Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-19-Speech-4-043"

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"en.20060119.5.4-043"2
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"Mr President, the Lisbon Strategy must not be confined to economic policy objectives, but it must also contain principles for strengthening social cohesion and sustainable development. We must make clear that gender equality also has a central role to play in the Lisbon process. We must also make clear that the Member States really must implement the Barcelona guidelines on childcare. Reconciling family and professional life must stop being pie in the sky and mere empty words; it must be at the forefront of the Lisbon process. We must also make the Member States’ responsibilities clear on this. We must also point out, however, that a lot of things need to be put under the microscope, such as social security and pension systems in the Member States, which are biased in favour of the childless and discriminate against families with children. We must have the courage to put all that under the microscope at last. We must also draw attention to the gender-specific wage gap that still exists in the European Union; it is between 15 and 33%. That must be a wake-up call for us to do more for gender equality in the European Union. We must make clear, furthermore, that alongside these better childcare objectives we also need to fight against the massive discrimination to which women are still subject despite having a higher educational attainment than men; we see this repeatedly with the wide pay gap in the European Union in particular. Greater flexibility in working hours in order to reconcile family and professional life should also be much more central. We are aware that demographic trends are an enormous problem in the European Union and that we must do all we can to really encourage people here. We must make clear that having children also brings happiness and enriches life, and we must provide incentives for families. We cannot stand by while child allowances and the like are basically only alms for families with children, which are quite clearly discriminated against by social security and pension systems."@en1

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