Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-17-Speech-3-306"
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"en.20031217.11.3-306"2
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". – Mr President, firstly I would like to thank the rapporteur, Mrs Zrihen, for the excellent cooperation and for all her efforts to secure adoption at first reading. I sincerely hope this is still a reality.
Our proposal for a regulation on promoting gender equality in development cooperation is very important in providing a clear political goal and in emphasising that the achievement of gender equality is crucial for development in general.
Since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, global improvement has been made in terms of promoting gender equality in developing countries. In particular, progress has been made in putting in place a comprehensive gender mainstreaming strategy within the general framework of EU development cooperation. However, even if the process is on track in setting the priorities, much remains to be done in terms of delivering results, such as improving the conditions of women in developing countries within a definite time perspective.
Therefore a more comprehensive strategic approach is needed to support the present implementation strategy. In particular this regulation gives a stronger orientation that will make the process clearer and more visible and will make it easier to activate the necessary change to promote gender equality in development cooperation, building up a strong link to the achievement of the UN millennium development goals.
We all know that promoting gender equality is a long-term process. Certainly it has taken a long time to get where we are, so that is the sad proof of the reality that this is long-term. It is therefore vital that the catalytic and strategic role played by the present regulation is reinforced. In fact there is a need for this regulation to fund innovative actions which are cost-effective and have the potential to be replicated in other areas or scaled up using other funding sources. This is the real key to understanding the purpose of this regulation.
Parliament originally proposed to raise the budget of this regulation but I believe this is not the solution we are looking for. As I explained in a letter to the chairmen of the Committee on Budgets, the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities and the Committee on Development and Cooperation and to the rapporteur, we cannot meet the relatively small increase. The resources are simply not there. We made great efforts earlier this year in the fight against the major poverty-related diseases and in promoting sexual and reproductive health. It is simply not possible to find any more money. In any case, as a proposed amendment to the recitals makes clear, it is the whole of Community development-related funding which should contribute towards gender equality as a cross-cutting issue.
I need therefore to confirm to you that the Commission, fully supported by the Council, cannot accept the proposed increase in the budget. I hope that this is also the response we will see tonight from Parliament.
I am convinced that by supporting this regulation Parliament will allow us to fund operations and agencies working to reach the international development targets to promote gender equality and empower women and contribute to poverty reduction.
The existence of this special budget line and regulation makes a lot of sense because this is where we find the inspiration and the impetus to inject a sense of direction into the mainstreaming effort, but we will never be able to do what needs to be done on the gender issue by a special budget line. That is the reality and I appreciate the understanding of the proportions and the mechanisms of how to do this. I hope that will be reflected in the way Parliament reacts. I hope that we can do this in one reading in Parliament. I would regret it very much if we could not."@en1
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