Activites

• 1999/06/21 Final act published in Official Journal
• 1999/03/09 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T4-0156/1999 summary

    The Parliament adopted its report on gender mainstreaming, drafted by Ms. Marianne Eriksson (GUE/NGL, Sweden). The Parliament urges all the EU institutions and bodies to step up and give practical expression to their work on gender mainstreaming, in accordance with the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and in line with the commitment to promote equality between men and women enshrined in the Amsterdam Treaty. It calls on the Commission to take the initiative to devise clear objectives and accountability mechanisms both internally and externally and to review rules and procedures with a view to promoting gender mainstreaming. It calls on the Commission to actively seek co-operation with national and international experts in the field and NGOs. In the context of the need for gender relevant data and statistics, it expects the Commission to develop a set of indicators and criteria for formulating, implementing and evaluating equality objectives and results and to develop benchmarking. It also makes some recommendation regarding women in decision-making - the balanced participation of women in management and decision-making positions. It calls on the Commission to identify the circumstances and reasons why women as a group and almost without exception are valued lower than men in terms of pay and to enter into talks with the social partners to examine in greater detail and take action on gender-related differences in wage structure, and to report back to Parliament within one year. It considers that the political responsibilities of the Committee on Women's Rights as a committee in its own right in Parliament needs to be redefined and strengthened in line with the new provisions on equality between men and women enshrined in the Amsterdam Treaty. It calls on the EU institutions to draw up equality programmes for and within their own activities and for the establishment of an inter-institutional working party (primarily between Parliament and the Commission) to act as a co-ordinating body to promote the objective of equality between women and men in all spheres of activity in the institutions, using all the mechanisms to further equality, such as positive action, mainstreaming, etc.�

• 1999/03/08 Debate in Parliament
• 1999/02/17 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A4-0072/1999
• 1998/04/29 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1998/03/04 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(1998)0122 summary

    OBJECTIVE: assessing progress made in incorporating equal opportunities for women and men into all Community policies and activities following the adoption of the Commission communication of 1996 on 'mainstreaming'. SUBSTANCE: In February 1996, the Commission adopted a communication on incorporating equal opportunities for women and men into all Community policies and activities or 'mainstreaming' (COS0390) and set up a new structure with a view to systematically incorporating the equal opportunities dimension in all Community policies and activities. The present report sets out to assess the measures taken since then and their real impact. From this analysis it emerges that the most tangible results were obtained in the fields of external relations, cooperation and development, employment policy, the structural funds, education, training and youth policies and in Commission staff and information policies. Nevertheless, the result is not an unqualified success. The Commission considers that most of the measures taken to promote equal opportunities are isolated and without major impact. Neither do these activities seriously influence the orientation of mainstream Community policies. The Commission takes the view that incorporating equal opportunities for men and women requires a wider and more comprehensive approach. It is particularly concerned at the lack of awareness of gender issues at decision-making levels and the lack of human and budgetary resources and training in this connection. It therefore proposes a number of measures to improve the organizational and methodological framework for gender mainstreaming within the Commission. - awareness-raising of senior and middle management, - large scale training to develop the necessary expertise, - regular impact assessment of policies, - gender proofing to guarantee the proofing of any legislative proposal and other policy document or Commission activity in the field of equal opportunities, Concerning the Commission's 1998 work programme the following policies are singled out for specific attention: (1) close monitoring of achievements in the field of employment policies (employment guidelines), (2) structural funds, (3) new generation of Community education training and youth programmes, (4) programmes to promote part-time work and new forms of work organization, (5) identification and elimination of rigidity caused by gender issues in the functioning of the single market, (6) impact of the euro on equal treatment for men and women, (7) full participation of women in opportunities offered by the new technologies and the information society, (8) impact of the enlargement process on equal opportunities, (9) the cooperation of equal opportunities in the Commission's internal reform programme, (10) continued monitoring of the gender mainstreaming policy and regular reporting on the progress achieved.�

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(1998)0122
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A4-0072/1999
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0156/1999

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)