Commissie EP: meer werk maken van gelijke kansen mannen en vrouwen (en)

The EP's Women's Rights Committee called on Wednesday for the European Commission to give practical effect to its "roadmap for equality between women and men". Above all, MEPs want the principle of equal pay for equal work to be applied, paternity leave encouraged, action taken against violence, better integration of immigrant women and promotion of respect for women's rights in the EU's external relations.

The policy of gender equality should be treated by the Commission as "as an indispensable requirement of respect for the rights of the human person", says the Women's Rights Committee in an own-initiative report drafted by Amalia Sartori (EPP-ED, IT), which was adopted near-unanimously with a few amendments.  MEPs point out that the "roadmap for equality between women and men 2007-2010" presented in March 2006 "does not contain a single new legislative proposal". 

Equal pay for equal work

The Women's Rights Committee calls for national measures to help women enter the labour market "on a footing of equal dignity and equal pay for equal work" and for the implementation of "concrete strategies to reinforce female entrepreneurship". It also calls on the Commission to revise Council directive 75/117/EEC on the approximation of laws on the application of equal pay for men and women. 

Elsewhere the committee's report calls on Member States to appoint "Ms Lisbons" to take charge of gender equality under the Lisbon strategy's employment and growth objectives.

Reconciling work and family life

The report says the Commission should speed up the introduction of policies designed to reconcile family and working life, for example those designed to:

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  ensure that the cost of motherhood is borne by society as a whole;
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  make care services and assistance more accessible and flexible;
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  actively encourage fathers to make use of available flexible working time options and take on household chores and family work, for example by laying down an initial form of compulsory paternity leave.

Action against violence

MEPs urge the Commission to strengthen measures to protect women and children against all forms of violence, including slavery, crimes of honour, trafficking in human beings and polygamy. They want indicators to be devised on these forms of violence and they call on Member States to withdraw licences of doctors who practise genital mutilation.

A key condition in external policy

"Respect for women's rights must be an essential condition for the EU's neighbourhood, foreign and development policies", says the committee. MEPs call for "greater EU engagement" in this area to boost principles such as gender equality, women's emancipation, prevention of violence against women and their full participation in social and economic life, as well as better coordination with the United Nations. Respect for women's rights must also be key condition of accesion negotiations with applicant countries.  

Integrating migrant women

Lastly the report calls on the Commission to take "practical steps to promote the emancipation and integration of migrant women", including "measures to foster language skills and understanding of the rights and duties deriving from the principles and laws applying in host countries and from the Union's core values" such as the prohibition of polygamy. These should be regarded as "requirements for acquiring the nationality of a Member State".

23/01/2007

Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality

Chair : Anna ZABORSKA (EPP-ED, SK)

Procedure: Own-initiative

Plenary vote: February (Strasbourg)