Brussels, 17/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - The participants in the Euro-Med region forum organised, on 13-14 July in Brussels, on the initiative of the Belgian EU Presidency with the support of the European Commission (see EUROPE of 20 June, p.16 and of 14 July, p.10), formulated recommendations aiming to promote the role of women in economic development. These recommendations should be approved by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the EU15 and the partner countries from the southern shore of the Mediterranean, who will gather on 5 and 6 November in Brussels, in the presence of the of the President of the EU Employment Council Laurette Onkelinx and the Commissioner for Social Affairs Anna Diamantopoulou.
We wanted to concretise a nice idea, which is that Europe enhance its effectiveness in the partnership with the Mediterranean countries and gamble especially on women to do so, stated Laurette Onkelinx when drawing conclusions from the works, which showed the crucial need for vocational training starting at school. (Anna Diamantopoulou had recalled, during a joint press conference with Laurette Onkelinx, on 9 July in Brussels, that in certain Mediterranean countries, only 30% of women are literate). It is necessary to learn a profession as soon as possible, it is useful to bet on schools and to invest in training after school, asserted Laurette Onkelinx for whom, with this forum, we have succeeded in the first act of a piece that has three; 1) work with civil society by listening to the actors on the ground; 2) the Euro-Mediterranean ministerial meeting in November, which must foresee for the specific insertion of women in a adequate budget; 3) the transposition of decisions to be take in November into projects and financing.
From the forum's conclusions it notably emerges that the specific regional programme should stand on four pillars with, in particular, the following recommendations: (1) access for women to the labour market: this concerns creating a tool for controlling equality in labour legislation, support women's organisation, identify the employment bearing sectors; (2) creation of companies by women: it will require developing formal and informal networks for women managers and company heads, creating support structures (company breeding grounds, single sources for start-up information etc.); (3) making financial tools available: we should support measures aiming to develop and maintain micro-credit initiatives, favouring trading partnerships between banks, financial institutions and women's associations; 4) education and vocational training: it will notably require creating instruments for guidance and coaching to extend the vocational training system to all knowledge and professions (new technologies…)
A few experts took part in this forum, including the Commissioner for the Budget Michaele Schreyer, the Director General for Employment at the Commission Odile Quintin, the Advisor to the European Economic and Social Committee Giacomina Cassina, the President of the European Women's Lobby Denise Fuchs, the experts Simone Susskind and Eliane Vogel-Polsky.