Brussels, 19/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - Changing the current tax and social security systems that do not encourage women to work; applying the system of "equal work, equal pay"; better reconciling family and professional life: these are the three messages that the Commissioner for equal opportunities and employment Anna Diamantopoulou, and Swedish Ministers Ingela Thalen (Social Security) and Margareta Winberg (equal opportunities) will send out at the informal meeting of ministers of equal opportunities and social security, to be held in Norrkoping from 21 to 23 January (see EUROPE of 8-9 January, p.8). This informal Council will be an important step in preparing the European Council of Stockholm on 23 and 24 March.
Work will begin in earnest on Monday, under the Presidency of Ingela Thalen and will revolve around social security issues, on which Anna Diamantopoulou, Michel Rocard MEP and Maj Britt Theorin MEP (respectively, chairs of the Social Affairs Committee and the Committee on Women's Rights) will speak, as will representatives of the European social partners and NGOs. Talks will be on the basis of a Presidency paper, entitled "Gender Equality and Social Insurance - an engine for economic growth" and which asks ministers to answer the following questions: (1) do ministers agree that the current climate presents positive opportunities for revising tax and benefit structures in order to identify and eliminate disincentives for women's participation for women's participation in the labour market?; (2) do they agree that social protection should guarantee greater participation by women in better quality employment?; (3) what initiatives are important in order to come to terms with the inequalities in social security systems caused by pay differentials and wage discrimination?; (4) how can society design social protection in a wider context (including care for children and the elderly, access to social services, etc.) so as to both stimulate increasing labour market participation and higher birth rates?; (5) what gender aspects do ministers consider to be important in the context of national action plans currently being prepared to combat social exclusion?
Then, work will turn to the problem of equal treatment between men and women, under the Presidency of Margareta Winberg. The same day, there will be a seminar with ministers of the candidate countries for accession: chaired by the two Swedish ministers, the meeting will focus on reconciling family and professional life in these countries.
Tuesday, Margareta Winberg will invite ministers to discuss the follow-up to the Beijing Conference on Women (September 1995), and in particular undertakings made in the matter by the French and Finnish Presidencies of the EU. Ingela Thalen will take over for further discussions on social security, and, late morning, Margareta Winberg will present to the Presidency Conclusions and close work.
Diamantopoulou, Thalen and Winberg: importance of tax and social security systems
To achieve the goal of full employment as reaffirmed in Lisbon, Member States must in particular remove obstacles to the putting in place of a modern family policy enabling women to integrate the labour market and to remain there. Anna Diamantopoulou, Ingela Thalen and Margareta Winberg stress the importance of individual social security and tax systems in making gender equality a reality in an article published this weekend in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter. Experience demonstrates that it is not easy to find the right balance when going from a system with derived benefits to a system with individualised rights, they observe, while stressing that some Member States, like Sweden, have been able to show a clear connection between individualised tax and benefits systems, on the one hand, and promotion of gender equality, on the other. To enable both men and women to reconcile work and family life, men must take as much as the responsibilities for home-related work as do women.