Text tabled : A6-0492/2008

  Nirj Deva (PPE-DE). – Mr President, I am very grateful to Anna Záborská for producing this report. Even though my group had some issues with it, I feel that she has touched upon something which is fundamentally important for the EU.

The EU’s population is dropping sharply. The role of women in raising families is not recognised in many of the Member States as a contribution to their national GDP. Women and mothers are an integral part of working life in our society, and there are many millions of mothers looking after their children in my constituency in the South-East of England. Their contribution to the British GDP and to my own region’s wealth is of fundamental importance for our country.

This report, for the first time in the European Union I believe, recognises that contribution. We need to encourage our Parliament to look at these issues in technical detail in the future so that we have equality and solidarity between the sexes.