Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-04-Speech-4-008"
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"en.20020704.1.4-008"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, despite the positive steps taken in the legislative area to promote equality between men and women, many shortcomings, inequalities and forms of discrimination still remain in the differing practices of the States Members, which must be resolved.
Following the adoption in 2000 of the Community framework strategy for equality between men and women and of the respective Community action programme for 2001 to 2005, there has been an effort to involve all Community policies and all Commission departments in this strategy, which has already produced some positive practical results. We need to go further, however. It is unacceptable, for example, that the Community institutions themselves, including the European Convention now running, comprise less than 20% women, in other words, an even lower percentage than that of the previous Convention drafting the Charter on Fundamental Rights.
It is particularly important that the implementation of the guidelines, directives, recommendations and resolutions aimed at the promotion of equality by the various Member States be monitored decisively in order to ensure that the decisions taken in the sphere of policy on equality of rights and opportunities are better implemented and that they are also effectively applied in national equal rights and opportunities policy.
For example, therefore, with regard to the objective set at the Lisbon Council of ensuring that 60% of women are part of the active population by 2010, it is reaffirmed that this target will only contribute to equality of opportunities for men and women if the majority have quality and properly paid jobs, stressing the importance of various forms and methods of training, and the establishment of a sufficient number of facilities for the care of children and dependent persons and by promoting diversification of the career choices open to girls.
Hence also the importance of the implementation of the Council recommendation of 31 March 1992. It is not enough for the Commission to say that it adopted the report on this implementation on 4 February 1998. Four years have now passed and we need to know the current state of play, focusing on the importance of establishing common indicators as regards childcare structures and the disparity in wages and other forms of income between men and women, by sector, with regard inter alia to atypical forms of work and part-time work.
It is equally important to insist on the conclusion of research on the causes and means adopted and to be adopted by the various Member States in order to combat the disparity in wages which still exists (of around 15% to 20%), despite the 1975 directive on equal treatment as regards pay. Precise quantitative and temporal objectives must also be included in the employment guidelines, which are already in the process of being revised, and the Commission must submit a report on the matter, specifically on the measures to be adopted.
There is also an urgent need to establish goals to be achieved in realistic and measurable stages in the fields of intervention envisaged in the Community framework strategy on gender equality, in order to ensure real practical progress in all areas, bearing in mind that there are still many infringements of legislation on equal treatment between men and women. With regard to the new directive being prepared on gender equality in sectors other than employment opportunities and which the Commission promised to submit before June, this must not be subject to any further delay. We must also insist on making improvements in line with other existing directives, specifically those concerning the safety and health at work of women who are pregnant, or have recently given birth or are breastfeeding and the equal treatment of men and women in legal and professional social security schemes.
The central issue is the need to work for the integration of the prospect of equality between men and women in economic guidelines, not least in the accession process, with a view to preventing any
adverse effects on gender equality of the processes of privatisation, liberalisation and cuts in public expenditure in the social sectors, and we must reaffirm that quality public services are essential, and call for an increase in the budget allocation in the social sphere in order to prevent social exclusion and to combat trafficking in women.
Lastly, I wish to thank everyone who worked on drafting this report, and I am convinced that the success of the fight for equal opportunities for men and women, not least in political life and in decision-making bodies, depends also on the greater involvement and political will of us all, both men and women."@en1
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