Brussels, 06/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The conference on "Gender Equality and the Future of Europe", held in Brussels on 4 March on the initiative of Commissioner for Education and Culture, Viviane Reding (see EUROPE 1 March p.17), has shown that there is a long way to go to achieve genuine equality between the sexes.
"The best way to take account of this notion of equality between men and women would be to include an article with direct applicability in the Constitutional Treaty, a real legal base", said Vivian Reding at the end of the day's work. "Only a directly applicable provision in the Treaty, outlawing any discrimination on the basis of gender, would ensure effective equality between the sexes", continued the Commissioner, proposing the following wording (which would be included under Chapter II, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship): "any discrimination on the basis of gender is forbidden". This is the position of the European Parliament's Commission for Women's Rights, and "it is mine also", stressed Ms Reding. "Equality comes above all through education. Education in human rights, democracy, tolerance and peace is fundamental. We must therefore promote the development of a strategic alliance between universities, schools and civil society", continued the Commissioner, suggesting assistance to universities in setting up horizontal courses as well as specialised structures to teach human rights, democratisation and good governance. "We need to change societal habits that have existed for centuries", commented the President of the European University Council for the Jean Monnet Project and MEP José Maria Gil-Robles, indicating that equality can be achieved by: 1) the removal of all obstacles to this equality, by legislation and other means; 2) raising awareness among women of their own equality; 3) encouraging women to take advantage of all opportunities regarding high-level posts available to them.
The main conclusions of the conference are as follows: 1) Sexual equality should be a priority of the European legal system; 2) the right to equality should be directly applicable; 3) the candidate countries' priority should be correctly to implement the legal framework of equality between men and women; 4) the Constitutional Treaty should make specific provisions to ban all discrimination on the basis of gender and set out explicit and positive provisions to promote voluntary equality between the sexes; 5) the legal basis should go beyond social policy and leave room to take measures in other areas.