Brussels, 09/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - Opening the colloquium held in Brussels on 8 March, International Women's Day, by the European Commission, on the subject "Future Commission- Enlargement- Elections: new opportunities for women!", Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström referred to her little son when highlighting the stakes of the day: "Mummy, what do you do? - I'm preparing my speech for tomorrow, which is Women's Day. - So what are the other days, then? Are all the other days of the year Men's Day?" And so out of the mouth of a babe comes the whole issue of gender equality.
Taking the floor in front of an audience with a small proportion of men, President Prodi reiterated all the Commission has done under this Presidency on equal opportunities. "This is something essential for (...) a genuine participative democracy (...). The economic and social development of our societies depends on equal rights for men and women. We cannot deprive Europe of the human potential of half of its citizens!", he said. The Commission, he added, wants an equality policy "for reasons of principle and to make our institution fairer". He continued: "We must act to make sure that legislation enters into force on 1 May. We hope to reconcile professional and family life, get rid of obstacles to women's careers, protect their dignity" (EUROPE will come back to the EP's vote on reports on this). On the increase in the number of women in decision-making posts, he said: "there will be three women among the Commissioners from the new Member States. I would have liked to have seen four, but three isn't a bad start" (see p.13). Mr Prodi noted that on 1 May, there will be 7 female Commissioners. "This is better than before! I hope that my successor will continue this trend", he said; On the European elections, he said: "there should be women on the lists, but, above all, they should have a good placing".
"Today, we celebrate progress made on the road to equality between men and women. We celebrate solidarity with women everywhere in the world, and most of all with those living in situations of conflict, poverty, and those who are victims of violence", said Margot Wallström, launching an appeal for support for the campaign for women launched on 8 March by Amnesty International (as did MEP Anne van Lacker, Belgian Socialist, also). "Thousands of women and young girls are beaten or raped in their own homes in Europe, just where they should be the safest", noted the Commissioner. As for the situation for women staff at the European Commission, Ms Wallström noted that although 48% of staff are women, only 17% of them occupy a middle-management post or higher. In the European Parliament, 30% of MEPs are women, but there a strong disparities, from 11% of Italians to 44% of Finns and Belgians. As to the question of "how to avoid the trap of under-using women", Ms Wallström replied: "good governance and good administration in economic, social and private lives"?
The President of the Estonian Parliament (and astrophysics professor), Ms Ene Ergma, said that in the new Member States, "sensitivity to gender issues is still quite weak", and said that the Commission's proposal to draw up a report on women's equality in the field of science "came just at the right moment". Ms Ergma is very worried about the risk of low turnouts to the European elections in her country. She feels that "the good balance between men and women, which currently exists in the EP, may be endangered" after the European elections. Anne van Lacker (and former Convention member) said that the leaders of the political groups in the EP had written to the new Member States to draw their attention to the representation of women in the political parties. "We must keep up the pressure for the EP to have as many women as men, and why not a woman President?", she concluded.