Strasbourg, 07/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - In its adoption, last Thursday in Strasbourg, of the report by Greek Christian-Democrat Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou on women in rural areas of the EU, the European Parliament is calling upon the Commission and the Council to take advantage of the mid-term revision of the common agricultural policy (CAP) to bring in measures for equal opportunities in rural areas. It asks the Commission to promote the following under the reinforcement of second pillar (rural development) programmes and actions of the CAP: 1) actions to create and consolidate social structures in favour of female farmers or farmers' wives, and, more broadly speaking, those living in rural areas, in terms of health, education, training and culture, etc; 2) integrated action to promote entrepreneurship, innovation and vocational training, including knowledge acquisition in the fields of farm management, agri-tourism, organic farming, new technologies, especially Internet access, new energy sources, co-operative activity, tackling illiteracy and life-long learning.
The Parliament highlights the need to validate the profession of farming for women via a European status for farmers' wives "with full rights" to the holding. It calls upon the Commission to prepare a new revised directive, and particularly to reinforce its article 6, in order to make full-risk cover possible for the assisting spouse of the farmer, especially in terms of social security, healthcare, old-age pension, maternity pay and replacement, invalidity and incapacity benefit services. The directive must be more binding for Member States in all areas, as it is the only way of guaranteeing women assisting their husbands on farms professional status allowing them to take full advantage of social rights, believes the Parliament, which calls upon the Commission to assess the current situation in Member States, and to submit a proposal for a revised directive by the end of 2004.