Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-02-08-Speech-1-162"
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"en.20100208.16.1-162"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I wish to congratulate the European Commission on its excellent report. In fact, this report on equality between women and men, which we vote on each year, has special resonance for me. It is the first report that I have presented within the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, of which I am an active member. Moreover, it is a report that is absolutely essential this year given the economic, social and financial crisis that the European Union especially is going through.
Let us turn to paternity leave. Here is a fact: men have a right to be fully involved in the first few days following the arrival of their child in the family. It is true that, in this regard, we can ask the Commission to support any steps aimed at introducing a form of paternity leave at European level. We consider that maternity leave must be linked to paternity leave.
I will finish, Madam President, Commissioner. When it was presented within the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, this report received high praise from representatives of all the political groups in the European Parliament. The vote in that committee went very well too, and the report was adopted by a comfortable majority. I therefore invite all of my fellow Members to support my report again when the vote takes place on Wednesday, but I shall be listening carefully to the debate that is due to take place, and I will then be able to reply to your questions.
This is why I have been keen to stress, in my report, the impact of the crisis on women. First of all by observing that men suffered more redundancies at the start of the crisis – that is to be expected given the impact on heavy industry, in particular – but recent months have seen unemployment of both women and men grow in the same way and at the same rate.
Moreover, in a good dozen Member States, the unemployment rate remains higher for women, and women are over-represented in part-time employment. I therefore call on the Commission and the Member States to supply accurate statistics on the impact of the crisis on women and men, and on the Member States, before they implement any budget austerity policies, to carry out gender-based impact studies so as to prevent women from being disproportionately affected.
The fight to eliminate violence against women is also, in my opinion, an important point. Twenty to twenty-five per cent of European women suffer physical violence during their adult life, that is a fact, but 10% of them are also victims of sexual violence. I believe therefore that men must also make a commitment to combat violence against women.
The Spanish Presidency of the European Union has decided not only to make the fight against violence against women one of its main priorities by creating, among other things, a European inter-gender violence monitoring centre to provide harmonised data, but also to create a European protection order for victims. I therefore support this approach and would also call for the creation of a European Year for combating violence against women so as to raise awareness in all the Member States and to ensure that this fight becomes a priority.
Let us turn to employment. Here is a fact: women have made a huge investment in the labour market. 59.1% of women work today. The Lisbon Strategy set an objective of 60%. We are almost there, but the difference is still significant in some Member States, as is the average pay gap, which varies, depending on which study you read, between 17 and 25%.
I would therefore ask the Member States properly to apply the directives on equal treatment between women and men in employment matters. I would ask these same Member States to introduce legislative measures to promote gender balance in positions of responsibility, especially in private companies. Obviously, I believe that we have to combat sexist stereotypes. In my previous role as a minister for training, I met a woman who had to give up training to become a school bus driver because her trainer was making fun of her.
I hope that, in future, no one will be surprised if a man does the washing up or a woman drives a school bus, as I have just mentioned. In short, the Commission and the Member States must be called on to launch awareness campaigns on this issue in schools.
Sexual and reproductive rights are an important chapter because women must have control over their sexual and reproductive rights. Thousands of women have put their lives at risk to fight for these rights and, today, 24 of the 27 European countries have legalised abortion. The European Parliament has a duty to protect this
which is absolutely fundamental for women, and we insist that women must have control of their sexual and reproductive rights, not least by having easy access to contraception and abortion."@en1
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