Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-24-Speech-3-125"
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Mrs Diamantopoulou is on her way to the G8 Summit, so I am standing in for her in today's discussions. That I do very gladly, as a policy on gender equality is indeed one of the pillars of European politics. I would like to start by referring to Mrs Avilés Perea's report.
We will be improving the analyses within the frameworks of the programming cycles of the various programmes, revising the sectoral and political guidelines and devising indicators. We have agreed to produce reports on the progress made and submit mid-term and final evaluations of the Community measures in the area of gender equal opportunities for the 1995 – 2001 period, the results of which will be available at the end of this year, and on which basis the proposal for a new Regulation will be worked out. It will enter into force when the current Regulation expires.
Gender equal opportunities, being a mainstream issue in our action programme, covers all six priority fields of development cooperation by the European Community. This means that every development cooperation agency has to take the issue of equal opportunities into account in its day to day work. The nine months since the Commission's adoption of the action programme have seen the introduction of various measures for the programme's effective implementation, most of which deal with points addressed in your report. For example, you have proposed that part of the administrative budget should be earmarked for compulsory staff training on equal opportunities issues. I am able to inform you that these training schemes are already up and running in, among others, the Directorates-General for development and employment and also in the Meda teams in the field of external affairs policy.
In item 13, you call for gender analysis of the country strategy papers and of future poverty reduction strategies. I am able to inform you that a large number of country strategy papers have already been examined from this angle, and that the results of this will find their way into the programming cycle and into improved manuals and training documents for staff.
In item 16, you call for gender auditing of the Budget, that is, the assessment of public budgets in terms of their effects and influences on one or other gender. This is an important point for me personally, among other considerations. Let me point out that various measures have been set in motion in this area as well. I hope to be able to give you further information and reports on the International Women's Day next year.
Turning to your item 8, I am glad to be able to inform you that, in March, the Commission adopted a communication on the fight against disease and poverty in developing countries, one of the core points of which is improved access by women to basic health care, which also includes improved provision in the area of reproductive health. Indeed, the Commission is making a great contribution to the Global Health Fund
and that is something else that I would like to mention in this connection.
There is no doubt that gender equality, the realisation of equal opportunities for women and men, will still be one of the great challenges at the various political levels over the coming years. It is, though, particularly important, and should be seen in a very positive light, that Parliament, the Member States and the Commission are pulling together on this and, let me add, being supported by many organisations in civil society. I would like at this point also to put on record my gratitude for the contribution the women's movement has made towards the idea of equal opportunity being firmly established in our societies.
I have exceeded my speaking time somewhat, but I believe that this issue, even when it is discussed so late in the evening, does in fact demand much attention, time and energy if we are to make progress in this area.
The annual report on equal opportunities for women and men in the EU has, ever since it first appeared in 1996, been to some extent our flagship publication in the area of gender equality. The report informs the public about progress made in the field of equal opportunities, and is of course at the same time a means of monitoring the Commission's strategy of involving gender issues in all the EU's policies and in all its programmes.
I am glad to be able to note that the present resolution by Parliament sees our report this year as marking qualitative progress and confirms it as a systematic and critical evaluation of the initiatives at Community and national level. Parliament's resolution contains, in addition, new and highly constructive commentaries and proposals, which will prove very useful in the drafting of future equal opportunities reports. I wish to thank the rapporteur, Mrs Avilés Perea, most warmly for her report.
The Commission gives a ready reception to her call for improved and more up-to-date statistics on equal opportunities, including the development of an index on equal opportunities for both genders. I am able to inform you today that the 2001 annual report will incorporate a statistical annex on this subject. Equal opportunities experts are already working on developing an equal opportunities index, which then, I hope, can find its way into the next annual report.
Another topic of core significance is the balanced representation of men and women in decision-making processes. We need no further confirmation of the fact that women continue to be under-represented in essential fora. Looking at the Convention, we again cannot but note that adequate representation can still not be taken for granted. I would like, though, to point out that the Commission took the step of setting up its Equal Opportunities Group in order to make equal opportunities a primary issue in our institution as well. The Commission agrees that equal opportunities for both genders is a prerequisite for a functioning democracy.
Three further issues arose from Parliament's resolution: equal opportunities policy in the Structural Funds, the position in the candidate countries and all the forms taken by violence against women. Let me take the first point. The Commission intends this year to adopt a communication on gender mainstreaming in the Structural Funds, which will incorporate the contributions to and conclusions from the third conference on gender mainstreaming in the context of the Structural Funds. The conference, which is to be held in Spain on 14 and 15 June this year, is being organised by the Spanish Presidency in close cooperation with the Commission and with financial support from it.
Let me turn to the second point. Over the past year, positive developments in the area of equal opportunities have been noted in the candidate countries, although not all the necessary conditions have as yet been met. Transposition of this integral part of the
will not only continue to be closely observed by the Commission, but we have also made it abundantly clear that transitional periods in respect of equal opportunities and rights or for the relevant directives and legal framework cannot be permitted and there will therefore not be any. The President of the Commission and my fellow-Commissioner Verheugen have made this clear on their respective travels in the candidate countries, in discussions with which this point is one that I always raise myself.
Finally, I turn to the third topic, the extremely difficult one of violence against women, which includes domestic violence and the problem of the trafficking in women for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Here, even more than in other areas, the issue has to do with raising public awareness and exchanging information on innovative measures. The annual report may well also contribute towards this, and the programme of action also makes available resources for measures to raise awareness.
Gender mainstreaming is not just of the greatest topical interest for the Community's internal policies, but also of course for development cooperation – something which your contributions have highlighted. The programme of action presented by the Commission for the mainstreaming of gender equal opportunities in the Community's development cooperation work is intended to promote the putting into practice of this approach to politics. Mrs Martens' report is helping Parliament to adopt today a position on this communication, and I would like first to congratulate her and also the draftsman of the Committee on Development and Cooperation's opinion on this thoroughly constructive and trenchant report. Here in this House, you are calling on the Commission to give the plan of action more tangible form and to submit a formal proposal with a detailed work programme, containing qualitative and quantitative indicators. I am able to assure you that we will use the resources available to us to work purposefully on incorporating this ambitious agenda in our programme of action. We will be giving appropriate training to our staff and to those with whom we deal in our chosen partner countries, and will be clarifying roles and competences within the Commission."@en1
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