Karamanou (PSE). – (EL) Madam President, Commissioner, Mr President-in-Office,
honourable Members, on 18 April 2002 the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal
Opportunities adopted an opinion drafted by Mrs Dybkjær on the basis of
the Commission reports submitted in November 2001. Unfortunately, Mr Brok's
otherwise very important report does not include any of our proposals on the
legal and social position of women in the candidate countries and, as chairman
of the Committee on Women's Rights, I should like to express my committee's
acute displeasure to the House. Naturally I hope that the amendments tabled by
my committee on the subject will be adopted tomorrow.
In its opinion, our
committee stressed that adopting the acquis communautaire on equal
opportunities for men and women is a sine qua non to accession because this is
a basic human rights issue. Institution building and strengthening
institutional and administrative capacities in this area are basic
prerequisites to full application of the European acquis. Equality of the sexes
is a fundamental and integral part of economic, social and democratic
development, which is why it must act as a guideline in the development and
accession process.
In other words, the
candidate countries must ensure that the acquis on equal opportunities
for men and women is applied fully and effectively before they accede. As you
know, the acquis communautaire on equal opportunities consists of nine
directives on equal pay, equal treatment in the workplace, health and safety,
work for pregnant women, parental leave, the burden of proof in cases of
discrimination and equal treatment under social policy. We also feel it is very
important for the candidate countries to develop or reform their judicial and
administrative structures, in order to create the right conditions for applying
the acquis communautaire efficiently.
The Committee on Women's
Rights has of course taken account of progress already made by the candidate
countries and has identified areas in which further improvement is needed. It
is important, in our view, for the enlargement procedure to include the
application of efficient measures to prevent and combat trafficking in women,
prostitution, sexual abuse of children and child pornography in the candidate
countries, given that many of these countries are still the countries of
origin, transit and destination for international organised crime networks in
the modern slave trade. In addition, problems persist in certain candidate
countries as far as children are concerned, as a direct consequence of
weaknesses in social protection systems. The Commission is called on to step up
its efforts to wipe out all forms of violence against women as part of the
accession strategy, in order to ensure that women's personal rights and dignity
are safeguarded and, of course, to act as an incentive for improving children's
rights and child protection.
We still need a broad
programme of institutional intervention and economic support in order to
incorporate the gender equality dimension in the economic guidelines for the
accession process and counterbalance the negative impact on gender equality of
privatisation and cuts in public spending. As you know, the transition to a
market economy is exerting huge pressure on all aspects of employment in many
of the candidate countries. We are particularly concerned about the adverse
impact which this transition has on women, given that they are always the first
to suffer from cuts in the budget in the areas of child care, education and the
social protection systems which allow them to combine working and family life.
The Commission needs to
promote suitable public and private investment in social sectors in the
candidate countries, in order to make it easier for more women to enter
representative institutions and the centres of power. There is a serious
democratic deficit in this sector in all the candidate countries. This being
so, we call on the Commission to tell us what has been achieved in the
candidate countries as regards adopting the social acquis communautaire on
equal opportunities. We should also like to know what progress the candidate
countries have made in constructing the relevant framework over this period.