A3-0065/94

Resolution on poverty among women in Europe

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the motion for resolution by Mrs André-Léonard and others on poverty among women in Europe (B3-0627/92),

-having regard to the definition of poverty given by Council Decision 85/8/EEC of 19 December 1984: 'the poor are persons, families and groups of persons whose resources (material, cultural and social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life in the Member State in which they live',

-having regard to the new responsibilities in the social policy area which the Treaty on European Union and the new arrangements for the Structural Funds have devolved on the European Union,

-having regard to Rule 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Women's Rights (A3-0065/94),

A.welcoming the doubling of funds for the Fourth Programme to combat poverty,

B.whereas a range of social, economic and cultural measures are needed to combat poverty among and the social exclusion of women,

C.whereas there are more than 18.5 million unemployed people, more than 50 million poor people and 3 million homeless people, and whereas the proportion of poor people in the Community is 15%, of which women form the majority, and whereas the feminization of poverty is a valid concept,

D.whereas women are over-represented in groups particularly affected by poverty: 55% of the long-term unemployed, 90% of single parents and 80% of elderly people dependent on the social welfare systems are women, as are a majority of those in low-paid employment,

E.whereas social exclusion is growing in all countries as a result of the recession and the policies followed by the Member States, and whereas this leads to marginalization which particularly affects women,

F.whereas the growing outward signs of social exclusion reveal the inadequacy of social security and social welfare systems,

G.whereas, given that throughout the Union, women still earn on average 70% of men's earnings, despite often high levels of skill and responsibility, women thus represent a majority of those earning less than the Council of Europe's decency threshold,

H.whereas many women work in part-time, temporary or otherwise insecure employment which increases their vulnerability to poverty; whereas a lack of childcare in some Member States means that women often enter the labour market on an unequal basis, reducing their bargaining power and increasing their vulnerability to exploitation,

I.whereas one of the major problems in achieving equal pay between men and women is that many conventional job evaluation and payment systems have a gender bias and given that we continue to find large discrepancies between men and women, these systems should be overhauled,

1.Calls for a legally guaranteed minimum wage to be adopted in all the Member States and emphasizes the obligation to provide appropriate remuneration and good working conditions affording protection against arbitrary treatment and exploitation;

2.Calls on the Council to implement the outstanding labour laws and rapidly to adopt the directives on pay and working conditions for women, such as the directives on the reversal of the burden of proof, parental leave and atypical work;

3.Calls for a directive to be adopted on sexual harassment at the workplace, as is long overdue, bearing in mind that women in low-paid and relatively unskilled jobs are most vulnerable to sexual harassment;

4.Calls on the Council to examine whether, in the context of subsidiarity, the Community's competence can be extended to public health and housing;

5.Calls on the Council to implement a genuine policy to combat poverty, backed by the budget required to finance measures in this area with a view to countering the continually increasing number of disadvantaged women in the European Union;

6.Calls for the budget for training and employment promotion measures for girls and young women to be increased under the Structural Funds with a view to tackling the high unemployment affecting this section of the population and for specific measures for women threatened with social exclusion;

7.Calls on the Commission, in the context of Community initiatives, to set up studies on the factors and processes which bring about or prolong poverty and social exclusion and on the reasons for increasing poverty with a view to determining what specific measures should be taken to enable the persons concerned - especially young people and women - to be (re)integrated into the economy and society;

8.Calls on the Commission in its statistics on poverty to give a detailed breakdown of the proportion of women and men in groups affected by poverty, taking account also of hidden poverty;

9.Calls on the Commission to compile an annual report on poverty which, in addition to an analysis of social trends, should also contain proposals for Community measures to tackle poverty and underprivilege;

10.Calls on the Commission to bring the issue of the feminization of poverty into the open by means of a public information campaign and to explicitly include it in the Fourth Poverty Programme;

11.Calls on the Commission and the Member States to provide more extensive information at local level about European Union programmes, bearing in mind that women living in poverty have less access to information;

12.Calls on the Member States to transpose the Council recommendation on childcare, adopt special measures to enable single parents to join the work-force, and provide appropriate childcare facilities for women undergoing training or seeking a job;

13.Calls on the Commission to bring forward measures to improve the rights of 'atypical' workers and proposals to ensure an equitable wage for all EU citizens;

14.Calls for recognition to be given to the expertise and contributions being brought to bear by women in combating drug-, violence-, and racism-related problems at family and neighbourhood level within the hotbeds of social tension in Europe's metropolises;

15.Calls for a European contact programme for women living in the Union's social flashpoint areas, modelled on the 'Youth for Europe' programme, the purpose of which would be to help ensure that the expertise of the women concerned could be marshalled on a professional footing;

16.Calls on the Commission to draw up an interim report on demographic change;

17.Calls on the Commission and the Member States to make greater use of the Structural Funds to combat women's unemployment; NOW, as the only Community initiative for women, as well as the other programmes and networks such as IRIS, ILE and FORCE, should definitely be continued and given increased resources;

18.Calls on the Member States and the Commission to put the emphasis on combating poverty among women and children in the preparations for the World Conference of Women in Peking in 1995;

19.Calls on the Member States to provide independent social insurance for people caring for their children or sick, elderly or handicapped family members;

20.Calls on the Member States to lay down special rent control provisions to protect poor families, single parents, and the elderly;

21.Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote and develop models and programmes to help the homeless, such as a European Congress of initiatives against homelessness or 'networks against homelessness';

22.Calls on the Council and Commission to provide increased support for refuges and advice centres for homeless women and victims of violence and to organize information campaigns to explain the connection between poverty and violence against women; points out that women living in poverty are the most frequent victims of sexual assault;

23.Points out that women belonging to the European Community's ethnic minorities, who mostly live in poverty, are being increasingly exposed to racist attacks and calls, therefore, for more intensive public education to combat racism;

24.Calls on the Council and Commission to implement fully the recommendations made in 1992 and to require the Member States to develop social models focusing on the situation of women and make the necessary adjustments to the structure of their public expenditure;

25.Calls on the Council and the Member States to take more account of networks and NGOs and to ensure the direct involvement of socially disadvantaged people and their representatives in the NGOs in drawing up programmes and projects to tackle the problem of social exclusion;

26.Calls on the Council and the Member States fully to implement the recommendations on common criteria concerning sufficient resources and social assistance in the social protection systems and on the convergence of social protection objectives and policies;

27.Calls on the Member States to set up services designed to simplify administrative formalities;

28.Calls on the Member States to:

-encourage positive action programmes in the public and private sector to assist women's participation in the labour market;

-overhaul radically conventional job evaluation and payment systems, which are gender-biased and perpetuate unequal treatment between men and women, and replace them by good practice schemes;

29.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the parliaments and governments of the Member States, the Economic and Social Committee and both sides of industry.