The European Parliament,

- having regard to Rule 121 of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to the Commission proposal on the third medium-term Community action programme (COM(90) 0449),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Women's Rights and the opinions of the Committee on Social Affairs, Employment and the Working Environment and the Committee on Budgets

(A3-0167/91),

A. considering the need to build on the success of the two previous action programmes for equal opportunities between men and women,

B. whereas the Council only approved the third action programme on 22 May 1991, and whereas problems are being caused by the delay in the entry into force of the programme,

C. having regard to the important but still inadequate role played by the Community's structural funds in combating unemployment among women, improving opportunities on the labour market for women and implementing the Community's programmes for equal opportunities,

D. whereas the experience of the two previous programmes has shown that once the state of the current situation has been established action must be taken,

E. considering that positive actions in favour of women have been successful in strengthening women's participation in fields of social and economic activity where they were hitherto seriously underrepresented,

F. whereas despite all the efforts made, areas remain where greater efforts are required to overcome both direct and indirect discrimination,

G. considering that, despite progress, there is still a need to improve the situation of women in the labour market with respect to their numerical presence in many sectors, to their pay, training, qualifications, career development, etc., and whereas the structural changes in the labour market expected as a result of the completion of the internal market are having a less favourable effect on women's prospects for job opportunities since there are no accompanying and harmonizing measures for women,

H. considering that to do this requires not simply measures in the domain of professional training, but flanking measures to help build confidence and provide social, political and commercial skills,

I. whereas the current allocation of functions and, in many cases, school timetables pose problems with regard to the integration of women into the labour market, whereby greater attention must be given to the social conditions for their participation in employment and to child care facilities,

J. noting the continuing feminization of poverty in the European Community and the threat this poses to large numbers of the most disadvantaged in our society;

K. having regard to the specific situation of immigrant ethnic minority women in Community countries who face additional problems arising from questions of language, culture and racism,

L. whereas Community action programmes are more effective if they are accompanied by similar programmes in the Member States or at a regional and local level,

M. having regard to the role which should be played by social agents in managing the programmes,

N. whereas the majority of women at present experience difficulties in gaining access to information, which hampers their awareness of policy measures taken on their behalf and their ability to report infringements of their rights,

O. whereas the number of women occupying decision-making positions which would enable them to influence the direction of social trends remains quite unrepresentative,

P. having regard to the importance of the media both as a means of informing citizens of their rights and the opportunities available to them and of projecting a specific image of the role which each individual is called upon to play in society,

Q. whereas despite clear differences between Member States with regard to the position of women, major problems remain throughout the Community, whose elimination requires the implementation of policies at Community level,

R. whereas it is necessary for the women of the Community to express their solidarity with those of other countries where awareness of women's issues is markedly lower, such as the countries of the Third World,

1. Stresses the importance of the third action programme for women living in Europe at the time when the internal market is completed;

2. Welcomes the fact that the Council has turned its attention to the third action programme and that it has adopted a resolution approving it;

3. Deplores, however, the delay in the adoption of the resolution and the form in which it was adopted by the Council, and the fact that it contains neither an undertaking to provide adequate financing nor a binding procedure for its implementation by either the Community institutions or the Member States;

4. Requests that each Member State should draw up a national and/or regional programme for the implementation of the third action programme in agreement with the social partners;

5. Calls for the provision of adequate funds in the Community budget to finance properly the Third Action Programme;

6. Calls for the creation of a specific action programme to tackle the causes of the increased numbers of women now living in poverty, especially single mothers, young women and foreign women;

7. Calls for a programme to be drawn up as soon as possible regarding the drafting and adoption of the directives on equality between men and women which the European Parliament has called for on many occasions, including the directives on parental leave, child care and the protection of the dignity of men and women at work;

8. Considers that Article 119 of the EEC Treaty must be amended to make equality between men and women in all spheres an integral part of Community action;

9. Believes that vocational training must be accompanied by courses on motivation and integral training and that the amounts for the NOW initiative should be made available as additional funds in relation to the resources from the Social Fund;

10. Expects, if the NOW programme is to fulfil its central role in the third action programme, that:

- the duration of NOW should be extended to five years;

- the funding, over and above that from the structural funds should be further increased;

- the accessibility of the NOW funding should be increased;

11. Expects the Commission to ensure that when resources from the structural funds are being allocated women receive their fair share of financial assistance;

12. Sees the enhancing of vocational training and its special importance as the key to equality of opportunities and advocates that more Community funds and programmes, over and above the third Community action programme, should be made available for promoting and providing new types of career for women;

13. Calls on the Commission, in an interim report on the implementation of the third action programme, to assess the steps taken by businesses to promote equality in employment;

14. Calls on the Council and the Commission to take steps to reinforce their role of 'partners for equality' by setting a positive example in their attitude to women and in their dealings with the leaders of industry and commerce;

15. Calls for the fight against racism and for respect for other languages and cultures to become integral parts of policy with regard to women;

16. Calls for specially-designed programmes and courses for ethnic minority women aimed at overcoming the specific hurdles they face with regard to training and employment;

17. Recalls the need for programmes specifically aimed at those responsible for training and recruitment ('awareness training') to eliminate indirect discrimination against women in training and recruitment practice and calls on the Commission to define precisely, in a legal instrument, the concept of indirect discrimination, in the light of case-law on the subject;

18. Regrets that the third action programme does not provide for any additional and specific Community single market offensives and calls for additional initiatives in this sphere;

19. Calls, in addition, for a Community publicity campaign linked with the third action programme to prepare, in particular, socially and educationally disadvantaged women in peripheral regions for the single market;

20. Calls, on the basis of the research contained in the Commission's reports on employment, for further innovative programmes for women and for more generous support for programmes to enable women to ensure their own livelihood and to set up cooperatives;

21. Draws attention to the need for an individual's time to be divided in a coordinated way between work, leisure and the family and in this respect calls once more for the adoption of the draft directives on the reorganization of working hours, on voluntary part-time work, on parental leave and on the protection of pregnant women at the work-place; calls furthermore for the Commission to present proposals for a directive on childcare;

22. Calls on the Member States, by analogy with the mainstreaming policy (the integration of the policy of equal opportunities in Community programmes) pursued by the Community institutions, to deploy financial and human resources to ensure that this dimension is actually integrated into the policies, measures and programmes implemented at national, regional and local level, in particular in the fields of employment, education and training;

23. Calls once more for all Community projects financed by the Structural Funds to take into consideration the equal opportunities aspects and for the funds to be divided equally between men and women;

24. Stresses the importance of networks focused on increasing the awareness of the various women's organizations in the Member States and distributing information to them, so that they may be more closely involved in the implementation of the third action programme;

25. Calls on the Member States actively to encourage and support the submission of applications for structural fund finance for projects aimed at women in the framework of the objectives of the Third Action Programme;

26. Calls on the Commission to ensure that its competent services are properly staffed and resourced in order for the Third Action Programme to be applied effectively and efficiently;

27. Calls on the Commission to submit a provisional report on the implementation of the new action programme to the European Parliament by 31 October 1994;

28. Calls on the Commission and the Council of Ministers, before the completion of the internal market in 1992, to convene a Community Women's Conference attended by Ministers for Women, authorities responsible for promoting equality, women's organizations and women's groups to discuss the third action programme and other Community initiatives for equal opportunities, with reference to the opportunities and dangers for women inherent in the situation following 1 January 1993;

29. Calls on the Commission in its employment and promotion policy to set an example by implementing the principle of positive discrimination and to report on this to the European Parliament by 31 December 1992;

30. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and Council and to the governments of the Member States.