Eva-Britt Svensson, on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group. – (SV) Mr President, I should like to say a big thank you to everyone concerned for their hard work and commitment and a special thank you to Mrs Gröner and Mrs Sartori for the fact that this Institute is now finally to be set up and to begin its important work. Today is an important milestone for all of us who are working to bring about a society in which women and men are equal. It is also a milestone in strengthening children’s rights because the situation of children is, to a large extent, influenced by their mothers’ – that is to say, women’s - rights. Pleased as I am about this step towards setting up an Institute for Gender Equality, I am also, in equal measure, disappointed about the fact that, in 2006, there is a need for a special institute to champion rights that women self-evidently should possess and that we have not progressed further when it comes to recognising the right of half of humanity to lead their lives on the same conditions as the other half of humanity.

We talk a lot in the EU about democracy and human rights, but women too need to have human and democratic rights. The fact that large parts of the population believe that women can be treated as commodities in a market and believe that society cannot be responsible for women’s right to their own bodies cannot be viewed as democratic. We are concerned here with women’s right not to be beaten and otherwise abused and, for example, with the fact that political power is, in large part, still male power and that women earn less than men for doing the same work. I really do hope that, in the vote in plenary, we shall support setting up an Institute for Gender Equality, which will be a major and important step towards our really being able in the future to talk about democracy and human rights that are the same for everyone, irrespective of gender.