Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-15-Speech-3-308"
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"en.20061115.23.3-308"2
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"Madam President, I would like to start by congratulating the honourable rapporteur for this excellent report. The Commission works hard to promote gender equality both within and outside the European Union and in this regard the European Parliament’s sustained commitment to these issues is vital.
It is useful that a reference to elections is included in the report. In that context, the Commission has already incorporated the gender perspective into the election observation methodology and women’s participation is systematically monitored throughout the Election Observation Missions. A good example of this can be seen in the European mission recently deployed to Yemen.
As you know, the Commission has a strong and long-standing commitment to mainstream gender across the board in our external relations. Since 2001, the ‘Programme of Action for Mainstreaming Gender Equality in Community Development Cooperation’ has given us a framework within which we have implemented an extensive training programme and developed political tools. In 2007, in cooperation with the United Nations and the International Labour Organisation, we shall be launching a new capacity-building programme, this time directed principally at our partner governments, civil society and other programme-implementing partners in third countries. A specific thematic focus of this programme will be the promotion of women’s participation in peace building, along the lines of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325.
Finally, it is clear to me that, although progress has been made, tremendous efforts are still needed to progress towards gender equality and women’s effective participation in the political sphere. In that respect, the Commission is committed to continuing to mobilise all the instruments available. Pressing issues include the following: first, we need a stronger gender focus in electoral, constitutional, legal and judicial matters. We need to enhance our support of women’s active involvement in defining and implementing policies at national level. Secondly, companies need more women at board level to ensure that the widest possible range of thinking, perspectives, experience and abilities is brought to bear on high-level decision-making. Third, overcoming gender stereotypes in education, training, the labour market and in the media remains an important challenge in all countries.
Finally, to achieve gender balance in decision-making, men must be mobilised and fully involved if we want to move ahead. Family-friendly policies for women and men, such as more flexible working arrangements and quality childcare facilities, can be of much help.
The world needs women leaders at all levels, be it in local communities or in international politics. Women and men must participate on equal terms in the drafting of agendas that affect us all and in the development of solutions to the problems we are facing.
However, if we look around us, what do we see? Men still make most of the decisions. The main examples given in your report clearly demonstrate that the picture is not ideal even for our European democracies and, as you correctly point out, further efforts are needed even inside our respective institutions, the Commission and the Council, to achieve a better gender balance.
Stereotypes and discrimination persist, biased recruitment and promotion systems are rampant, labour market and educational segregation hinder women in achieving their full potential.
One of the core factors remains the imbalanced division of work and family responsibilities. While the competence to act in this field remains at national level, I am convinced that the Commission can bring real added value by promoting awareness-raising, information gathering, research and analysis, networking and dissemination of best practice. This role of the Commission is clearly reflected in our March 2006 Communication ‘Roadmap to Gender Equality’. The future European Institute for Gender Equality will also help keep the issue high on the European agenda, collect and analyse data, conduct research and disseminate good practice.
One priority of the roadmap is promotion of the participation of women and men in decision-making processes. Considering that negative gender stereotypes are strongly related to the unequal representation of women, we have chosen their elimination as another key objective for our programme.
Amongst the Commission’s strategic actions for the next five years, the establishment of a European network of women in economic and political decision-making can be highlighted, as well as awareness-raising campaigns, data collection, analysis and exchange of good practices involving all stakeholders to combat gender stereotypes.
The roadmap also includes the promotion of gender equality outside the European Union. As an example of our action in the external policy field, I would like to mention the Five-Year Action Plan on Gender Equality being signed today in Istanbul by Ministers from the 35 countries of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. Women’s political participation is one of the key pillars of today’s Action Plan that will be supported by a regional project starting in 2007.
Through the European Initiative on Democracy and Human Rights, we fund several projects promoted women’s empowerment. As examples I would like to mention the regional project in West Africa aiming at enhancing women’s participation in five countries of the region, the regional project in Latin America, seeking to enhance the democratic participation of young people, particularly girls, and the projects undertaken in Egypt, Jordan, Nigeria, Morocco and Kyrgyzstan to empower women to actively participate in political life."@en1
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