Debates of the European Parliament

SITTING OF THURSDAY, 3 JULY 2003

Women in rural areas of the EU

Karamanou (PSE). – (EL) Mr President, I too should like to warmly congratulate and thank Mrs Kratsa for her own initiative report. She has made a very big contribution to promoting and highlighting the problems faced by a particular professional category of women, women farmers.

The Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities, understanding and valuing the particular contribution which women farmers can make to improving rural areas, organised a public dialogue on the subject on 18 March 2003.

Following the recent reform of the CAP, we expect, Commissioner, the additional funds which will be made available for rural development to target and improve the life of women farmers, which is downgraded and undervalued in all the regions of the European Union. We particularly hope that the necessary infrastructures will be created which will allow women farmers to combine their working and family life and have quality of life.

Of course, we recognise that the third Community Support Framework helped enormously to create an institutional and funding action framework for rural development, which included women. In Greece, thousands of women are benefiting from the Community initiative, Leader. Nonetheless, legal and advisory support is needed for women in rural areas, with information and awareness-raising actions within local communities, training programmes, actions which will support the specific needs of women and local development objectives, in the aim of supporting and safeguarding employment and ensuring women farmers stay in their area.

Finally, I should like to refer to a very successful field of action in Greece, women's cooperatives, especially rural tourism cooperatives.