Debates of the European Parliament

SITTING OF THURSDAY, 6 NOVEMBER 2003

Election 2004: balanced representation for women and men

Karamanou (PSE). – (EL) Madam President, it really is curious, after 50 years of European policy on gender equality and 100 years since the right of women to vote was claimed and recognised, that we are trying here to persuade everyone of the self-evident, in other words that men and women should share all the responsibilities and all the obligations of both private and public life equally and fairly, that there should be a balanced participation of men and women in democratic institutions and in all political decision-making centres.

In the run up to the European elections in June, Mrs Dybkjær's truly exceptional report is of particular value, because it sets the framework within which all the Member States should move, especially the accession countries, in order to ensure that the percentage of women in the House as a result of the European elections should at least be no smaller than it is at present, which is 31%. And I should like to name the two countries, Estonia and Slovenia, which did not bother to send even one woman, even one as an example, with the observers they sent to the European Parliament. Our fears are also reinforced by the traumatic experience we had last year, with 17% participation by women in the constitutional convention for the European constitution.

That is why our committee, the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities, has put promoting the democracy of equality at the top of its priorities and has taken initiatives to mobilise governments, national parliaments, political leaders and women themselves in order to achieve this objective, an objective which does not simply concern the application in deed rather than just word of gender equality, but also the financial and social development of Europe through the rational use of the valuable human resource which women represent.

The Lisbon strategy, like other ambitious European policies, urgently needs the full participation of women at all planning and decision-making levels in order to achieve its objectives. The future of Europe cannot be planned in the absence of women. In the run up to the European elections, we need additional strategies and legislative measures, positive action, quotas or political agreements which will safeguard the balanced participation of men and women in electoral combinations and in the elected bodies which result.

I hope the new European Parliament of the 25 will attain this objective and will operate as a shining example and standard for the other parliaments in the world.