Brussels, 07/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - On the initiative of Anna Diamantopoulou, the European Commission adopted a recommendation on Wednesday relating to a new Community framework-strategy relating to equal opportunities between men and women for the period 2001-2005, with a total budget of 50 million euro for the five years. This new strategy covers all Community policies in view of achieving equality between men and women and is based on clear assessment criteria, a monitoring process, comparative analysis of effectiveness and evaluation.
The framework-strategy revolves around five objectives: 1) equality in economic life; 2) equality in participation and representation; 3) equality in social life; 4) equality in civil life; 5) modification of roles and elimination of stereotypes. Actions being envisaged revolve around two pillars: a) a "mainstreaming" pillar consisting in the different services of the Commission integrating concrete actions for women in all existing policies, activities and programmes, including in external relations and development policies; b) a specific pillar aimed at combating all forms of discrimination that women come up against in their workplace (see, notably EUROPE of 8 and 29 January and 26 February).
As a reminder, the current Community programme on equal opportunities between men and women expires end-December 2000: Parliament and the Council had whence asked the Commission to set up a new action programme in the matter. End-January, a policy debate on this new programme was held within the College, and informal consultations were organised with the partners concerned, including the European Parliament, Member States, NGOs and the social partners. This consultation over, Anna Diamantopoulou presented her proposal to the College, which adopted it on Wednesday.
"Gender discrimination is a waste of talent and resources. It is a dead-weight cost to society as a whole as well as to those women directly affected", Anna Diamantopulou commented. Explaining that "we have moved on from a position where women were simply a target group to one where there is a formalised, general, legal obligation to promote gender mainstreaming in all activities," Mrs. Diamantopoulou explained, recalling that "in the economic sphere, the recent Lisbon special Summit underlined the need to give women equal access to the jobs market, especially to jobs in the new economy." She then concluded that "there is still a long way to go on the path to dismantling gender inequality in all fields.
At a press conference, Mrs. Diamantopoulou recalled that there were 20% fewer women working than men, adding: - in the decision-making process in European bodies, women only represented 25% of the members of the European Commission since 1995; women's representation in the European Parliament has increased steadily; however, they are under-represented (30.2%) for the period 1999-2004; - in the national parliaments of the EU, one only found 18.6% of women in 1999; - in the governments of Member States, there were only 23% of women. In addition, Anna Diamantopoulou added that a recent Commission survey mentioned that one woman out of five were molested by people close to them at least once a year.