MEPs on the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee (FEMM) held a first exchange of views on Monday 15 March on the proposal for a directive to introduce binding EU standards on pay transparency, with a view to ending gender pay inequalities (see EUROPE 12671/1).
The proposal was welcomed by most of the groups and generally hailed as a “good basis for work”.
However, several political groups, including the EPP, S&D and Greens/EFA, regretted that the obligation to publish annual information on the gender pay gap only applies to companies with more than 250 employees - which employ only 33% of Europeans, according to Eurostat.
When asked about this choice, the European Commission vice-president for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, brushed it aside, indicating that this measure only partially excluded small and medium-sized enterprises, as they would still be subject to the obligation to provide information on remuneration to employees requesting it.
The debate was held in the presence of Danish MEP Kira Peter-Hansen (Greens/EFA), whose appointment as rapporteur on the dossier for the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) is expected to be officially approved this week, an institutional source told EUROPE.
“The clear objective of the EMPL Committee is to create a directive that is as broad as possible and guarantees the principle of equal pay for as many workers as possible”, Ms Peter-Hansen said.
The FEMM Committee is also expected to choose its rapporteur at its next coordinators’ meeting, scheduled for this Tuesday.
It has still not been decided whether the EMPL rapporteur or the FEMM rapporteur will lead the negotiations for the Parliament. The procedure for setting up a joint committee is still in the making, “but not finalised yet”, according to the same institutional source. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)