Brussels, 31/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - Adopting by 332 to 49 (with 38 abstentions) the report by Finnish Green MEP Heidi Hautala on the amendment to the 1976 Directive on equal treatment of men and women in terms of access to employment, training and promotion at work and working conditions, the European Parliament has strengthened the European Commission's proposal. In first reading under the codecision procedure on Thursday, the EP adopted amendments tabled by the Women's Rights Committee on sexual harassment, by calling (by 251 votes in favour, 157 against and 3 abstentions) for Member States to take measures to force those responsible "under national legislation" to introduce preventative measures, including the implementation of a system of "confidential counsellors at the workplace". A compromise amendment by the Socialist, conservative, GUE and Green groups (approved by 271 to 127 with 14 abstentions) introduced the notion of paternity leave; Ms Lulling vainly challenged, on behalf of the EPP-ED group, this "so-called compromise" which her group had not been invited to participate in.
The Directive that the European Commission is proposing to amend dates back to 1976, but European society has changed since that time and it is now high time to review "the copybook" by taking account of the Treaty of Amsterdam's stipulations in terms of equality, argued Heidi Hautala when presenting her report (in which she notes that over the last 25 years, the Court of Justice has ruled in forty or so cases in this area). In particular, she raised the issue of sexual harassment at work commenting that half of all working women are victims of this (she recognised that men are occasionally also victims of sexual harassment). She feels that the employers who take preventative measures will put themselves in a strong position in the event of court action. Ms Hautala also insisted on protection of maternity saying that her country, Finland, is considered a model country in this respect, but that even in Finland there are very many women aged around thirty who have abortions, and a survey discovered that the main reason for this is "competition in the workplace". She added that it was also necessary to help fathers in their parental role. We do not have to "reinvent the entire equality policy for this Directive" commented the Luxembourg Social-Democrat Astrid Lulling (rapporteur in this area in 1999), who criticised the Hautala report for "overloading the boat" and "not being very solid legally". Ms Hautala's proposals are "juridically coherent" with the European Commission's proposal, retorted Fiorella Ghilardotti, Left Democrat MEP, who felt that the Treaty of Amsterdam gave an opportunity to consolidate measures in terms of equality. Lousewies van der Laan, Dutch Democracy 66 (conservative) MEP, also concentrated on the fight against sexual harassment and the change to encourage paternity leave: we tabled an amendment in this connection and we are truly astonished that the Christian-Democrats are opposing it, she commented. As for Josuo Ortuondo Larrea, Partido Nacionalista Vasco MEP, who spoke on behalf of the Greens/EFA group, he asserted that women must be paid on a par with men and have economic independence; the proportion of working women has now reached around 45% and he wondered how sexual equality could be furthered at work, as demanded by the Lisbon Summit of March 2000. The Swedish MEP Marianne Eriksson, speaking on behalf of United Left/Nordic Green Left, said that laws are not enough for ensuring equality, but that employers had to accept their responsibilities in this connection; in the last 25 years, the role of women in society has changed but also the role of men, and it was time that employers changed too. Employers had to understand that economics is not the be all and end all but that people also had family lives. MEPs on the Bonino List will not vote for the report, since the report wants to reach just objectives with "erroneous means" that are too bureaucratic, explained Benedetto Della Vedova, member of the Independent group. We aspire to a "new feminism, we are women, wives and mothers" explained Elizabeth Monfort (Mouvement pour la France MEP) who was very critical of the Hautala report although she stressed that the report was approved in Committee only by women, "So much for equality! I wonder how the men who intervened in the debate had the courage to do so".
Th European Commission attempted by means of its proposal to modernise existing legislation on equality, explained Anna Diamantopoulou, announcing that the Commission could accept 49 of the 69 amendments tabled by the Parliament and hoped that the Commission would "accept as far as possible" the Women's Rights Committee's amendments concerning sexual harassment.