the financial burden of the elderly on the population of working age.
In December 1999, the Commission launched a draft directive on the right of family reunification which, among other matters, gives family members the right to immediate access to education, vocational training and employment. The next steps will be the presentation of a draft directive on the status of long-term residents and a proposal on the admission of third-country nationals for the purpose of employment and self-employed activities and for the purpose of study on the territory of the Member States.
The Treaty of Amsterdam explicitly includes gender equality among the objectives of the European Community. This applies to our domestic, as well as external, policies. In addition, there are several political decisions which explicitly call for gender-equality concerns to be acted upon in development cooperation. In order to strengthen the promotion of gender equality as an issue which affects all policies, programmes and projects, I will, in the near future, present to the college a programme of action for the mainstreaming of gender-equality development cooperation.
The trafficking in human beings is facilitated by globalisation and by modern technologies. Trafficking in human beings, and in particular girls and women, not only involves sexual exploitation, but also labour exploitation in conditions akin to slavery.
The traditional flow between certain Third World regions and Western destinations continues. What gives rise to even greater concern is the increase in the numbers of women and children trafficked into the EU from Central and Eastern European countries. The Commission has taken significant steps against this violation of human rights. Freedom from discrimination is a basic human right, be it on the grounds of nationality, sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. That is why the Commission very much welcomes that the Treaty of Amsterdam gives the Community powers to combat discrimination on all these grounds under Article 13. The promotion and protection of human rights is an integral part of the EU’s human rights policy.
Immigrant women are particularly vulnerable to discrimination and social exclusion. The employment strategy and the social funds are both designed to combat discrimination and secure inclusion in society. Two directives recently adopted deal with discrimination, one related to employment and the other to racial discrimination. Both integrate the gender perspective and the programme will support transitional activities."@en1
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