Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-06-Speech-2-052"
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"en.20050906.7.2-052"2
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"Mr President, one of the fundamental principles of Community law is the equal treatment of women and men. All the directives relating to this have made a decisive contribution in improving the position of women, who make up 52% of our population and thus constitute the majority. Grateful though I am to Mrs Jöns for having reinforced this aspect of the PROGRESS programme, I do take the view that the amalgamation of the five areas of the social agenda is politically mistaken and must not be allowed to remain unchanged. Gender equality should have a free-standing programme of its own.
There are six arguments in favour of this: firstly, the Constitutional Treaty reinforces equality policy; secondly the equality programme, like the budget for it, was formerly a matter for the Committee on Women’s Rights, and quite rightly too. Thirdly, the awaited creation of the Gender Institute, gender mainstreaming and a relevant and free-standing equality programme will, in matters of equality policy, make the EU and this House of ours very visible to women; all women will see that Europe is actively working for them. Fourthly, the Women’s Committee remains a driving force for the rights of our female citizens and will not agree to those rights being undermined by such things as the planned amalgamation, with effect from 2008, of the DAPHNE anti-violence programme with the programme against drugs, which amounts to an open assault upon women’s policy. Fifthly, gender mainstreaming must be consistently applied in all PROGRESS’s pillars, whether in employment, social protection, working conditions or the fight against discrimination, for women are still subject to discrimination in many areas, and, sixthly, what is currently going on runs counter to the Barroso Commission’s commitment to putting equality high up the agenda.
Although PROGRESS puts women back on the social agenda, pigeonholing them under ‘social issues’, the solution to the equality problem is political in nature. We women may have lost the first round, but Parliament’s amendments – and thanks again to Mrs Jöns – have prevented drastic cutbacks in the area of equality of opportunity.
Let me warn the Commission, though, that, if equality policy becomes even less visible and is taken even less seriously, then support on the part of women will diminish as well. PROGRESS depends on them."@en1
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