[autom.vertaling] De vrouwen duwen voor betere aanwezigheid in 2004 verkiezingen (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Women's lobby has started its campaign for better female representation ahead of the European Parliament elections next year.

The Lobby (EWL) argues that since decisions on the composition of the lists of candidates for the European elections are made at national level within each party, political parties in member states can play a major role in achieving equality between women and men in the European Parliament.

"We demand an equal share for the first European elections in an enlarged Europe in 2004", said President of EWL, Lydia la Rivière-Zijdel, of the elections that will take place from 10-13 June 2004.

Although women make up at least half of the electorate and have attained the right to vote and hold office in all Member States, they continue to be seriously under-represented in political decision-making.

Moreover, women also have to cope with the dual burden of attending to their family as well as pursuing their professional careers.

Currently, women count for 31% of the total number of MEPs, with considerable differences between EU states.

The highest percentage of women elected in the last elections in 1999 was in Finland (43.75%) and the lowest in Luxembourg (0%).

However, the situation is less encouraging in the 10 acceding countries where only 14.2% out of the 162 so-called observer MEPs are women.

Of these, Estonia, Malta and Slovenia are currently not represented by any female observers in the European Parliament.

Europe for men

During a conference organised by the EWL last Friday (10 October) on this issue, Ms la Rivière-Zijdel said:

"The European Parliament has just nominated its men only delegation to the very select male club of the Intergovernmental Conference, which has the mission to shape the future of Europe".

"EWL condemns this ongoing practice within the European political arena to blatantly ignore the fundamental right of women to be represented on an equal footing with men in all areas of political decision-making", she added.

Danish liberal member in the European Parliament Lone Dybkjær also criticised the fact that in the Convention, which drafted the EU Constitution, only 18% of the members were women.

She also said that male predominance can also be seen in the EU summits, where in pictures, only one or two women can be seen.

"The family pictures show that Europe is just for men", Ms Dybkjær said.

The Danish MEP drafted a motion for a resolution to be voted in plenary on "How to ensure balanced representation of women and men" in the 2004 Elections.

It urges political parties to encourage women candidates to run for European elections and remove all barriers that directly or indirectly discriminate against their participation in next year's election like ensuring access to affordable and high quality child-care and reorganise working time.

Political parties are also urged to ensure that their media strategies take gender balance into account.

The motion also mentions the importance of organising awareness raising campaigns targeted towards the promotion of women's political participation, prior to the June elections.