Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-02-Speech-2-432"
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"en.20080902.33.2-432"2
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"Mr President, first of all I would like to say that this is a very comprehensive report and highlights many of the issues that must be dealt with in order to ensure equality between women and men.
I am particularly pleased to see that the issue of violence against women is dealt with, because for too many people violence against women is seen as a women’s issue, whereas in fact it is a societal issue, and until it is dealt with as a societal issue we cannot hope to eliminate it.
Furthermore, I agree with the rapporteur and her statement about the feminisation of poverty and about the groups that are particularly at risk, as well as the central issue of ensuring equal access to pensions and social welfare payments.
In this context, I would like to have seen paragraph 14 from my opinion taken on board, where I make this case specifically for carers. Given that by 2030 the ratio of active to inactive people will be 2:1, the role of family carers will become much more significant, and given that there are already 100 million carers in the EU – men and women but predominantly women – without proper access to social welfare payments or pensions, we need to ensure that this generation of carers does not become the next generation of poorer, older people adding to the feminisation of poverty.
Finally a personal comment on paragraph 9 which does not reflect the views of the Employment Committee: I believe that the text should be qualified by stating the need to respect national legislative processes when considering the issue of abortion. There is a protocol to the Treaty of Maastricht which ensures that EU law will not override Article 40.3.3 of the Irish Constitution on the protection of the unborn.
During the Lisbon debate in Ireland, many citizens said to me that the EU was intent on pushing to have abortion available in Ireland. Even though I said that this was not the case, many still argued that Parliament was pushing the agenda, and that is why I believe our intention needs to be clear. The issue is not one’s view on abortion. Mine, I suspect, may be different to that of the rapporteur, but that is not the point. The issue is one of subsidiarity, and citizens, whatever their position on abortion, need to be able to rely on that. I believe all of us in this Parliament should respect that as well."@en1
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