Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-08-Speech-2-099-000"
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"en.20110308.7.2-099-000"2
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"Madam President, I believe that one hundred years of struggle and one hundred years of progress have to be respected, but we also have to acknowledge that contemporary Europe is still far from full equality between men and women. Many of these inequalities are reproduced through the imbalances in the labour markets and the bias against women in many segments and in many institutions within the labour market.
That is why I believe that European policies and European financial instruments will have to be used to improve the situation in this area, and to improve employment opportunities and employment conditions of women, in order to make progress. Many concrete actions are possible. For example, as regards European funds, wherever it is possible and reasonable, equal opportunities conditionality would be very important, and we want to pursue this.
However, direct job creation is also important. One of the key directions in job creation in the coming decade will be towards so-called ‘white jobs’ – jobs in healthcare and long-term care. Here, we have to focus on creating opportunities, because much of this work is, in any case, being done by women, but without proper remuneration and without the opportunity to accumulate rights, including pension rights for their old age.
On the question of pensions, in the White Paper on Pensions to be published in the third quarter of this year, we will pay more attention to the gender dimension. There is a group of Commissioners working on this Pensions White Paper, and with Vice-President Reding participating and contributing, we will manage to address the gender dimension of pensions more forcefully than in the previous Green Paper.
I agree with Mrs Zimmer. This is also a question of regulating working time. That is absolutely fundamental. We need an EU working time regulation which allows for better accommodation of working needs and family responsibilities. A better work-life balance is absolutely essential. This is part of our decent work agenda. I agree with those who highlighted that this is not only an issue that applies inside the EU: this is an international responsibility which we have to pursue.
To highlight one more connection – that between the labour market and education – we have to go deep in order to improve the quality of education, to raise awareness, to teach about rights, including women’s rights especially and – this is very important – rights for European minorities, whether they are immigrants or other ethnic minorities.
Finally, on the question of quotas on corporate boards, I had an opportunity last week to discuss this matter with the new head of the Confederation of British industry – I am sure Mr Bloom will be interested to hear that. There are many aspects to this question. Apart from tackling stereotypes and the organisational and cultural aspects, our discussion also highlighted the need to organise family life differently, because of the time demands of top-level jobs. That is why we have to act on many fronts. We must not extend this discussion solely to working life and public life. I believe that if we continue the discussion, and the Commission’s efforts, with due responsibility, we can make progress in the future."@en1
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