Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-06-Speech-4-040"
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"en.20031106.3.4-040"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, I would like to begin by congratulating the rapporteur on the important report she has produced and at a time such as this, on the eve of the European Parliament elections.
We all know that equality between men and women is a fundamental principle in Community law, as enshrined in the Treaty of Amsterdam, which included equality between men and women as an objective in all programmes. We therefore call for concrete measures to facilitate the presence of women in electoral lists and, therefore, in the European Parliament. In this case, this request could be extended to the other regional or national parliaments in which the representation of women is still low in comparison with the percentage of women, who make up half the population, and in some cases rather more than half the population.
We know that when there is no special assistance, through positive action measures, with laws to facilitate this great presence of women, we women have real problems accessing institutional posts, political posts and therefore political decision-making posts and positions of power.
We have had experience over recent years of the presence of women continuing to increase slightly, but in no case has it passed much more than 30% and we are right to fear that in the next European elections it may be reduced.
As the rapporteur has said, the presence of women amongst the observers coming from the enlargement countries is really low; some countries have not presented women at all as observers, and we fear that, following the elections to the European Parliament, this presence will be no greater than 15%. It is precisely for this reason that it is important and significant that we are stressing this at the moment, and we are not forgetting the countries which currently belong to the European Union, in which the percentage is no greater than 30% in the majority of cases – with the exception of the Nordic countries – and in others that percentage is even lower and women are still facing significant difficulties in terms of accessing decision-making positions.
They are still significant because there are no electoral laws – with the exception of two countries – laying down the obligation for women to be present on lists and because our ability to be present in decision-making bodies and parliaments depends essentially on the political parties, on the mentality of political leaders and on the awareness we are able to communicate to society on the importance of this issue.
This is therefore the appropriate time and it is a task which we, as women committed to the presence of women, but also men, and Members of Parliament and political leaders must take on: this challenge of achieving greater presence for women within the political institutions.
Only the political will of leaders, of parties, when it comes to making decisions, will ensure that there are really more women following the elections and therefore a better balance between men and women in decision-making."@en1
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