Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-06-15-Speech-2-594"
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"Good evening, Mr President. I would like to express my thanks for the opportunity to participate in this debate with the honourable Members this evening. On behalf of the current Presidency of the Council, I wish to congratulate you on these reports that you have presented to us this evening. There is no doubt that they clearly set out the problems of European women, the problems that we are facing in these difficult times and the challenges that we must tackle as politicians over the next few years.
In order to overcome all these inequalities in our labour markets, which represent a genuine obstacle to collective progress, the target of a 75% employment rate by 2020 will have to take both men and women into account. It is not merely a question of fairness. If we compare the employment rates for men and women in the European Union, it can be seen that 76% of the former have a job, while the percentage of working women stands at 63%. Consequently, a special effort will have to be made in this respect over the next few years in order to have a greater number of women join the labour market. As we have agreed, this increase of women on the labour market will also have to be brought about, as Mr Romeva i Rueda pointed out, by taking action on the pay gap, which last year reached an average of practically 18% in the European Union.
Other questions concerning gender equality, which will form part of this EU 2020 strategy, must also be highlighted, such as overcoming gender stereotypes in education, as well as in vocational and academic guidance. We know that such stereotypes are currently leading to a segregated labour market, as well as the need to seek a balance between work and private life.
As far as social inclusion and the fight against poverty is concerned, a topic of tremendous importance, Mrs Figueiredo, we have also paid special attention to the case of women, given that they run a greater risk of poverty than men as a result of receiving lower wages and pensions and as a result of assuming responsibility, on their own, for unpaid care work.
We are also greatly pleased with having reached an agreement with Parliament concerning the proposal for a directive on equal treatment for self-employed men and women. This agreement will make it possible to adopt this directive at a forthcoming Council meeting. It is a directive that will acknowledge new rights for self-employed women and their collaborating spouses or partners.
As I have said, we have held several meetings at which we have discussed options and proposals about the problems that we are debating here today. Finally, and no doubt Commissioner Reding will refer to this, we have also discussed the future 2011-2015 strategy for gender equality, a subject that will doubtlessly give rise to intense debate in this House over the coming months and for which the Commission will present a road map in the next few months.
I am convinced, and with this I will conclude, Mr President, that the debate on the crisis and economic recovery must not make us stray from strengthening our European social model. That would be a mistake. It would be a great mistake at this moment in time, and that is why I believe that it is important to keep alive these debates and policies on equality, which, over so many years, have enabled us not only to grow, but to grow and maintain an enviable and impeccable social cohesion model.
I have been working on these matters – these problems that you have highlighted here this afternoon – for the last six months on behalf of the Spanish Presidency of the Council, and for some years before that on behalf of the Commission.
Indeed, I have dedicated, as I say, part of my work, part of the work of the Spanish Presidency of the Council, to working on the gender perspective of the new growth and employment strategy, the EU 2020 strategy, which will foreseeably be adopted this Thursday, 17 July. This is undoubtedly a crucial instrument that is going to mark all of our policies over the next decade.
In addition to incorporating the gender perspective into this strategy, I have also sought to place the fight against gender violence at the top of the agenda. The fact is that this issue, which undoubtedly reflects the cruellest aspect of inequality, remains a serious social problem in all our Member States, as is also acknowledged in the reports that have just been presented.
Thus, we have adopted some conclusions that advance the goals and instruments of the Commission and the Member States in eradicating violence against women. The text that has been adopted commits the 27 Member States, as well as the Commission, to developing common initiatives and instruments to tackle jointly the blot that is violence against women.
One of these conclusions is the drawing up of a European strategy to prevent and combat gender violence. Indeed, the Commission has already started work on this strategy, the primary aim of which must be to acquire information that can be compared on a European scale, to establish common objectives and the resources to meet them, and to take the first steps towards setting up a European watchdog on gender violence.
Furthermore, as regards violence, you are aware that these conclusions also proposed setting up a free helpline for victims of gender violence, in addition to a series of measures that will serve to strengthen the social protection of women victims. We have also asked the Commission to study the legal basis for possible new legislative instruments to enable us to combat these offences more effectively in all our Member States.
On the other hand, on 7 June last, equality once again became a subject of European debate at the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council, because of the adoption of the employment policy guidelines for Member States. As I have just said, they will be brought before the European Council on 17 June. These guidelines include equality between men and women as an essential factor, not only in restoring employment in the current climate of economic crisis, but also in putting into practice the new, intelligent, sustainable and integrating growth model for the next decade. That is because what must also be sustainable is a social model that has to look after a population that is expected to age considerably over the next 20 years, and the care of this population cannot be allowed to continue to fall exclusively into the voluntary hands of women.
If one thing has become clear from these preliminary considerations on the reports that you have presented, and from all the discussions we have had during the course of our Presidency, it is that, if we want to rebuild growth on a sound basis, Europe needs to be able to count on the potential, the capacity and the knowledge of all of its citizens, including all of its women. In spite of being the majority among those who gain higher-education degrees in the European Union (60%), women do not manage to develop their full potential owing to certain structures in our production systems, which are as unfair as they are inefficient."@en1
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