B4-0406/95

Resolution on equal treatment and equal opportunities for women and men

The European Parliament,

1.Pays tribute to all women in the world on International Women's Day (8 March 1995) and recognizes their contribution to the development and well-being of humanity;

2.Encourages the Commission to pursue actively its efforts to promote equal opportunities for women and men, in particular by implementing measures to ensure that measures to ensure compliance with the principle of equal treatment and equal opportunities are incorporated in all European Union policies;

3.Regrets that women are still under-represented in decision-making bodies, in the public service, in European, national, regional and local political bodies and in economic, social and cultural activities;

4.Calls on the European institutions and the Member States, in their capacity as employers, to set target figures for the recruitment of women to positions of responsibility; calls likewise on the Member States to urge the two sides of industry and the political parties also to apply target figures;

5.Calls on the Commission to ensure that in its officially appointed bodies and representations at least 30% are women;

6.Regrets that its own Bureau did not appoint any women to seven recent A1 and A2 vacancies;

7.Urges the Commission to present the fourth action programme as soon as possible: this should give prominence to policies and measures specifically for women in the fields of employment, decision-making and training and receive adequate funding, with particular attention being given to the NOW programme and the IRIS network;

8.Calls on the Council and Commission to take the necessary steps for the rapid improvement and adoption of the directives on atypical work, equal treatment for men and women in statutory and supplementary social security schemes, reversal of the burden of proof and parental leave, in order to eliminate the discrimination suffered by numerous women on the labour market;

9.Calls on the Commission to keep a tighter control on the implementation and enforcement of directives on equal treatment and equal opportunities for women and men and regularly publish a comprehensive report on the subject for the European Parliament and the national parliaments;

10.Calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to ensure implementation of measures for the organization of working time, developing child-care facilities, the reintegration into working life of women who have taken time off to bring up children, and social security and tax policies that take account of family responsibilities, in order to achieve a real sharing of responsibilities between men and women, thus reconciling family and occupational responsibilities;

11.Calls on the Commission to take into consideration the report on equal pay that will shortly be adopted by the European Parliament and to enforce the measures recommended in that report without delay;

12.Calls on the Commission to make an early commitment to the work on the individualization of rights to social security and taxation, as presented in the White Paper on social policy; considers that there is a need in the meantime for a Commission directive on the sharing of pension rights in the event of divorce;

13.Calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to ensure equal opportunities for women and men in education and training (continuing education, distance learning, continuing training, etc.), especially with regard to the information society and new technology;

14.Calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to give particular attention to the policy of informing women on the provisions, measures and programmes that concern them, especially those pertaining to the fourth action programme;

15.Urges that the Commission should gather more extensive data and statistics on the situation of women on the labour market and their involvement in the Union's programmes, especially the Structural Fund programmes;

16.Calls on the group of Commissioners responsible for equal opportunities for men and women to present their work programme as soon as possible and for an 'equal opportunities' Council to discuss these matters in the near future;

17.Calls on the European Union to show greater solidarity towards women, who throughout the world suffer from poverty, armed conflicts, violence, fanaticism and fundamentalism, which encroach on their freedom and violate the principle of equal opportunities for men and women;

18.Greatly appreciates the importance attached to women's reproductive rights in the final resolutions of the UN conferences in Cairo (Population and Development) and in Copenhagen (Social Policy); takes the view that even in some Union Member States improvement is needed regarding women's reproductive rights; draws attention in this context to the "Information Bill" passed in Ireland on 8 March 1995, dealing with the information on access to abortion in a restrictive way;

19.Calls for the European Union to make a major contribution to the fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, China, in September 1995), in which the European Parliament will play an active preparatory and participatory role;

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