Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-08-Speech-2-012"
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"en.20050308.6.2-012"2
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"Today, ladies and gentlemen, we are celebrating International Women’s Day. We have been doing so for more than 90 years, but, despite this celebration, every day millions of women throughout the world still suffer discrimination on the grounds of gender and abuse of all kinds, both in times of peace and in times of war. They are still the victims of physical, psychological, sexual and economic violence, violence which sometimes comes from within their closest family environment.
When the day comes when all the Member States apply the Declaration relating to Article III-116 of the Constitution and adopt the necessary measures to punish criminal acts, because we are talking about criminal violence against women, we will have taken a great step forward.
I would like there to be complete gender parity in this Parliament. But I would like this to come about, not because a rule imposes it, but because the equal distribution of capacities between men and women is reflected in our social and political practices. Neither should we believe that the best yardstick for measuring equality between men and women is the percentage of women members of the parliaments of the different countries. Inequality manifests itself in the cruellest and hardest way in the lowest strata of society, where a combination of dreadful working conditions and family burdens makes life hardest for women.
I would therefore like once again to invite you to take part in the events that are going to be held today in the European Parliament, which is participating in today’s celebration with the greatest of enthusiasm.
The next item is the debate on the oral questions to the Council (B6-0015/2005 ) and to the Commission (B6-0016/2005 ) on the follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women – Platform for Action (Beijing + 10).
Just a few days ago we saw horrific images of Turkish riot police putting down a demonstration of women ahead of today’s Women’s Day. I had the opportunity to condemn these actions yesterday in plenary. I have asked the Turkish Government to punish the perpetrators of these indescribable actions and I would like to point out that they do not, of course, send the best possible message in terms of Turkey’s possible accession.
Ladies and gentlemen, at the moment and until 11 March, the United Nations are hosting a World Conference on gender equality to review the progress made since the Beijing Conference of 1995, ten years ago now. As you know, a Delegation from our Parliament is participating very actively in this Conference, as was also the case in 1995.
There is no question that progress has been made since then. Kofi Annan acknowledged this in his speech at the opening of the Beijing + 10 Conference, but there are still enormous problems, immense challenges, which must not be considered without proposing solutions, just as we must not treat today as simply a symbolic day which merely serves to satisfy our guilty conscience.
This afternoon we will hold a debate on ‘Cultural and domestic violence’ involving specialised media and personalities. I would like to invite all of you to this seminar/debate, and when I say everybody, I mean everybody, men and women, because when we hold these events relating to the problems of women, we men are usually conspicuous by our absence. We must be aware that the problem of gender equality is not just a problem for women, it is a problem for both women and for society as a whole, and we men must be more involved in the task of resolving it.
Today in Europe, one in every five women claim to have been victims of abuse, one in every five. And unfortunately this proportion is increasing in many countries.
In the rich, democratic, developed and cohesive European Union, poverty is becoming increasingly feminised. There are worrying signs of a feminisation of poverty. Women today still receive, on average, 16% less pay than their male colleagues for the same work.
This point must also be dealt with within the Lisbon Strategy, which does not offer very positive figures in this regard either. For this reason, during this term in office, we have introduced into each parliamentary committee a Member responsible for monitoring gender issues, which cannot be dealt with in an isolated fashion, in a kind of conceptual ghetto, but which must affect all policies horizontally.
This term in office will also be marked by the ratification of the Constitution, which includes, very rightly, gender equality amongst the Union’s objectives and values. But we must go beyond texts and words and be aware that equality will not become a reality until the mindset of men changes radically, overcoming an anthropological heritage that is sometimes deeply ingrained in our customs and consciences, until employers start offering equal salaries, until specific advantages are offered with a view to helping women to carry out their professional activities and to prevent or compensate for the disadvantages they have to face in their professional careers as a result of fulfilling a role that only they can play, human reproduction. We will not resolve Europe’s demographic problems unless we resolve the problems of equality for women."@en1
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