REPORT on equality between women and men in the European Union - 2007
20.7.2007 - (2007/2065(INI))
Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality
Rapporteur: Piia-Noora Kauppi
MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION
on equality between women and men in the European Union - 2007
The European Parliament,
– having regard to Articles 2, 3(2) and 141 of the EC Treaty,
– having regard to the report from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on equality between women and men - 2007 ("the Commission report on equality") (COM(2007)0049),
– having regard to the Community framework strategy on gender equality (2001‑2005) (COM(2000)0335) and the Commission’s annual reports for 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006 (COM(2001)0179, COM(2002)0258, COM(2003)0098, COM(2004)0115, COM(2005)0044 and COM(2006)0071),
– having regard to the European Pact for Gender Equality adopted by the European Council in March 2006,
– having regard to the common declaration adopted on 4 February 2005 by the ministers of the EU Member States responsible for gender equality policies,
– having regard to the Roadmap for equality between women and men 2006-2010 (COM(2006)0092),
– having regard to the Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for women and men and its opinion on gender pay gap, adopted on 22 March 2007,
– having regard to the Framework of actions on gender equality adopted by the European social partners on 22 March 2005,
– having regard to Article 23 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union[1],
– having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality and the opinions of the Committee on Regional Development, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and the Committee on Culture and Education (A6‑0290/2007),
A. whereas the Commission and the Member States have recently renewed their commitment to gender equality, namely with the above-mentioned Roadmap for equality between women and men and the European Pact for Gender Equality,
B. whereas there is a clear gender dimension in the demographic challenge facing Europe and gender equality policies are a fundamental means to meet that challenge,
C. whereas gender mainstreaming means, in practice, assessing how political, administrative and social measures impact on the lives and situation of both women and men and, where necessary, taking responsibility for revisiting those measures with a view to promoting gender equality,
D. whereas the reconciliation of professional, family and private lives for both women and men is essential to promoting the entry, re-entry and permanence of women in the labour market, whereas responsibility for children is a responsibility shared between parents irrespective of sex,
E. whereas segregation in education, the persistence of gender stereotypes in the choice of fields of study and discrimination against girls and young women in education remain wide-spread and have negative consequences for the comparative position of women in certain sectors of the labour market, particularly those related to high technology, science, research and engineering,
F. whereas at the European Council of March 2006 the Council once again recognised that policies on gender equality are essential instruments for economic growth,
G. whereas gender mainstreaming is specified as a key requirement in the Lisbon Agenda, and whereas gender mainstreaming is still underdeveloped and often absent from National Action Plans for employment and social inclusion,
H. whereas the Commission report on equality highlights the positive result for female employment rates that six million of the eight million jobs created in the EU since 2000 have been taken up by women but states at the same time that there are significant variations in the employment rates of different age groups as well as between occupations, with female employment rates having risen mainly in those sectors where women were already in a majority, whereas it is deplorable that the majority of new jobs for women are part-time jobs and some of them are unsafe and insecure jobs which pay low - and slow-growing - wages,
I. whereas the Commission report on employment in Europe 2006 shows that 32.3% of women in employment in the EU have a part-time job compared to only 7.4% of men,
J. whereas there is no substantial evolution from the previous report with regard to the gender pay gap (which averages at 15% across the EU and remains up to 30% in some European countries), which clearly demonstrates that there has been no real progress in the implementation of the principle of equal pay for work of equal value, which was introduced thirty years ago by Council Directive 75/117/EEC of 10 February 1975 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women[2], whereas the distribution of wealth between men and women in the EU is also unequal,
K. whereas a 2003 Eurobarometer survey showed that the main factors deterring fathers from taking more domestic and family responsibilities are not only of a financial nature but also concern the fear of negative consequences for career development,
L. whereas long term unemployment is proportionally higher among women and responsibility for children aged 5 and less is connected with higher rate of unemployment compared to childless-women,
M. whereas adequate access to services for the care of children, the elderly and other dependants is essential in order to permit the full and equal participation of men and women in the labour market,
N. whereas Member States that have adopted reconciliation policies for both women and men have higher birth rates, a higher percentage of women in the labour market and higher employment rates,
O. whereas social partners play an important role in defining actions for gender equality at the European, national, regional, sectoral and corporate levels, and successful conciliation policies require a partnership between employers, trade-union organisations, employees and public authorities,
P. whereas best practices show that reconciliation actions at the microeconomic level result in lower staff turnover and absenteeism, higher commitment and productivity, and attract an efficient and motivated workforce,
Q. whereas Article 16(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 of 11 July 2006 laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund provides that the Member States and the Commission are to ensure that equality between men and women and the integration of the gender perspective is promoted during the various stages of implementation of those funds,
1. Welcomes the efforts of the Commission to intensify its actions promoting equality between women and men;
2. Welcomes the focus of the Commission report on equality on employment issues such as the gender pay gap, conciliation and the equal treatment Directives, since economic independence for women is one of the priorities of the Roadmap for equality between women and men;
3. Welcomes the culture of equality in the EU, including the Commission's Roadmap for Equality and the Council's Pact for Gender Equality, and calls for its practical implementation by way of concrete measures and allocation of financial resources;
4. Stresses that further efforts and further measures to overcome outdated decision-making and behavioural patterns, particularly in the administrative sector, are required in order to improve gender mainstreaming across policy areas;
5. Points out that gender mainstreaming at EU level is being conducted as a dual strategy seeking to ensure, on the one hand, equality for men and women in all policy and decision-making areas and, on the other, targeted measures to curb discrimination against women;
6. Calls on the Commission to propose, in addition to the gender mainstreaming approach, a series of specific measures, including awareness-raising campaigns, the exchange of best practices, dialogues with citizens and public-private partnership initiatives;
7. Appreciates the potential of social cohesion policy for promoting equality;
8. Insists on the need to have a clear and permanent link between the annual reports on equality and the priorities defined in the Roadmap in order to implement an efficient cycle of planning, monitoring and evaluation of gender equality policies; encourages the Commission to work towards this cycle;
9. Recalls its request in its resolution of 2 February 2006 on equality between women and men in the European Union[3] that the Commission monitor compliance by the Member States with the 'acquis communautaire' in the area of equality between women and men in all policies, particularly employment policies but also those concerning the access to and provision of goods and services; calls, therefore, on the Commission to carry out a study on how Member States implement Community legislation in the area of equality and to take appropriate action in the event of non-transposition or infringement;
10. Calls on the Member States to support the Commission in monitoring the implementation of national measures in order to assess the effectiveness of policies and respect for the principle of equality, in particular with regard to statutory entitlements and pension and social security schemes;
11. Calls on the Member States to put forward specific measures to combat inequalities between women and men caused by interrupted patterns of employment resulting in particular from maternity leave or leave to care for dependants and to reduce their negative effects on careers, wages and pension entitlements and to work towards gender-neutral wages and pensions; calls on the Commission to find appropriate means to combat the gender segregation of the labour market and to facilitate women’s entry into non-traditional sectors;
12. Calls on the Commission to develop gender analysis and mainstreaming on the impact of pension reforms on women's lives in the EU with the objectives of individualising pensions rights and social security and tax systems as well;
13. Welcomes the consultation procedure with the social partners launched by the Commission in order to improve both the legislative and non-legislative frameworks for reconciliation of professional, family and private lives; encourages the Commission to launch without delay the second phase of the consultation;
14. Calls on the Commission to gather and disseminate best practices with regard to working environment policies which allow for an effective work-life balance and with regard to measures fostering greater involvement by men in family life; calls on Member States and the social partners to take the necessary measures to be able partly to prevent, and partly to intervene to deal with, sexual and moral harassment in the work-place; insists that women must be supported in their professional careers; urges the Commission and the Member States to take serious measures to reduce the gender pay gap and to promote both parental leave for men and paternity leave;
15. Notes that reconciliation of work, private and family lives is an important issue and one of the keys to increasing employment and reducing the burden of demographic ageing; points out that all policies in this area must be based on the principle of free personal choice and be geared to the various stages in life;
16. Regrets the fact that the Commission omitted to consult social partners when drafting the Green Paper on modernising labour law;
17. Notes that globalisation has been a positive force, empowering women all over the world to reach their potential, namely through improved access to education and healthcare; notes, however, that trade liberalisation has created contradictory and simultaneous trends, on the one hand effectively promoting the formalisation of labour relations in a number of areas, and, on the other, expanding the informal economy with new types of work and income for women, such as home-based work, sub-contracting and micro-enterprises;
18. Notes that one effect of increased globalisation is the feminisation of poverty and that thorough research should be carried out to ascertain the total impact of globalisation on women's ability to earn a living;
19. Calls on the Commission to ensure that all future trade agreements, for example those within the framework of the WTO, are also scrutinised in the light of gender issues;
20. Calls on the Commission to focus specifically on the barriers deterring women from accessing top jobs, in order to assess the structural dimension of this phenomenon; welcomes, therefore, measures to help women enter the labour market on an equal par with men and to promote female entrepreneurship and insists on the importance of eliminating existing prejudices and gender discrimination regarding the competitiveness and employability of women, especially in high-level jobs;
21. Emphasises the need to address the major democratic deficit related to women's under-representation in political decision-making and calls on the Member States to investigate situations that prevent women's participation in politics and in senior management in public administration at all levels and to take measures to combat such situations;
22. Calls for specific attention to be paid to the situation of women belonging to ethnic minorities and of women immigrants, as their marginalisation is reinforced by multiple discrimination from both outside and within their own communities; recommends the adoption of national integrated action plans in order to effectively tackle multiple discrimination, especially where different bodies deal with discrimination issues in a particular Member State;
23. Points out the importance of ensuring that immigrants entering the EU are aware of the values and existing laws and social conventions on gender equality in the host countries' societies so as to avoid situations of discrimination which result from a lack of cultural awareness;
24. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to intensify the exchange of best practices on non-discrimination in the labour market in order to foster the equality-efficiency dynamic in respect of national specificities;
25. Calls on Member States to develop specific gender equality objectives and targets within the EU Social Inclusion Strategy in order to combat poverty and social exclusion, including a set of policy actions to support non-traditional and one-parent families, and specific policy actions in support of groups of women who are at a high risk of poverty and social exclusion such as migrants, refugees, ethnic minority women, older women and disabled women;
26. Urges the Commission to cooperate with Member States to collect relevant data and to enforce measures that could prevent human trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced labour;
27. Calls on the Commission to focus on instruments and mechanisms for preventing the exploitation of migrant workers, including the recognition and enforcement of fundamental human rights of irregular migrants instead of relying on repression;
28. Urges the Member States to mutualise the costs of maternity and parental leave allowances in order to ensure that women no longer represent a more costly source of labour than men;
29. Calls on the Member States to combat, in conjunction with both sides of industry, discrimination against pregnant women on the labour market and to take all necessary steps to ensure a high level of protection for mothers; calls on the Commission to make a more detailed assessment of compliance with Community law in this area and to determine whether it needs to be revised;
30. Notes with concern that, despite all the progress made, women, especially elderly women and single mothers, are still at risk of exclusion and poverty;
31. Calls on Member States and the social partners to pursue the objective of making it possible for all women who seek full-time work to be offered such work rather than part-time jobs, which are often unsafe and insecure;
32. Welcomes the Commission's efforts to give new impetus to reaching the targets agreed upon by the 2002 European Council in Barcelona, to eliminating obstacles to the equal participation of women and men in the labour market and to introducing, by 2010, childcare for 90% of children between the age of three and mandatory school age and at least 33% of children under three years old, namely through structural funds; encourages the Commission to present in 2008, as foreseen, a communication setting out further steps to be taken at all levels in order to reach these targets; considers that the aim should be to give all children the right to high-quality care, incorporating an educational element;
33. Considers that Member States have a responsibility to ensure that everybody who requires geriatric care or care on grounds of illness or disability has access to high-quality care and treatment;
34. Insists on the need to focus policies on combating gender stereotypes in education from an early age, eliminating them from school curricula and textbooks, providing awareness training to teachers and students and encouraging boys and girls to embrace non-traditional educational paths;
35. Calls on the Commission to develop dialogue with, and encourage the media, given their social responsibility, to promote gender equality and avoid the stereotyped portrayal of women and men;
36. Recommends the development of pan-European measures to increase awareness of zero tolerance for sexist insults and degrading representations of women in the media and in commercial communication;
37. Recommends that different individual needs of girls and boys, in terms of their development, should be taken into account to a greater extent in education, and that, in doing so, stereotypes should be counteracted;
38. Considers that the labour market in most EU countries does not adequately reflect higher average educational levels and better academic performance of women;
39. Recommends working towards ensuring that school education promotes knowledge and sensible criteria in order to make it possible to achieve freedom, personal autonomy, as well as equity so as to reach social inclusion; further believes that so-called key competences, such as an entrepreneurial attitude and a scientific and technological approach should be reinforced, especially among women;
40. Stresses the need for training measures during parental leave in order to cope with changed job requirements;
41. Observes the importance of having adequate comparable statistics and, in this context, deplores the invisibility of certain categories of person in European statistics, for example partners working on family farms; calls on EUROSTAT to include this category of person in its statistics;
42. Stresses that, in agriculture, women often perform a significant proportion of the work as family workers; considers that this work could also be appropriately taken into account in rural development policy;
43. Draws attention to the large number of (mostly female) partners working on family farms, whose legal status is inadequate in many Member States, which can give rise to specific financial and legal problems with regard to access to maternity leave and sick leave, accumulation of pension entitlements and access to social security, as well as in the event of divorce;
44. Stresses the need to improve the legal status of women working in agriculture, both in relation to social security, by ensuring that they all have direct access thereto, and in relation to their role on the farms themselves, with particular emphasis on co-ownership of family farms, access to loans, and their rights in the context of inheritance law;
45. Emphasises the need for the European Social Fund to support specific measures to improve women's access to and participation in the labour market as well as gender mainstreaming; considers that regional funds should have a gender budget line (gender budgeting) for the funding of measures designed to promote gender equality and surveys assessing the impact of policies relating to the situation of women;
46. Recalls that there is a need to incorporate new approaches and innovative instruments into regional development strategies and stresses the need to provide training in gender mainstreaming methodology and tools for decision-makers at regional and local levels; calls on the Commission to further develop its guidelines for the administrative sector on gender mainstreaming for structural fund purposes;
47. Asks the Commission to include facts and statistics from acceding and candidate countries in future annual reports on equality between women and men;
48. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments of the Member States.
OPINION of the Committee on Regional Development (2.7.2007)
for the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality
on equality between women and men in the European Union – 2007
Draftswoman: Zita Gurmai
SUGGESTIONS
The Committee on Regional Development calls on the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions in its motion for a resolution:
A. whereas Article 16(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 of 11 July 2006 laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund provides that the Member States and the Commission are to ensure that equality between men and women and the integration of the gender perspective is promoted during the various stages of implementation of the Funds,
B. whereas gender mainstreaming in practice means assessing how political, administrative and social measures impact on the lives and situation of both women and men and, where necessary, taking responsibility to re-address them with a view to promoting gender equality;
1. Stresses that further efforts and further measures to overcome outdated decision-making and behavioural patterns, particularly in the administrative sector, are required in order to improve gender mainstreaming across policy areas;
2. Points out that gender mainstreaming at European Union level is being conducted as a dual strategy seeking to ensure, on the one hand, equality for men and women in all policy and decision-making areas and, on the other, targeted measures to curb discrimination against women;
3. Emphasises the need for the European Social Fund to support specific measures to improve women's access to and participation in the labour market as well as gender mainstreaming; considers that regional funds should have a gender budget line (gender budgeting) for the funding of measures designed to promote gender equality and surveys assessing the impact of policies relating to the situation of women;
4. Recalls that there is a need to incorporate new approaches and innovative instruments into regional development strategies and stresses the need to provide training in gender mainstreaming methodology and tools for decision-makers at regional and local levels; calls on the Commission to further develop its guidelines for the administrative sector on gender mainstreaming for structural fund purposes;
5. Points out that in order to maximise the long-term leverage effect of the Structural Funds, special attention must be devoted to helping vulnerable groups, especially women in rural areas;
6. Emphasises that regular, comprehensive, gender-disaggregated regional statistical data (which is currently lacking) must be collected in order to ascertain the actual situation of and differences between the lives of women in different regions;
7. Calls on the Commission to propose, in addition to the gender mainstreaming approach, a series of specific measures, including awareness-raising campaigns, the exchange of best practices, dialogues with citizens and public-private partnership initiatives.
PROCEDURE
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Title |
Equality between women and men in the European Union – 2007 |
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Procedure number |
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Committee responsible |
FEMM |
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Opinion by |
REGI |
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Enhanced cooperation – date announced in plenary |
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Drafts(wo)man |
Zita Gurmai |
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Previous drafts(wo)man |
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Discussed in committee |
7.6.2007 |
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Date adopted |
26.6.2007 |
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Result of final vote |
+: –: 0: |
37 3 1 |
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Members present for the final vote |
Alfonso Andria, Stavros Arnaoutakis, Elspeth Attwooll, Jean Marie Beaupuy, Jana Bobošíková, Bernadette Bourzai, Wolfgang Bulfon, Antonio De Blasio, Bairbre de Brún, Gerardo Galeote, Iratxe García Pérez, Eugenijus Gentvilas, Marian Harkin, Filiz Husmenova, Gisela Kallenbach, Tunne Kelam, Evgeni Kirilov, Miloš Koterec, Constanze Angela Krehl, Jamila Madeira, Mario Mantovani, Yiannakis Matsis, Miroslav Mikolášik, Lambert van Nistelrooij, Maria Petre, Markus Pieper, Elisabeth Schroedter, Grażyna Staniszewska, Catherine Stihler, Margie Sudre, Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, Oldřich Vlasák, Vladimír Železný |
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Substitute(s) present for the final vote |
Jan Březina, Brigitte Douay, Den Dover, Ovidiu Victor Ganţ, Zita Pleštinská, Toomas Savi, László Surján, Nikolaos Vakalis |
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Substitute(s) under Rule 178(2) present for the final vote |
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Comments (available in one language only) |
... |
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OPINION of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (5.6.2007)
for the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality
on equality between women and men in the European Union in 2007
(2007/2065(INI))
Draftswoman: Ilda Figueiredo
SUGGESTIONS
The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development calls on the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions in its motion for a resolution:
1. Considers it vital to acknowledge the significant role played by women in farming in the various countries of the EU, both in primary production and in the diversification of economic activities on the farm and in the countryside; draws attention to the high levels of poverty and isolation affecting women in some rural areas, stressing the need for effective measures to guarantee equal opportunities for women, which must be a central objective in all the instruments of the common agricultural policy (CAP) and other relevant Community policies;
2. Takes the view that full use should be made of all the possibilities offered by rural development policy and cohesion policy in order to promote equality between men and women, including programmes co-financed by the Structural Funds, guaranteeing that women in rural areas are involved on an equal footing in relation to the support granted;
3. Stresses that, in agriculture, women often perform a significant proportion of the work as family workers; considers that this work could also be appropriately included in statistics on rural employment and taken into account in rural development policy; takes the view that Member States should aim to give such women access to old-age pension schemes;
4. Stresses that, even though eliminating inequalities and promoting equal opportunities are considered basic objectives of the implementing regulations for the Structural Funds and rural development programmes, in practice the participation of women farmers in shaping and making use of the possibilities offered to them is minimal; consequently calls on the Commission to ensure that due attention is paid to strengthening the role of women farmers in the procedures for approving the relevant projects, and to enabling the active participation of women's associations and federations in rural areas, and of other bodies bringing together women in the countryside, in designing those programmes and determining the evaluation criteria for the different calls for expression of interest;
5. Welcomes the Commission's initiative to incorporate a specific article concerning equality between men and women and non-discrimination in Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 of 20 September 2005 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) (Article 8); considers, nevertheless, that steps should be taken to ensure that equality policy is incorporated and the result monitored in all legislation concerning the agricultural sector; recalls Parliament's resolution of 3 July 2003 on women in rural areas of the EU in the light of the mid-term review of the CAP[1], which proposed that a unit be set up within the Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture with the task of incorporating the gender dimension into all relevant legislation and policies;
6. Stresses the need to improve the legal status of women working in agriculture, whether in relation to social security, ensuring that they all have direct access thereto, or in relation to their role on the farms themselves, with particular emphasis on co-ownership of family farms, access to loans, and their rights in the context of inheritance law;
7. Recalls, in this connection, its resolution of 8 January 1997 on the situation of assisting spouses of the self-employed (A4-0005/97), in which it called for the circumstances of assisting spouses in agriculture to be improved via the strengthening of Council Directive 86/613/EEC of 11 December 1986 on the application of the principle of equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity, including agriculture, in a self-employed capacity, and on the protection of self-employed women during pregnancy and motherhood, by introducing a legal status for assisting spouses providing, inter alia, for their mandatory registration, thanks to which they would no longer be invisible workers but would be part of the welfare system and would have sickness, invalidity and accident insurance and pension rights;
8. Notes that women often work as partners on family farms, which can give rise to specific financial and legal problems in the event of divorce and with regard to access to social security, sick leave, maternity leave and accumulation of pension entitlements;
9. Considers it vital to improve the quality of life of women living in rural areas, ensuring that they have easier access to education and vocational training, lifelong learning, new media infrastructures, efficient and suitable local public health services, and infrastructure and facilities for children and families, particularly local crèches, nurseries, schools, cultural centres and markets;
10. Stresses the importance of participation by women in organisations representing farmers' interests and of promoting the development of networks of women’s organisations and enhancing women’s profiles in local groups involved in the implementation of agricultural programmes and the various activities linked to rural development;
11. Stresses that improving equal opportunities for women in rural areas necessitates strengthening their role, both in agriculture and in other economic activities, including the defence of the multifunctional character of agriculture;
12. Believes that more information needs to be available on women in rural areas, via the promotion of studies of their circumstances and the impact of gender policies on rural development and the organisation of seminars and conferences at European level to educate and inform women in the countryside, with the main emphasis on encouraging employment and self-employment, thus making it possible to exchange points of view regarding meetings of international organisations dealing with rural women's issues;
13. Considers it essential that women be represented in farmers' collective organisations both at national and Community level by means of making appropriate adjustments to the statutes of those organisations; is convinced that incorporating the gender dimension will thereby make a significant contribution to shaping positions and policies;
14. Welcomes in this context the ESF/EQUAL projects which are currently underway in a number of Member States with the aim of reviewing the problems of partners working on family farms, and looks forward to the presentation of the results of these projects;
15. Notes the existence of major gaps in the agricultural statistics with regard to the men/women differential, and calls on the Commission to make good these shortcomings and ensure the elimination of discriminatory and distorting elements in the collection of data, in particular by ceasing to classify as 'domestic workers' women who are in reality working in agriculture;
16. Stresses the need for greater value to be put on women's work, and especially that of immigrant women who are not part of the family farm as such and offer their labour power in the fields, and are thus more vulnerable as women in the agricultural environment;
17. Regrets moreover that the work of partners working on family farms is often not reflected in official statistics, and calls on the Commission and EUROSTAT to include this substantial category in their analyses.
PROCEDURE
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Title |
Equality between women and men in the European Union in 2007 |
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Procedure number |
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Committee responsible |
FEMM |
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Opinion by |
AGRI |
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Enhanced cooperation – date announced in plenary |
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Drafts(wo)man |
Ilda Figueiredo |
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Previous drafts(wo)man |
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Discussed in committee |
7.5.2007 |
5.6.2007 |
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Date adopted |
5.6.2007 |
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Result of final vote |
+: –: 0: |
30 2 0 |
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Members present for the final vote |
Vincenzo Aita, Thijs Berman, Luis Manuel Capoulas Santos, Giuseppe Castiglione, Joseph Daul, Albert Deß, Gintaras Didžiokas, Carmen Fraga Estévez, Ioannis Gklavakis, Lutz Goepel, Bogdan Golik, Esther Herranz García, Elisabeth Jeggle, Heinz Kindermann, Véronique Mathieu, Mairead McGuinness, Rosa Miguélez Ramos, Neil Parish, Radu Podgorean, María Isabel Salinas García, Agnes Schierhuber, Willem Schuth, Czesław Adam Siekierski, Marc Tarabella, Donato Tommaso Veraldi, Andrzej Tomasz Zapałowski |
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Substitute(s) present for the final vote |
Ilda Figueiredo, José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfil, Béla Glattfelder, Milan Horáček, Markus Pieper, Kyösti Virrankoski |
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Substitute(s) under Rule 178(2) present for the final vote |
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Comments (available in one language only) |
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- [1] JO C 74 E, 24.3.2004, p. 882.
OPINION of the Committee on Culture and Education (25.6.2007)
for the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality
on equality between women and men in the European Union – 2007
(2007/2065(INI))
Draftswoman: Karin Resetarits
SUGGESTIONS
The Committee on Culture and Education calls on the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions in its motion for a resolution:
1. Welcomes the culture of equality in the EU including the Commission's Roadmap for Equality and the Council's Pact for Gender Equality and calls for its implementation with concrete measures and financial resources;
2. Appreciates the potential of social cohesion policy for promoting equality;
3. Notes that women continue to occupy few decision-making positions;
4. Stresses that the greatest increase in women's employment is mostly accounted for by jobs with low pay and insecure employment contracts and that the gender pay gap remains up to 30 % in some European countries; welcomes, therefore, measures to help women enter equally the labour market and to promote female entrepreneurship and insists on removing the existing prejudices and gender discrimination concerning the competitiveness and employability of women, especially in high-scale jobs;
5. Highlights that long term unemployment is proportionally higher among the women; that responsibility for children aged 5 and less is connected with higher rate of unemployment compared to childless women;
6. Recommends that the different needs regarding the development of girls and boys should be taken into account to a greater extent in education, and that stereotypes should be counteracted in doing so;
7. Considers that the labour market in most EU countries does not adequately reflect higher average educational levels and better academic performance of women;
8. Recommends working towards ensuring that school education promotes knowledge and sensible criteria in order to make it possible to achieve freedom, personal autonomy, as well as equity so as to reach social inclusion;. so called key competences, such as entrepreneurial attitude and a scientific and technological approach should be reinforced, especially among women;
9. Insists that women must be supported in their professional careers, and consequently urges pushing ahead with measures to ensure that working and family life can be reconciled by both sexes and to encourage men to take on family responsibilities; urges the Commission and the Member States to take serious measures to reduce the gender pay gap and to promote parental leave for men as well as paternity leave;
10. Points out that more high-quality,flexible and wide range (public and private) childcare facilities must be provided, which are accessible to the whole population, in order to ease men and women into working life after parental leave and to allow work and family life to be reconciled;
11. Stresses the need for training measures during parental leave in order to cope with changed job requirements;
12. Recommends the development of pan-European measures to increase awareness of zero tolerance for sexist insults and degrading representations of women in the media and in commercial communication;
13. Points out the importance of ensuring that immigrants entering the EU are aware of the values and existing laws and social conventions on gender equality in the host countries' societies so as to avoid situations of discrimination which result from a lack of cultural awareness;
14. Believes that the media should highlight the role of women in society as well as examples of situations where gender equality and work-life balance has been achieved; calls on the Commission to raise awareness of the role of women in society in the media and to promote equal opportunities, through, for example, the Media 2007 programme.
PROCEDURE
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Title |
Equality between women and men in the European Union - 2007 |
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Procedure number |
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Committee responsible |
FEMM |
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Opinion by |
CULT |
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Enhanced cooperation – date announced in plenary |
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Drafts(wo)man |
Karin Resetarits |
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Previous drafts(wo)man |
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Discussed in committee |
18.6.2007 |
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Date adopted |
25.6.2007 |
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Result of final vote |
+: –: 0: |
24 1
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Members present for the final vote |
Ivo Belet, Guy Bono, Marie-Hélène Descamps, Věra Flasarová, Milan Gaľa, Ovidiu Victor Ganţ, Luis Herrero-Tejedor, Ruth Hieronymi, Sándor Kónya-Hamar, Manolis Mavrommatis, Marianne Mikko, Viorica-Pompilia-Georgeta Moisuc, Doris Pack, Christa Prets, Karin Resetarits, Pál Schmitt, Nikolaos Sifunakis, Hannu Takkula, Salvatore Tatarella, Henri Weber, Thomas Wise, Tomáš Zatloukal |
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Substitute(s) present for the final vote |
Emine Bozkurt, Erna Hennicot-Schoepges, Mary Honeyball |
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Substitute(s) under Rule 178(2) present for the final vote |
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Comments (available in one language only) |
... |
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PROCEDURE
|
Title |
Equality between women and men in the European Union - 2007 |
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|
Procedure number |
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Committee responsible |
FEMM |
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Committee(s) asked for opinion(s) |
EMPL |
REGI |
AGRI |
CULT |
LIBE |
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Not delivering opinion(s) |
EMPL |
LIBE |
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Enhanced cooperation |
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Rapporteur(s) |
Piia-Noora Kauppi |
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Previous rapporteur(s) |
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Discussed in committee |
16.7.2007 |
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Date adopted |
16.7.2007 |
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Result of final vote |
+ - 0 |
29 1 0 |
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Members present for the final vote |
Edit Bauer, Hiltrud Breyer, Esther De Lange, Věra Flasarová, Nicole Fontaine, Claire Gibault, Lissy Gröner, Zita Gurmai, Esther Herranz García, Anneli Jäätteenmäki, Piia-Noora Kauppi, Urszula Krupa, Roselyne Lefrancois, Siiri Oviir, Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, Zita Pleštinská, Christa Prets, Karin Resetarits, Teresa Riera Madurell, Amalia Sartori, Eva-Britt Svensson, Britta Thomsen, Anna Záborská |
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Substitute(s) present for the final vote |
Gabriela Creţu, Jill Evans, Lidia Joanna Geringer de Oedenberg, Anna Hedh, Marusya Ivanova Lyubcheva |
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Substitute(s) under Rule 178(2) present for the final vote |
Ján Hudacký, Peter Šťastný |
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Date tabled |
20.7.2007 |
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Comments |
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