BETA


2006/2009(INI) Perspectives of women in international trade

Progress: Procedure completed

RoleCommitteeRapporteurShadows
Lead FEMM BREYER Hiltrud (icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE)
Lead committee dossier:
Legal Basis:
RoP 54

Events

2006/10/19
   EC - Commission response to text adopted in plenary
Documents
2006/09/28
   EP - Results of vote in Parliament
2006/09/28
   EP - Decision by Parliament
Details

The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report by Hiltrud BREYER (Greens/EFA, DE) on perspectives of women in international trade. Pointing out that 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty in the world are women, Parliament stressed the need for coherence between the objectives of European policy for gender equality and the objectives of trade, development and aid policy. Whilst many women had also benefited from trade liberalisation and foreign direct investment, liberalisation had contributed to the informalisation of labour relations, the decline in working conditions and the feminisation of employment in several sectors of the economy.

Parliament called for the following:

- prioritising the lifting of all reservations to the CEDAW and ratification of its Optional Protocol by all partner states;

- studies on the way in which women could benefit from trade liberalisation and for systematic collection of gender disaggregated data in order to remedy the gender blindness of current trade policies and policies of global economic institutions;

- gender impact assessments before the conclusion of trade agreements with third countries and effective conditionality clauses with those countries in which violation of human rights, particularly women's rights, are wide-spread;

- the formal establishment of a trade and gender desk within its DG Trade;

- ensuring that companies profiting from EU market access programmes in the framework of EU cooperation policy do not contribute to the spread of practices such as the inhuman exploitation of employees, in particular women;

- the submission to Parliament of a report co-signed by the donors and beneficiaries of aid, in order to prove that specific funding has not been used for purposes other than those initially intended;

- special attention to the legal restrictions on women's access to means of production such as credit, land rights and capital, in the Commission’s discussions with third countries;

- the "aid-for-trade" programmes should be designed to promote gender equality and sustainable development, and be financed through additional funds;

- Member States must do their utmost to ensure that a gender perspective is taken into account in world trade negotiations.

Documents
2006/09/28
   EP - End of procedure in Parliament
2006/09/27
   EP - Debate in Parliament
2006/07/20
   EP - Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
Documents
2006/07/20
   EP - Committee report tabled for plenary
Documents
2006/06/22
   EP - Vote in committee
Details

The committee adopted the own-initiative report by Hiltrud BREYER (Greens/EFA, DE) entitled "perspectives of women in international trade". MEPs said that trade had the potential to contribute to gender equality and to empower women economically, socially and politically. They pointed out, however, that the trade globalisation process had in practice contributed to the increase in insecure work and growing female unemployment in many economic sectors.

The report noted that 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty in the world are women, who generally have greater difficulty gaining access to education, property, credit and other resources as well as to political decision-making and are restricted by gender roles. These inequalities hamper their ability to take advantage of trade liberalisation. The committee urged the Commission to try to introduce an action plan for gender mainstreaming in international trade policies and create a special fund in development cooperation policy to support women's access to credit, education and vocational training. MEPs also said that the Commission should operate a gender impact assessment before concluding any trade agreements with third countries.

Finally, to raise the profile of gender issues in world trade negotiations the report called on the Member States to "do their utmost" to recruit women to their trade ministries at all levels, including at ministerial level, and to support women candidates for positions in international organisations.

2006/06/06
   EP - Amendments tabled in committee
Documents
2006/05/29
   EP - Amendments tabled in committee
Documents
2006/04/05
   EP - Committee draft report
Documents
2006/01/24
   EP - BREYER Hiltrud (Verts/ALE) appointed as rapporteur in FEMM
2006/01/19
   EP - Committee referral announced in Parliament

Documents

History

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

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New
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activities
  • date: 2006-01-19T00:00:00 body: EP type: Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading committees: body: EP responsible: True committee: FEMM date: 2006-01-24T00:00:00 committee_full: Women's Rights and Gender Equality rapporteur: group: Verts/ALE name: BREYER Hiltrud
  • date: 2006-06-22T00:00:00 body: EP committees: body: EP responsible: True committee: FEMM date: 2006-01-24T00:00:00 committee_full: Women's Rights and Gender Equality rapporteur: group: Verts/ALE name: BREYER Hiltrud type: Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • date: 2006-07-20T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&mode=XML&reference=A6-2006-254&language=EN type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading title: A6-0254/2006 body: EP type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
  • date: 2006-09-27T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?secondRef=TOC&language=EN&reference=20060927&type=CRE type: Debate in Parliament title: Debate in Parliament body: EP type: Debate in Parliament
  • date: 2006-09-28T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/sda.do?id=12509&l=en type: Results of vote in Parliament title: Results of vote in Parliament url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P6-TA-2006-389 type: Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading title: T6-0389/2006 body: EP type: Results of vote in Parliament
commission
  • body: EC dg: Trade commissioner: MANDELSON Peter
committees/0
type
Responsible Committee
body
EP
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False
committee_full
Women's Rights and Gender Equality
committee
FEMM
date
2006-01-24T00:00:00
rapporteur
name: BREYER Hiltrud group: Greens/European Free Alliance abbr: Verts/ALE
committees/0
body
EP
responsible
True
committee
FEMM
date
2006-01-24T00:00:00
committee_full
Women's Rights and Gender Equality
rapporteur
group: Verts/ALE name: BREYER Hiltrud
docs
  • date: 2006-04-05T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE371.992 title: PE371.992 type: Committee draft report body: EP
  • date: 2006-05-29T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE374.266 title: PE374.266 type: Amendments tabled in committee body: EP
  • date: 2006-06-06T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE374.364 title: PE374.364 type: Amendments tabled in committee body: EP
  • date: 2006-07-20T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&mode=XML&reference=A6-2006-254&language=EN title: A6-0254/2006 type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading body: EP
  • date: 2006-10-19T00:00:00 docs: url: /oeil/spdoc.do?i=12509&j=0&l=en title: SP(2006)4772 type: Commission response to text adopted in plenary
events
  • date: 2006-01-19T00:00:00 type: Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading body: EP
  • date: 2006-06-22T00:00:00 type: Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading body: EP summary: The committee adopted the own-initiative report by Hiltrud BREYER (Greens/EFA, DE) entitled "perspectives of women in international trade". MEPs said that trade had the potential to contribute to gender equality and to empower women economically, socially and politically. They pointed out, however, that the trade globalisation process had in practice contributed to the increase in insecure work and growing female unemployment in many economic sectors. The report noted that 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty in the world are women, who generally have greater difficulty gaining access to education, property, credit and other resources as well as to political decision-making and are restricted by gender roles. These inequalities hamper their ability to take advantage of trade liberalisation. The committee urged the Commission to try to introduce an action plan for gender mainstreaming in international trade policies and create a special fund in development cooperation policy to support women's access to credit, education and vocational training. MEPs also said that the Commission should operate a gender impact assessment before concluding any trade agreements with third countries. Finally, to raise the profile of gender issues in world trade negotiations the report called on the Member States to "do their utmost" to recruit women to their trade ministries at all levels, including at ministerial level, and to support women candidates for positions in international organisations.
  • date: 2006-07-20T00:00:00 type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading body: EP docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&mode=XML&reference=A6-2006-254&language=EN title: A6-0254/2006
  • date: 2006-09-27T00:00:00 type: Debate in Parliament body: EP docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?secondRef=TOC&language=EN&reference=20060927&type=CRE title: Debate in Parliament
  • date: 2006-09-28T00:00:00 type: Results of vote in Parliament body: EP docs: url: https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/sda.do?id=12509&l=en title: Results of vote in Parliament
  • date: 2006-09-28T00:00:00 type: Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading body: EP docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P6-TA-2006-389 title: T6-0389/2006 summary: The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report by Hiltrud BREYER (Greens/EFA, DE) on perspectives of women in international trade. Pointing out that 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty in the world are women, Parliament stressed the need for coherence between the objectives of European policy for gender equality and the objectives of trade, development and aid policy. Whilst many women had also benefited from trade liberalisation and foreign direct investment, liberalisation had contributed to the informalisation of labour relations, the decline in working conditions and the feminisation of employment in several sectors of the economy. Parliament called for the following: - prioritising the lifting of all reservations to the CEDAW and ratification of its Optional Protocol by all partner states; - studies on the way in which women could benefit from trade liberalisation and for systematic collection of gender disaggregated data in order to remedy the gender blindness of current trade policies and policies of global economic institutions; - gender impact assessments before the conclusion of trade agreements with third countries and effective conditionality clauses with those countries in which violation of human rights, particularly women's rights, are wide-spread; - the formal establishment of a trade and gender desk within its DG Trade; - ensuring that companies profiting from EU market access programmes in the framework of EU cooperation policy do not contribute to the spread of practices such as the inhuman exploitation of employees, in particular women; - the submission to Parliament of a report co-signed by the donors and beneficiaries of aid, in order to prove that specific funding has not been used for purposes other than those initially intended; - special attention to the legal restrictions on women's access to means of production such as credit, land rights and capital, in the Commission’s discussions with third countries; - the "aid-for-trade" programmes should be designed to promote gender equality and sustainable development, and be financed through additional funds; - Member States must do their utmost to ensure that a gender perspective is taken into account in world trade negotiations.
  • date: 2006-09-28T00:00:00 type: End of procedure in Parliament body: EP
links
other
  • body: EC dg: url: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/ title: Trade commissioner: MANDELSON Peter
procedure/dossier_of_the_committee
Old
FEMM/6/33016
New
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Rules of Procedure EP 052
procedure/legal_basis/0
Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament EP 052
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Old
  • 4.10.09 Women condition and rights
New
4.10.09
Women condition and rights
activities
  • date: 2006-01-19T00:00:00 body: EP type: Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading committees: body: EP responsible: True committee: FEMM date: 2006-01-24T00:00:00 committee_full: Women's Rights and Gender Equality rapporteur: group: Verts/ALE name: BREYER Hiltrud
  • date: 2006-06-22T00:00:00 body: EP committees: body: EP responsible: True committee: FEMM date: 2006-01-24T00:00:00 committee_full: Women's Rights and Gender Equality rapporteur: group: Verts/ALE name: BREYER Hiltrud type: Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • date: 2006-07-20T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&mode=XML&reference=A6-2006-254&language=EN type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading title: A6-0254/2006 body: EP type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
  • date: 2006-09-27T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?secondRef=TOC&language=EN&reference=20060927&type=CRE type: Debate in Parliament title: Debate in Parliament body: EP type: Debate in Parliament
  • date: 2006-09-28T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/sda.do?id=12509&l=en type: Results of vote in Parliament title: Results of vote in Parliament url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P6-TA-2006-389 type: Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading title: T6-0389/2006 body: EP type: Results of vote in Parliament
committees
  • body: EP responsible: True committee: FEMM date: 2006-01-24T00:00:00 committee_full: Women's Rights and Gender Equality rapporteur: group: Verts/ALE name: BREYER Hiltrud
links
other
  • body: EC dg: url: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/ title: Trade commissioner: MANDELSON Peter
procedure
dossier_of_the_committee
FEMM/6/33016
reference
2006/2009(INI)
title
Perspectives of women in international trade
legal_basis
Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament EP 052
stage_reached
Procedure completed
subtype
Initiative
type
INI - Own-initiative procedure
subject
4.10.09 Women condition and rights