Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-27-Speech-3-298"
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"en.20060927.23.3-298"2
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"Madam President, I thank the honourable Members of Parliament for their comments on this significant area which touches upon many important facets over and above trade issues.
I should like to refer to some points raised during tonight's discussion. As to the issue of European companies that profit from EU market access programmes, within the framework of EU cooperation policy that should not contribute to the exploitation of women employees, I must underline that recent EU cooperation agreements include commitments to the ILO core conventions on labour standards. The EU has included commitments to the ILO core labour standards in all its recent bilateral trade agreements and the GSP and the GSP-plus, which provide trade preferences to developing countries that ratify ILO conventions.
On the impact of trade liberalisation, I should like to underline that this has provided new opportunities for many women in developing countries, providing new employment and, in many cases, reducing the gender gap in wages leading to greater empowerment and social standing of women in society. The evidence suggests that over one million women in India have increased their social standing as a result of trade openings. The majority of these are from poor backgrounds.
Let me now turn to the inclusion of gender equality in international trade policies, the European Union has been a strong supporter of the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises and more generally of the integration of decent work and social issues in the OECD investment activities. We remain in favour of observer status for the ILO in the WTO, though we have to acknowledge that there is resistance from other members.
On gender-impact assessments, gender has been included in recent trade sustainability impact assessments. As quality of gender data increases, the trade SIAs will be strengthened in the future, and certainly progress can be made in this area. That is why the Commission will explore the potential of decent work indicators, including data on the work of women and men.
As regards the question of gender budgeting as a standard tool in budgetary policies, the Commission will respond in writing. On the issue of gender budgeting more generally, that is an issue that covers many different areas of operation. However, we look forward to hearing about the progress made on this issue from the European Parliament and we will follow the committee’s work with interest.
With reference to the 40% quota for women on boards of joint stock companies, as in Norway, I must point out that this is primarily a matter for the individual Member States.
Finally, with regard to the formation of a formal trade and gender desk within DG Trade, I must underline again that within the Commission DG RELEX leads on the monitoring of human rights in third countries. DG Trade liaises regularly with the RELEX family on human rights with regard to trade agreements, such as GSP, and liaises with the International Labour Organization and DG Employment on labour rights with regard to trade agreements. The European Union, in fact, withdrew GSP from Myanmar for serious and systematic violations of the ILO core labour rights and this shows that the system currently in operation works well."@en1
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