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Anna
Karamanou :- It gives me great pleasure to see our Socialist family
expanding: we now have 13 additional women out of the 57 observer
members who are joining us.
The European Union’s enlargement to the East raises cultural,
political, economic, sociological as well as social problems with
regard to equality for men and women.
These problems are difficult to resolve, primarily
because of the Church’s influence in these countries. The Committee
on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities has conducted several
studies on the effects of enlargement on preserving the acquis
communautaire in relation to women in the European Union and on
the impact of European laws on the economic and social situation
occupied by women in the accession countries.
Nor has the Convention on the Future of Europe -
appointed to prepare the 2004 institutional reform necessitated by
your arrival - been particularly favourable to date towards the
introduction of articles on equal opportunities for women and men.
The battle is therefore far from won. On my initiative, we
organised an extraordinary meeting with the national parliaments
last March in Athens, the aim of which was to take stock of, and
reach agreement on, our minimal demands, which are set out in a
Declaration that you can also read on this site.
As Socialists, we are acutely aware that your
countries provide points of departure, transit and arrival for the
trade in women and children for prostitution, above all owing to
the rise in unemployment and poverty – phenomena that hit women
particularly hard. Initial Community support for victims has
involved the launch of programmes such STOP and DAPHNE. Given the
huge success of these programmes, DAPHNE II is now at the approval
phase within the European Parliament. Moreover, the report on it
has been assigned to one of our Socialist colleagues.
Finally, dear friends, a word or two about what is
undoubtedly our number one challenge: the next European elections
in June 2004. We will have to unite our forces so that the
percentage of women within the European Parliament’s Assembly under
no circumstances falls below the 31% threshold it has achieved
today. Together, we shall be focusing on a "women"
campaign and endeavouring to get the message across to our
Socialist leaders and Europe’s citizens regarding the importance of
having women elected who can fill decision-making posts at every
level, and achieve a gender balance in all European institutions.
A warm welcome – now let’s get down to work!
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