Activities of Eleonora FORENZA related to 2017/2015(INI)
Plenary speeches (2)
Gender equality in EU trade agreements (debate) IT
Gender equality in EU trade agreements (debate) IT
Reports (1)
REPORT on gender equality in EU trade agreements PDF (517 KB) DOC (93 KB)
Amendments (26)
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 28 a (new)
Citation 28 a (new)
– having regard to its resolution on the EU’s response to HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Hepatitis C of 27 June 2017,
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas country-specific and sector-specific assessments are of great importance; whereas women comprise the majority of workers in certain segments of the garment, horticulture, mobile phone and tourism global supply chains (GSCs) but tend to be more concentrated in low- wage or low- status forms of formal and informal employment than men, leading to gender segregation in types of occupations and activities and gender gaps in wages and working conditions and gender- specific constraints in access to productive resources, infrastructure and services;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas the EU position as expressed in December 2016 on TiSA (Trade in Services Agreement)endangers the situation for several categories of employees, such as services provided by teachers, midwives, nurses and para- medical personnel, of whom the majority are women; whereas trade liberalisation and privatisation in these sectors has a potential risk to worsen the situation in terms of working conditions and labour rights, as well as result in increased inequality in access and poorer quality of services;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas the problems of decreased tax revenues due to cuts in tariffs needs to be addressed from a gender perspective, linking the trade and tariff revenues issue with the SDGs agenda and financing for sustainable development;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas Intellectual property rights (IPR) provisions have been used in trade agreements to protect the interests of large pharmaceutical companies and restrict the production of cheap generic medicines; whereas affordable essential medicines are particularly important for women;
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
Ia. whereas abolishing barriers to investments in the form of legal rights, social standards, consumer protection and environmental regulations may lead to a ‘harmonisation’ towards lower labour standards, as well as privatisation of public services and the welfare sector, which will have a negative impact on gender equality;
Amendment 139 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I b (new)
Recital I b (new)
Ib. whereas trade in conflict minerals has proven to be directly linked to widespread human rights violations, including rape and sexual violence against women and girls, child and slave labour and mass displacements;
Amendment 142 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I c (new)
Recital I c (new)
Ic. whereas privatisation and liberalisation through public procurement of health and care services risks increasing inequality in access and the unpaid care burden mostly done by women and limit their opportunities to gain or increase paid employment and, also worsen the working conditions of many women working in social sectors;
Amendment 190 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Reiterates the importance of activating the suspension clause in international trade agreements in the event of human rights infringements, including women’s human rights abuses, by the other contracting party;
Amendment 203 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls for a comprehensive analysis of differences and inequalities in the framework of GVCs, with regard to: (i) gender differences in time use, mainly resulting from women’s primary responsibility for reproductive work; (ii) gender differences in access to productive inputs and resources, particularly land, credit, training, and networks; and (iii) gender differences stemming from failures and discrimination at the level of markets and institutions;
Amendment 216 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Stresses that special attention must be given to the rising trade liberalisation of public services and its impact on women both as service providers and service users; underlines that privatisation of essential public services (schools, hospitals, social services) tends to increase user fees that deter or prevent disadvantaged people from accessing those services, particularly women, which in turn increases the unpaid care burden on women; is also concerned that privatisation of these services can jeopardises women’s empowerment in the labour market by weakening their working conditions when working for commercial providers in the social sector;
Amendment 218 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Stresses that health care services must be exempted from the trade liberalisation agenda; highlights in particular that safeguards need to be in place to ensure women's access to safe and legal abortion, access to retroviral therapy, and hormone therapy, all of which are central to women's and LGBTQI people’s self-determination;
Amendment 235 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Expresses its deep concerns against the negative impacts of trade expansion and liberalisation on labour trafficking of persons; underlines that women and girls tend to be ones who suffer the most, as labour trafficking is strongly linked to trafficking for sexual purposes;
Amendment 237 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9b. Condemns the human rights abuses and women’s rights violations in the conflict minerals trade, calls on the EU and the international community to mobilise against mining companies and enforce binding due diligence principles at all level;
Amendment 245 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Call for policies to regulate against food speculation and limit subsidies for agro-fuels, while focusing on improving gender equality through better regulation of international companies to protect rural communities from land grabbing, and through encouraging improvements in inheritance of land and reducing gender discriminations in accessing land and financial resources;
Amendment 246 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10b. Considers that in order to ensure that women have improved access to essential medicines and resources for food sovereignty, the EU should stop promoting Intellectual Property Rights as laid out WTO TRIPS in bi- and multilateral agreements with strengthened mechanisms of enforcement; calls on the EU to also stop with promoting the 1991 International Convention for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV);
Amendment 252 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Insists that binding instruments are needed in EU trade policynd enforceable clauses in the EU trade agreements, including sanctions, are needed to ensure that decent work standards, women’s rights, human rights principles and environmental protection are at the core of all types of EU trade agreements and that EU trade policy is coherent with the Union’s overarching aims of sustainable development, poverty reduction and gender equality;
Amendment 257 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Calls on the EU and the Member States to ensure that the objectives of sustainable development goals (SDG´s) and particular Goal 5 on Gender Equality and the Strategic engagement for equality between women and men 2016-2019 are fully reflected in EU trade policies; in this context, calls on the EU to align EU Trade policy with GAP II (adopted as part of EU development policies), which outlines relevant gender equality targets;
Amendment 260 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 b (new)
Paragraph 11 b (new)
11b. Calls on the EU to ensure that its trade policy guarantees states' capacity to regulate, in particular as concern human rights, labour rights, gender equality, and environmental protection;
Amendment 273 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Stresses that trading commitments in EU agreements should never overrule human rights, women’s rights orand environmental concernsprotection (including protection against land grabbing); insists that these commitments should be included in each trade agreement and equally binding as the agreements on trade that are sanctionable when breached;
Amendment 293 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Calls for the EU and the Member States to ensure that binding and enforceable clauses on labour rights, based on the ILO Conventions, including Conventions No 189 on Domestic Workers and No 156 on Workers with Family Responsibilities, are included in trade agreements, and that social clauses in trade agreements also apply to informal work;
Amendment 304 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Welcomes the Commission’s decision to carry out ex ante and ex post sustainability impact assessments (SIAs) for all trade agreements in accordance with the ‘Guidelines on the analysis of human rights impact assessments for trade-related policy initiatives’; calls in this context on the EU and Member States to include gender impact assessments and a gender risk evaluations in all EU trade agreement and in all analysis of global value chains; points out that these assessments will evaluate potential positive and negative effects on gender equality that will be considered with a view introducing preventive measures; stresses that EU trade authorities should consult with gender equality experts when producing these analyses;
Amendment 317 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Stresses that decreased tax revenues due to cuts in tariffs needs to be addressed from a gender perspective; Recommends that EU trade policy link the trade and tariff revenues issue with the SDGs agenda and financing for sustainable development with the aim to ensure sustained tax and state revenues;
Amendment 320 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 b (new)
Paragraph 17 b (new)
17b. Underlines the need for the establishment of a Trade and Gender Desk within the DG Trade, which would include monitoring whether EU trade agreements contribute to achieving central objectives in the field of gender equality, and monitoring the respect for women's human rights, and actively responding to cases of human rights violations;
Amendment 325 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls for the EU and the Member States to ensure inclusive participation in trade consultations, including women’s rights organisations, trade unions and civil society, civil society and development organisations in trade policy-making and related implementation; encourages women’s rights organisations to participate actively and to put forward initiatives and information relevant to the negotiations;
Amendment 332 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Calls on the European Commission to ensure that the European Parliament is regularly and timely informed about any new EU trade agreement, and that the negotiation process is open, transparent and includes the special expertise of trade unions and different NGO´s, including women’s rights organisations;