A3-0112/93

Resolution on the creation of jobs for women

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the Commission communication on its action programme on implementation of the Charter on Basic Social Rights for Workers (COM(89)0568 - C3-0238/89) and its resolution thereon of 13 September 1990,

-having regard to the third medium-term Community action programme on equal opportunities for men and women (COM(90)0449) and its resolution thereon of 12 July 1991,

-having regard to its resolution of 25 January 1991 on the Single Market and its implications for women in the EC,

-having regard to its resolution of 22 February 1991 on the operation of the European Social Fund,

-having regard to the motion for a resolution by Mrs Van Hemeldonck on local initiatives to create employment for women (B3-1965/91),

-having regard to the report by the Committee on Women's Rights (A3-0112/93),

1.Urges the Commission, the Council and the Member States to make use of the opportunity offered by the completion of the internal market and the establishment of the medium-term financial perspective to strengthen policies leading to the achievement of social objectives which include the need to encourage the integration of women into active economic life;

2.Stresses its interest in local employment initiatives (LEI) for women, which could play a major role in achieving these objectives;

3.Calls for policies to be coherent and integrated, particularly with respect to the regionalization of economic activity, and stresses the triple role which LEIs by and for women can play in a development strategy;

4.States its concern at the observations made by the Court of Auditors concerning LEIs for women, and demands clarification and correction of the dubious practices and the unorthodox, and sometimes downright irregular, forms of management which have meant that since 1984, it has not even been possible to evaluate these important initiatives;

5.Supports an approach to LEIs for women which refuses to see them solely as a support mechanism for a less-favoured social group but rather as an element in regional development strategy;

6.Highlights the importance of establishing employment and undertakings for and by women by means of LEIs and, with a view to encouraging women to set up businesses (above all cooperatives and SMEs), warns against the danger of encouraging trends leading to segmentation, with specific women's segments in the market and in businesses, activities, sectors and regions;

7.Supports the professional and sectoral diversification of LEIs for women so as to counteract the feminization of trades, professions and other areas of activity;

8.Notes that the current limits of aid to 2 to 5 jobs in LEIs are too restrictive; proposes that they should be revised and a flexible code of practice adopted, facilitating the implementation of more ambitious projects with a greater potential impact on regional development;

9.Insists that projects should be considered as part of a global strategy, in close collaboration with the Community and the central and regional authorities of the Member States, equipped with a whole range of exemptions, facilities and positive physical conditions as well as other positive action to stimulate job creation and the setting-up of businesses in the context of LEIs;

10.Proposes that the whole issue of regional aid be reviewed, without detriment to its current objectives, so that it can take account of the worsening of the situation on a regional and sectoral basis and make systematic use of the specific potential of women as entrepreneurs, by means of all the Community instruments for restructuring, modernizing and reviving regions and industrial sectors;

11.Stresses the importance of local authorities and local government vis-à-vis LEIs for women; such authorities should be aware of this fact and it should be reflected in the drawing up of CSFs;

12.Considers that it would be useful if each Member State operated a single national structure for women to provide information and process dossiers;

13.Stresses, likewise, that since there are a very considerable number of women working in the public sector and in regional and local government, LEIs should be associated with, or even encourage, decentralization and the relevant human resources management;

14.Highlights the fact that the funding of LEIs for women must be stepped up and made viable, and that appropriate means of associating the EIB with these initiatives are therefore required, inter alia in order to overcome budgetary difficulties;

15.Calls on the Commission to collect and publish (as part of its management of the scholarship programme) the data concerning quantitative and qualitative assessment and the checks on the number of projects financed and the actual number of jobs created;

16.Stresses the decisive importance of the following for the success of LEIs for women:

-comprehensive distribution of information on the initiatives, mainly to women's organizations and the social partners, especially via the media, above all at regional level;

-clear, accessible and user-friendly conditions, forms and procedures for submitting applications;

-improving the provision of training, as an essential factor both at the pre-project stage and as part of the project itself;

-social infrastructures, such as childcare facilities, should be considered an integral part of measures intended to bring about economic and social development at regional level;

17.Instructs its President to forward this resolution and the report of its committee to the Commission and the Council.