Brussels, 21/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - During a conference entitled More and Better Jobs: an EU Priority?”, the president of the Party of European Socialists (PES) Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said that he was “a little bit optimistic” about the chances of the European Spring Summit of 22-23 March developing quite clear conclusions on the Lisbon Strategy. He told the PES women that this strategy was “our baby” and pointed out that in March 2000 in Lisbon most EU governments were Socialist or Social Democrat (he also pointed out that for the first time the two Iberian countries of the EU had a Socialist government). He hammered home the fact that for the “survival” of our society, we need women and they need equal opportunities, equal treatment and equal pay. He pointed out that on this last point, Denmark has very efficient legislation that made statistics compulsory for comparing salaries for women and men who did the same work. At a political level, the former Danish prime minister indicated that on 12 April, for the first time, a woman would be a candidate against a man for the new leadership of the Danish Social Democratic party. He added that is woman was former MEP Helle Thorning Schmidt, who was “strong” and who had declared that “I am the one who can beat Anders” (Prime Minister Rasmussen). The latter also congratulated the former European Commissioner for social affairs and former Greek minister Vasso Papandreou, explained that “your party, Pasok, decided during its last congress on a quota of 40% women, and after having given the matter a lot of thought I think quotas are necessary”.
At the same event, European Commissioner for Social Affairs Vladimir Spidla explained that he wanted to open a new epoch in equal opportunities policy. He recognised that the participation of women was indispensable for the Lisbon Process, noting that the Lisbon objective aimed at a 60ù employment rate for women in 2010, which was within in reach but that taking part in the labour market was one thing but quality jobs was something else. He admitted that, “Children, Church and Kitchen” was long out of date and called for women to have the right to work and have children. He exclaimed that there should be no question that in Europe they had fewer and fewer children because women and men could not reconcile work and family life. He revealed that 84% of men were aware of their parental rights but did not take advantage of them. Spidla said that surveys demonstrated that the significant gap between the number of children European couples wanted and the number they had revealed a “real desire to have children”.
Zita Gurmai, president of PES women also highlighted better use of women's potential on the labour market. She pointed out that the disparity of salaries between the sexes, which ranged from between 16%-30% in the different Member States showed that Hungary was better positioned with 9.5%. Referring to the Lisbon strategy she noted that the approach by president Barroso was “just half the story or rather 1/3” (allusion to the Commission's insistence on one of the economic pillars of the strategy”.