Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-27-Speech-3-286"
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"en.20060927.23.3-286"2
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"Madam President, my colleague, Commissioner Mandelson, regrets not being able to be here for this very important debate, but he has had to travel to the United States for multilateral discussions.
A gender helpdesk currently operates under the RELEX family of the Commission. The services of the gender helpdesk are part of a larger effort to build capacity and knowledge to promote gender equality and fully implement the strategy of gender mainstreaming. A tool kit has also been published to give practical help to Commission staff on how to mainstream gender issues.
The EC is also developing a close relationship with the International Labour Organization on trade-related matters aimed at promoting core labour standards through assessment, capacity-building and enforcement in developing countries. In 2005-2006 the Commission has been funding an ILO pilot project aiming to develop decent work indicators in developing countries for examining the relationship between decent work and trade liberalisation. Case studies have been undertaken in the Philippines and Uganda. The data gathered include disaggregated statistics on employment, wages and working hours for women and men. These data provide a more sophisticated picture of decent work than previously available. The Commission will explore the potential to use these indicators in future aid programmes with developing countries to help them manage social adjustment to globalisation, and the report will be submitted to the European Parliament.
The European Commission will also look into the potential for using decent work indicators as part of trade sustainability impact assessments.
The European Commission welcomes the report of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. For the European Union, the purpose of global governance is to make possible development that is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. That is why we wish to promote policies that provide sustainable responses to gender-based issues, whether they are countries’ domestic policies in some cases backed by international aid, common policies such as those forming the building blocks of the European Union, or international commitments.
Trade liberalisation has provided new opportunities for many women in developing countries, providing new employment and in many cases reducing the gender gap in wages, leading to greater empowerment and social standing of women in society. Nonetheless, the rapid changes in national economies that can result from globalisation also provide challenges to policy-makers to ensure that the benefits and opportunities of globalisation are maximised and the short-term costs in certain sectors are minimised.
The European Commission believes that clear social conditions underpin sustainable productivity growth and promote the efficient production of high-quality goods and services generating a net added value. Policies that mitigate the adverse effects of a changing economy on specific groups of people or regions, good social services and social protection accessible to all, social dialogue, the respect for fundamental social rights including core labour standards, minimum standards for working conditions and for ensuring workers’ upstream involvement in managing change – all these play a crucial role.
The European Commission promotes core labour rights in EU trade policy. Core labour standards are defined by the ILO to include Convention No 100 on equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value, and Convention No 111 on discrimination in the workplace.
In the multilateral context, a reference to core labour standards was included in the declaration of the first World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Singapore in 1996. Regrettably, WTO members did not agree to include this issue as part of the Doha Development Agenda. Nevertheless, the Commission is committed to addressing trade and social development, core labour standards and commitment to meaningful dialogue between the WTO and the International Labour Organization, both in the EU’s own trade policy review and the trade policy reviews of other countries.
As part of this process, the International Convention of Free Trade Unions’ reports on core labour standards are prepared ahead of each trade policy review. The Commission is also strongly in favour of observer status for the ILO in the WTO. The European Commission has also pursued social development objectives in regional, bi-regional and bilateral arrangements. All its most recent agreements recognise and promote social rights as part of the universal objective of decent work for all.
The Commission has, for example, entered into dialogue and cooperation with countries such as Chile, South Africa and bi-regionally with the ACP countries, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Mercosur and other regions. The European Commission remains of the view that the discussion and pursuit of social issues should not be used for protectionist purposes and it rejects any unilateral sanctions-based approach. The objective is to further social progress with a view to promoting benefits for all.
Since 1998 the EC has also been granting trade preferences under the Generalised System of Preferences, special incentive arrangements to those developing countries that assure the respect of the core labour rights as defined by the ILO and comply with international recognised standards on sustainable forest management. Currently, some 180 developing countries and dependent territories are granted GSP. In the framework of the new GSP scheme, adopted on 27 June 2005 by the Council, a GSP-plus initiative for sustainable development provides additional tariff preferences for countries that have signed and effectively implemented UN and ILO conventions on human rights and labour rights, including those on gender equality. A total of 15 countries have ratified the core conventions and received GSP-plus status."@en1
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