Debates of the European Parliament

SITTING OF WEDNESDAY, 12 MARCH 2003

Gender mainstreaming in the EP

Karamanou (PSE). – (EL) Mr President, I am delighted that the Commission’s presence has given the lie to the highly offensive comment you made earlier about the committee which I have the honour of chairing. I trust you are now convinced that the issue we are debating is important enough to warrant the presence of the competent Commissioner at the debate.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is only natural when we talk of mainstreaming equality of the sexes in all policies and in all areas that we should look to our own House first, as Mrs Kratsa has just said. The European institutions and how they operate should set the standard and an example for both the Member States and the wider world. The European Parliament can offer a valuable framework for exercising policy and drawing useful conclusions about the application of gender equality in practice by encouraging equal representation of the sexes, both in parliamentary office and by promoting women to responsible positions within Parliament and helping women improve their grading and pay at all levels of the administrative hierarchy within the European Parliament.

Unfortunately, 6 years after the concept of gender mainstreaming was set out in the Amsterdam Treaty, this important strategy for achieving equality is still not fully operational in either the administration of the European Parliament or its political work. Without wishing to underestimate the efforts made, we have to admit that the European Parliament is lagging behind the European Commission.

Mrs Gröner’s important report details and sets out all the crucial issues for consideration, proposing specific measures and methods for combating existing weaknesses. Our committee’s objective is for the European Parliament to set the standard in the application of gender mainstreaming, and we trust that Mrs Gröner’s excellent report will be a benchmark and springboard for achieving this objective. However, we need support and commitment at the highest possible level if we are to achieve this objective and, at the same time, we need funds to ensure that the measures proposed in the report are applied consistently.

The principle of gender mainstreaming must be clearly laid down in the new constitutional Treaty; this is one of my committee’s main objectives in our fight to make the future Europe – and, we hope, the male members of the European Parliament – more aware of gender issues. In all events, I think the decision taken by the Greek Presidency at the recent informal Council at your instigation, Commissioner, for the European Commission to submit an annual report on the application of gender mainstreaming in the Union, was a very important decision.