Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-04-22-Speech-4-225"
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"en.20040422.6.4-225"2
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".
Mr President, the Commission welcomes the adoption of the Karamanou report on women in South-East Europe and the many valuable observations and proposals which it contains. In its relations with the countries of South-East Europe the EU is striving to promote stability, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human and minority rights, including of course gender equality.
As pointed out in the report, problems have also occurred and still exist in certain candidate countries. In order to address this situation, from 1999 to 2003 gender equality projects under the PHARE national programme and MEDA totalled more than EUR 13 million. During the same period, participation by the candidate countries in the Community programmes involved close to EUR 1 million and gender equality projects financed under civil society programmes totalled EUR 2.5 million.
Once they are members of the European Union, these states will obviously be subject to the same obligations and benefit from the same instruments as other Member States.
Issues related to gender equality and the improvement of women's employment are raised in the regular reports on Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. This matter is being dealt with in the negotiations on the Union's social
for the first two countries. Furthermore, as pointed out by the honourable Member, more that 20 projects have been financed for civil society actions to improve women's conditions. Recent legislation adopted in the three countries is improving the legal situation of women and the Commission is following the implementation of this legislation very closely.
The Commission pays the utmost attention to ensuring that gender issues are integrated into the mainstream of all European Community assistance programmes as a cross-cutting issue. It is nevertheless clear that in a number of countries the situation is far from ideal and is a problem of great political importance. The Thessaloniki agenda for the Western Balkans as endorsed by the EU-Western Balkans Summit in June 2003 specifically states that support for activities to defend women's rights and improve their situation should be better reflected in EU policies towards the region.
Involvement of non-governmental organisations, civil society and local authorities in EU-supported policies and activities is of paramount importance.
Regarding trafficking in human beings, in the Thessaloniki agenda the EU also urges the countries of the region to act both domestically and regionally in line with the principles of the EU and proposals contained in the Brussels Declaration of September 2002. The EU assigns high priority to victim assistance, training programmes for competent bodies, exchange of information, public awareness, and strategy development. In this context, coordination of all international actors is essential.
Most recently the Commission has pointed out in its 2004 report on the Stablisation and Association Process for South-East Europe that gender is insufficiently ensured and domestic violence remains a problem in several countries. Although improvements have been made in certain countries on issues such as equal salaries, equal treatment of men and women concerning employment, training, career advancement and working conditions, and women's participation in government, progress is generally slow and insufficient.
Under the regional CARDS programme for 2002, the Commission published an open call for submission of proposals for support for the rule of law, good governance, public accountability and freedom of opinion. Promoting the equal participation of men and women in the democratisation process was one of the priorities of the CARD stabilisation programme for 2002. Of the twenty-two projects selected for funding which are ongoing until 2005, one is funding a women's leadership programme and another a project on women in media. The rest relate to work with various representatives of civil society to improve the access of citizens more generally to the democratic process.
With regard to the 2003 CARDS regional programme on democratic stabilisation, an open call for submissions was issued recently and the deadline for receiving proposals is 28 April. While this programme does not specifically target women, it supports equality of men and women and the participation of diverse civil society groups and associations at local grassroots level in the process of strengthening democratic structures.
Furthermore, an additional call for proposals under the 2003 CARDS regional programme is due to be issued soon. The programme proposes to strengthen capacities of civil society network associations in order to deliver better services to their member organisations. This constitutes a logical continuation of the 2002 initiatives and we expect and hope that women's associations will submit sound proposals in response to this call.
Finally, a new CARDS multiannual programming cycle is currently under preparation and the suggestions in the Karamanou report will be duly taken into account in the context of this exercise."@en1
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