Activites

• 1999/10/01 Final act published in Official Journal
• 1999/05/04 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T4-0371/1999 summary

    Without debate, the European Parliament adopted the resolution by Lissy Gröner (PSE,DE) on the interim report of the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the implementation of the medium-term Community action Programme on equal opportunities for men and women (1996 to 2000). The Parliament regrets that the Commission has not evaluated the various projects and their value as regards the improvement of equal opportunities in the target areas of employment, education and training. It calls on the Commission to submit to it an evaluation report during the first six months of the year 2000 and, in addition, an annual report on the programme's implementation. The report emphasises that the appropriation of EURO 30 million entered in the budget to cover the programme's 5 years is woefully inadequate for promoting equality between men and women. The Parliament calls in particular for: - an analysis during the second half of the programme of the legal, social and economic position of women in the applicant countries of Central and Eastern europe with a view to that position being brought into line with the position of the EU; - the targeted promotion of women in the field of employment to be implemented principally under the ESF (a minimum of 15% of appropriations) and ERDF Structural Funds; - projects undertaken as part of the EU's LEONARDO and SOCRATES programmes and of the Fifth Framework Programme of Research to be used to promote equal opportunities; - the use of benchmarking by all European, national and regional institutions in the implementation and further development of the European Employment Strategy with a view to ensuring the permanent promotion of women under the "equal opportunities" pillar and to stepping up gender mainstreaming in the other three pillars. Finally, it calls on the Commission to develop gender-awareness courses and ensure that they are attended by decision-makers, to draw up gender-specific statistics in all the relevant areas, to develop an equality index and, in its annual report on equal opportunities for 1999, to give a breakdown of the appropriations devoted to projects to benefit women in the programmes referred to and to indicate what progress has been made in the establishment of equal opportunities.�

• 1999/04/19 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A4-0194/1999
• 1999/01/28 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1998/12/17 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(1998)0770 summary

    PURPOSE: presentation of the Commission's interim report on the implementation of the medium-term Community action programme on equal opportunities for men and women (1996-2000). CONTETN: the medium-term Community action programme on equal opportunities for women and men (1996-2000) was adopted by Council in December 1995 (decision 95/593/CE, see procedure entry CNS95206). It was designed to build on the experience of the preceding Community programmes on equal opportunities, aiming not just to consolidate previous activities but also to react to new ideas, demands and challenges. The present interim report fulfils the Commission obligation, as laid down in the Council decision, to present a mid-term review on the implementation of the programme. The programme has 6 policy aims: achieving gender mainstreaming, mobilising all actors to achieve equality, promoting equality in a changing economy, reconciling work and family life, promoting a gender balance in decision-making and creating optimum conditions for the exercise of equality rights. The report presents the findings of the programme in relation to these 6 policy aims. According to the report, gender mainstreaming, which is the overriding principle of the programme, is proving to be a complex, long-term approach. However, the Commission considers that this complexity and long-term perspective are precisely what makes the activities of the programme in this respect so important. Since the start of the programme, the importance of gender mainstreaming has been confirmed by the declaration of the European Council in Cardiff in June 1998 and further emphasised by the integration of this principle into the employment guidelines and a specific declaration by the heads of State and governments at Cardiff. Another important principle of the programme has been to ensure complementarity between the programme and the national actions or plans on equal opportunities. This has been done in cooperation with the management committee, which is made up of representatives of the Member State equal opportunities authorities. Thanks to this cooperation, a positive synergy has been created between the programme and Member States equality bodies. In conclusion, the report stresses the need for the development of a common framework for coordinated actions at European level. In this respect, important concepts such as gender mainstreaming and gender balance in decision-making are now beeing developed in a European setting and are more and more linked with European policies, due to the platform for analysis and discussion offered by the programme. At the same time the programme is creating a common agenda for gender equality in Europe. This emerging convergence between the Member States is among the most positive side effects of the activities undertaken within the programme.�

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(1998)0770
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A4-0194/1999
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0371/1999

History

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