Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-08-Speech-2-015"
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"en.20050308.6.2-015"2
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"Madam Chairman, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased to have this opportunity of discussing with you, on a day we commemorate as International Women’s Day, the implementation of the Beijing Platform and the results that have been achieved. The celebration of this tenth anniversary is also a significant opportunity for the European Union to continue the remaining tasks. First, I would like to thank Mrs Gröner and the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities for this extensive and complex question. Thanks to the support of your committee, we have made, and continue to make, considerable progress in reconfirming the obligations of the Beijing Platform. I am pleased that the United Nations has reached an agreement on a political declaration in this context; it is no coincidence that the European Union has made a significant contribution to this decision.
Ladies and gentlemen, in the previous speech it was mentioned that today the Commission will discuss the proposal to set up an institute for equal opportunities between men and women, a gender institute, and I am pleased that we have made progress in this issue. I think it will be a step that will reinforce the policies of equal opportunities, that will result in something I hold in high importance – a solid base, and I believe it will give us more room to take action armed with knowledge and free of prejudices. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you.
I would like to thank the Luxembourg Presidency, because this issue has not been easy; it has taken a lot of effort and has required the force of a united Europe. The European Commission played an active role in the coordination of positions for the preparation and continuation of the Beijing Platform for Action within the United Nations. The conference held by the Luxembourg Presidency on 2 and 3 February on the theme of ‘Beijing + 10’ presented a report on the implementation of twelve areas of the Beijing Platform for Action in the European Union, and also highlighted the shortcomings and tasks which need to be resolved. The report is based on indicators on which the Member States agreed.
Your first question concerns two central problems. One is the participation of women in the labour market, and I would like to stress that efforts to eliminate the inequality between men and women are and will remain a fundamental prerequisite in achieving the Lisbon objectives. It is true that the disparities in the salaries and wages of women and men are very great and remain too great. The Commission will strive to ensure that European legal regulations in the field of the equality of remuneration are applied. Within the framework of the European Employment Strategy, it will make recommendations to Member States where the differences are relatively large. It is also necessary to underline the fact that the role of the social partners in this field is important and, in some respects, crucial. One of the European Union’s tasks that still needs to be resolved is the difficult reconciliation of family and working life. Therefore, in its new social agenda, the Commission proposed a communication on future developments in policies concerning the equality of women and men. Reconciliation remains the central issue here.
I would also like to mention the fact that, in this respect, the review of the Working Time Directive will be highly significant. In the programme for the equality of women and men, projects and conferences have been funded within the framework of the Presidency, and we are now analysing the results. It is important to continue presenting initiatives intended to increase awareness in this field. We must also have the necessary data at our fingertips. Therefore the Commission has set up a database on women and men involved in the socio-economic and political decision-making process, which is available on the website of the Directorate-General for Employment.
Ten years after Beijing, women remain, unfortunately, the victims of the dramatic phenomenon of trafficking in women. The Commission is currently preparing a communication on trafficking in human beings, in order to present possibilities for an improvement in EU policy against this crime. The Commission plans to publish this communication by the end of the first half of the year.
I am well acquainted with your proposal of a European Year Against Violence Against Women. The Commission considers the fight against violence against women to be a matter of paramount importance, and has studied the request from the European Parliament that 2006 be declared the European Year against this form of violence. However, the Commission notes that 2004 was the subject of a global campaign by Amnesty International on the same theme, and therefore, while there is no doubt about the significance of the initiative brought up by Parliament, the Commission is reserved as regards the opportunity of proposing this event at a European level as early as 2006 when it took place on a global level in 2004.
It is also important for gender issues to be incorporated into policies related to health. This is happening at European level via the public health programme, out of which projects for the development of strategies and for the appointment of best practice have been financed (for example, in the field of birth control among adolescent girls, family planning, and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases). Special attention is paid to HIV prevention in relation to mothers and children. Efforts in the field of education should continue to prevent a situation where segregation begins at school and is carried through into the world of work. On several occasions, the European Council and the Commission have highlighted the lesser participation of girls in subjects connected with the natural sciences and in technical subjects. Therefore it is important for the Council for Education to set itself the target of increasing the number of graduates of mathematical, scientific, and technical subjects by 15% by 2010 and of reducing the imbalance between men and women.
The mainstay of the European Union’s policy for audiovisual media is Directive 97/36/EC, Television without Frontiers. Within the framework of the review of this Directive in 2005, the Commission will present a proposal that takes account of the rules related to human dignity, especially rules against discrimination. Another important instrument in the field of the media is the recent proposal of a recommendation concerning the protection of minors and human dignity and the right to reply, with regard to competitiveness in the audiovisual sphere and the European industry of information services. It is important for media operators to assume greater responsibility for excluding discrimination from the content of the work they produce. In our conditions of developmental assistance, we propose a strategy for the equality of women and men as a goal in itself, and we acknowledge the leading role of equality in developmental policies as we seek to reduce poverty and improve government, and in human rights. Modern society, which is based on creativity, on the ability to tap the human potential of all its members, is not capable of holding its ground if it does not make full use of the potential offered by women. I think that this is one of the fundamental reasons for poverty in some parts of the world.
In the summary report on progress made by the Union and its Member States in achieving the millennium development targets, the cooperation between the platform and the millennium targets is taken into consideration. I would like to stress that women’s rights are fundamental human rights; the issue of the equality of men and women in the European Union goes beyond the framework of respecting a fundamental right. It is a special Community policy, a priority, a well-established policy established in treaties and agreements which can draw on a solid base of legal regulations. As you know, the Commission is preparing a proposal for an expansion in the responsibilities of the monitoring centre in Vienna to include the protection of fundamental rights, and although it is too early to express an opinion on the activities of the future agency, this agency will clearly handle the protection of the fundamental rights of both men and women."@en1
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