Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 3 February 2016 - Strasbourg

New Strategy for gender equality and women's rights post-2015 (B8-0148/2016, B8-0150/2016, B8-0163/2016, B8-0164/2016)

  Derek Vaughan (S&D), in writing. ‒ The Labour Party in the European Parliament has always been very serious on the issue of gender equality. However, no complacency can be afforded. Across Europe, progress in improving the rights and the economic status of women has stalled and in some areas is being reversed. We cannot create fair and sustainable economic growth without gender equality at all levels of our society. In order to be effective our strategy must take the form of a comprehensive and official action plan which addresses every dimension of inequality and proposes clear outputs. The Staff Working Document published by the Commission at the end of last year is simply inadequate. We need a clear, comprehensive and achievable strategy for women’s rights and gender equality. The December EPSCO Council agreed that this should take the form of a Commission Communication and the Commission’s own consultation showed overwhelming public support for a new strategy. The Commission should now adopt an official 2016 -2020 strategy and focus on delivering concrete action.