Brussels, 09/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - "Our vision of the EU as the world's most competitive and cohesive economy will suffer a reality check unless we realise the full potential of women", said Anna Diamantopoulou, European Commissioner for social affairs, regarding the Commission's Synthesis Report for the Stockholm Summit (see yesterday's EURPE, p.6). Ms. Diamantopulou recalled that the Lisbon process provided for the level of women's employment reaching 57% in 2005 and over 60% by 2010 (compared to the current 52.6%). The Commission is pushing governments to set individual national targets for women at work, Diamantopoulou recalled, for whom the goals set by the EU were "more operational when they are backed up by national targets". In a press release, the Commission recalls that the member countries that had the best performance in this field were Denmark, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, with already over 60% of women aged between 15 and 64 at work, whereas the worst performers were Italy, Spain and Greece with less than 45%.
Furthermore, the Commissioner welcomed the Anglo-Swedish initiative aimed at pushing female entrepreneurship.