Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-20-Speech-4-022"
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"en.20031120.1.4-022"2
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"Mr President, the Commission has presented a felicitous initiative to our Parliament under the codecision procedure, an initiative that should lead to a decision establishing a Community action programme to promote organisations active at the European level in the field of equality between men and women.
Having spent ten years at the head of such an organisation, namely the European Centre of the International Council of Women, which has affiliated organisations in the European Union, in the new Member States, in Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, the EFTA countries and in other countries too, I am better placed to assess the real value of this programme, which is intended to help the numerous women’s organisations that are active at the European level in the domain of sexual equality. These organisations will be eligible to benefit from subsidisation from an appropriation that, according to the proposal, will amount to EUR 2.222 million. Our Committee on Budgets, for its part, has proposed an allocation of EUR 5.5 million covering the period from 2004 to 2008. This is not a huge amount, but women’s organisations, be they national or European, are used to living and operating on small budgets.
The main reason why I welcome this initiative is that it puts an end to the monopoly on operating subsidies that has been enjoyed by the European Women’s Lobby ever since its creation. Having been one of the women activists who dreamed up and created that lobby in my capacity as president of CECIF, the organisation I referred to a moment ago, and since I am still president of a national organisation affiliated to the EWL, I must surely be immune to any accusations of seeking to undermine the EWL, whose work I greatly appreciate.
The Commission has clearly understood that, in this as in all other domains, monopolies are unhealthy. Unfortunately, however, it did not take that principle to its logical conclusion, because the draft presented to us still reserves privileges for the EWL in the new framework. I do not wish to question the payment of an operating grant to the EWL, which is an established subsidy, but other organisations that are active at the European level in the struggle against all forms of discrimination, particularly discrimination on grounds of sex, should be able to benefit from financial support in the framework of the aforementioned appropriation in the form of operating subsidies designed to guarantee the continuity of their activities.
Our rapporteur had judiciously amended the Commission’s proposal for a decision. Unfortunately, within the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities, the dogmatism of the Left triumphed once again over equality of treatment and opportunity for all the relevant women’s organisations. This is regrettable. Since the draft programme was totally distorted, Mrs Kratsa and other members of my group voted against it. If our efforts to restore the balance between the EWL and the other women’s organisations should fail, I shall vote against the report again, while still helping to prepare the ground for the second reading."@en1
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