COMMITTEE ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

 

Anna KARAMANOU
Chairperson



Extra-ordinary meeting with the Network of Parliamentary Committees for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in the European Union



"Gender Equality in the Future of Europe"
Brussels, April 6th, 2004


Opening statement by
Anna KARAMANOU 

 

 

Gender equality in the draft Constitutional Treaty

 

We warmly welcome the decision of the Brussels European Council of 26 March 2004 to adopt the Constitution for Europe no later than the June European Council. Acknowledging that there is still a lot of work to be done and big issues to be resolved, we all want to see the new Constitution in place, as it will help the enlarged Union work better and do more for its citizens. Also, a Constitutional Treaty in itself strengthens the status of the rights which are consigned in it.  As such, a European Constitution designed to apply to 25 countries is to be welcomed as a progress.  So it is for the integration of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the Constitution, which is very important for the recognition of women's rights.

 

During the work of the Convention, the efforts of our Committee addressed the need to preserve the relevant EU acquis, as well as, to ensure the reinforcement of the draft Constitutional Treaty in the field of equality between women and men.

 

The concrete achievements we obtained are that gender equality is an integral part of the draft Constitutional Treaty:

 

●        equality is a value of the European Union,

        the promotion of equality between women and men is an objective of the European Union,

●        the principle of gender mainstreaming is a transversal objective of the EU, and

●        the fight against all forms of discrimination, including sex-based discrimination, is also inserted as an horizontal provision.

 

Our principal concern, in the near future, will be that the European Parliament ensures that these important achievements are maintained and further improved during the Intergovernmental Conference process.

 

Women in the European elections

 

The European Parliament elections will take place from 10 to 13 June 2004 for the first time in an enlarged Union with 25 Member States.  Compared with the national parliaments, women's representation within the European Parliament has been significantly increasing in the last 20 years.>  From the day the European Parliament was directly elected, the percentage of women jumped from 6% in the non-elected Parliament to 16% in the first directly elected Parliament in 1979, and after continuous improvements, it reached 31% of the total number of MEPs in 1999.  This percentage must be saveguarded following the 2004 elections, therefore it is clear that more action is needed so that the proportion of women in Parliament did not decline.  Worrying examples, like the weak representation of women in the Convention for the draft Constitutional Treaty (17 women out of 105 representatives, with only 1 woman out of 12 men in the Praesidium), as well as the low representation of women among the observers from the Accession Countries in the European Parliament (14%) make us sceptical about the maintenance of the share reached in the previous European elections.

 

A main priority of our Committee has been to promote a better representation of women in all stages of decision-making in political and economic life.  I would like to stress that Member States of the EU and the EU itself have committed themselves to gender equality in decision-making many times at international, european and national levels.  Despite this fact, women continue to be seriously under-represented in all public and political decision-making bodies at all levels.  This under-representation of women clearly poses the problem of the legitimacy both of existing political structures and of the outcome of decision-making.

 

In view of the forthcoming European elections, we have called all political party-leaders of the European Union and Accession Countries to agree on common policies providing for women candidates to make up at least 30% of their party lists for the next Parliament.  However, gender parity in the European Parliament is, of course, our ultimate aim, as this is an important pre-condition for achieving a gender sensitive policy.  Our task today should be to see how we can, as parliamentarians, unite our forces to mobilise women for Europe.

 

Gender equality legislation outside the labour market

 

For more than 50 years, the European Union has been fighting to achieve de jure and de facto equality.  An important progress has been made on banning discrimination and ensuring equal treatment for women and men in employment.  This commitment  to the principle of equal treatment of the Union has been serving women and men alike.  However, while equal treatment has been firmly established in employment, unequal treatment outside the field of employment continues to be tolerated at both European and national levels.

 

The Nice European Council requested the Commission to reinforce equality - related rights and to present a proposal for a directive on equal treatment between women and men outside the work place.

 

Thanks to the efforts of the former Commissioner, Mrs Anna Diamantopoulou, the Commission presented in November 2003 a proposal for a Directive, based on Article 13 of the EC Treaty, focused specifically on the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of sex in the access to and provision of goods and services.  So, for example, the use of sex as a factor in the calculation of premiums and benefits for insurance and related financial services would be prohibited.  Due to the strong resistance from different interest groups and the lack of agreement within the Commission itself, other areas of economic, social and political life were left outside the proposed Directive.

 

Our Committee adopted on 16 March 2004, by a large majority, the report prepared by the Rapporteur, Mrs Christa Prets, on the Commission proposal, supporting the Commission in its effort to combat sex discrimination in the provision of goods and services, as a first significant step towards the elimination of discrimination on the basis of sex outside the labour market.

 

After that, the European Parliament adopted, at its sitting of 30 March 2004, its opinion on the proposed Directive fully endorsing the report of our Committee.

 

Now, we are expecting that the Council will adopt the proposal for a Directive, as amended by the European Parliament, without delay.  We also expect that the Commission will continue to tackle gender discrimination in all other fields of Community action.