Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-23-Speech-2-278"
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I too should like to thank Mr Andersson warmly for his excellent cooperation which is, among other things, evident from the fact that he has adopted the women’s amendments and inserted them in his own report.
The Commissioner has stated that the pension schemes are in crisis, and I share her view. The costs of pensions will put pressure on the Stability Pact and, in a previous term of office, I occasionally referred to this as ‘a bomb under the EURO’. Many countries are taking measures for that reason, and because of many of these measures, women are hit harder than other groups in the population. As a result of a lower participation rate in the labour force, a higher percentage of women working part-time, the lower incomes and the slower rise in income (due, among other things, to maternity leave), many women receive lower pensions than men, on average. According to the report by the Commission, this difference varies from approximately 16 to 45% depending on the Member State in question.
There is also the issue of equal treatment. In this context, I should like to make a reference to America. There is a judgment by the Supreme Court that stipulates that calculating contributions towards, and payments of, supplementary pensions differently on the basis of gender-based actuarial factors is in contravention of the Civil Rights Act. Hopefully, this view will be generally held in Europe too. The fact that, according to a recent hearing, it transpired that women no longer live all that much longer than men at all, should be added to this.
I should also like to draw your attention to a regrettable fact, namely that the Commission has never implemented Parliament’s proposals to force Member States to make arrangements to deal with the problem that parts of the pension rights accrued during marriage are at risk of being lost in periods when one of the partners decides to care for the other. I should also like to urge Member States to ensure that people continue to remain part of pension accrual schemes during maternity leave or care leave for children or other dependants. This is already the case in a number of countries, and I think that those countries set a good example for other Member States that have not done this to date. Member States should promote the individualisation of pension rights, without abolishing the derived rights of the surviving spouse and children. As I have stated before, it is an all-embracing problem, in fact, whereby, often, women are at greater risk of losing out than others. I therefore agree that we should promote labour mobility and in the light of this, I should like …
Thank you, Mr President, I notice that my three minutes are up.
Finally, I hope that the Commissioner will particularly take the position of women into consideration."@en1
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