Brussels, 04/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - In Strasbourg next Monday, the European Parliament will debate several reports on women, on 8 March, International Women's Day (see EUROPE of 2 March, p.15). A few weeks short of the European elections and the enlargement of the EU, "we are going to flag up the pressing appeal by women to take part in decision-making processes, political and economic, and refresh the memories of the Member States as to the commitments they took at international, European and national level, in favour of gender equality, which is already considerably better", stressed the President of the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities, Anna Karamanou (PES , Greece) in a letter to her colleagues. The parliamentary committee has called upon the political parties to make sure that their lists for the European elections include at least 30% women, the end goal being to have as many women as men on these lists.
Presenting the Day of 8 March at a press lunch in Brussels, German Social Democrat Lissy Gröner commented that her report on the Council's common position on the Daphne II programme for 2004-2008 to fight and prevent violence towards children, adolescents and women and to victims and high-risk groups. "There is a link with the Dutroux affair in Belgium. 8 years ago, the public and politicians were shocked by such violence and torture against children. This encouraged us to develop the Daphne I programme, which was set up by the Internal Affairs Commissioner at the time, Anita Gradin. Now Daphne II has twice the budget of Daphne I, thanks to excellent networking, amongst other things", explained Ms Gröner.
Somaly Man, who is actively involved in the fight against the exploitation of women and children in Asia, especially her native Cambodia, told of the misery in her country, which has been without a government for one year, which has given free rein to a steep increase in the trafficking in human beings. The founder of Afesip (an association which helps women in difficult situations), who herself was sold by her parents to a procurer, she underlined the suffering of very young girls who are victims of violence and abuse. Sexual tourism is rife in Cambodia, she added.
Ms Gröner also announced that the President of the EP, Pat Cox, would be speaking on 8 March of his plans to create a "Gender Mainstreaming" Group within the European Parliament, made up of members of the committees on budgets, social affairs, women's rights and public health/consumers.
Another report to be discussed in Strasbourg on Monday is that of Regine Bastos (EPP-ED, Portugal) on reconciling professional family and private lives. Presenting this report instead of Ms Bastos, Christa Prets (EPP-ED, Austria) deplored lacking investment in education, training and business to achieve the Lisbon objectives by 2010. "Women must know what they want: to work, or to stay at home", noted Ms Prets. Another sensitive issue is the proposed directive on equality between men and women in access to goods and services, which has come in for strong criticism from the insurance sector (see EUROPE of 11 November, p.17). This directive will be on the table of the EP in April, and the Irish Presidency hopes to conclude the dossier at the end of June, said Ms Prets, adding: "it's hard to move on in Council because insurance lobbying is very intensive there, and is support by the legal service".
The Vice-President of the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities, Belgian Socialist Olga Zrihen, said that the report on gender equality in development co-operation will be voted on in plenary in April, with a budget of 9 million EUR for a series of programmes on the ground. Reiterating the role of women in developing countries, Ms Zrihen warned: "if we forget them, we will lost half the women in the world!"
Commenting on her report on the situation of women from minority groups in the EU, Spanish Socialist Elena Valenciano Martinez-Orozco stressed the importance of fundamental rights for disabled women, access to education, training and employment, of building up networks of disabled women and mutual-help groups, and getting disabled women involved in political life and the decision-making process.