Mr President, Commissioner, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased to see you all here. The Commission’s communication affirms that democracy is a fundamental value of the EU Member States, the EEA States and the candidate countries, as well as a key part of external relations and development cooperation in the Union. It also affirms that real democracy requires all citizens, women and men alike, to participate and be represented equally in the economy, decision making and social, cultural and civil life. There are major deficiencies in all these areas. The Commission therefore proposes to tackle the problem with a combination of measures. In tandem with integrating equality perspectives into all policy areas – what is normally called gender mainstreaming – specific measures for women will be implemented. I fully endorse that strategy and approach and consider that it is not an exaggeration to say that no efforts to promote gender equality are of lasting value unless women’s rights are strengthened at the same time. This work has gone quite quickly despite the fact that it took a little time at the beginning. The Committee has submitted 49 amendments. At the beginning we had 126, which indicates that we are incredibly committed. I am very pleased about this. We believe, for example, that it is very important for the Commission to guarantee maximum openness around this programme so that all interested parties can keep abreast of proceedings throughout the implementation phase. It is also incredibly important, not to say fundamental, that the various Community actions, the framework strategy and the Member States’ measures complement, and do not counteract, each other. This is, of course, also the Commission’s and the Council’s express ambition. The Commission has now identified five focus areas of strategic importance. I have no objections in this respect, nor has the Committee. We have come up with a new shock proposal, which is really a reiteration of what was stated in our opinion on the budget. We believe that 40 per cent of the Structural Funds should be earmarked to focus on women’s conditions and needs. The Commission’s proposed measures should be expanded to include reviews of individual access to medical and health care and to social security and pensions, an analysis of shortcomings in the organisation of work and perhaps also a study of the significance of a general reduction in working hours. What we have just recently discussed here in this Chamber are, of course, the social issues, and I wish once again to emphasise the repeated observation that over 50 million EU citizens are, in fact, classified as poor and that a large majority of those are women. This is, of course, something which needs not only to be observed but also to be combated, and with the help of vigorous measures. We have had a lot of detailed discussion of various assessment procedures. I shall not go into any more detail here. Rather, I just wanted to mention it. We have touched upon the idea that the plan must be to increase accessibility and also scope for active participation for non-governmental organisations. Discussions have been held as to how the candidate countries can be incorporated in the programme in a natural way. We have also discussed what we must do in order not only to give a mention to women in the developing countries but also to be able to do something practical in this area. During the final phase of the journey, I have been in very close contact with people in both the Commission and the Council. We naturally want to include the strategy in the Council decision, too. What we mean in the Committee by strategy is, of course, not the Commission’s opening gambit, but that strategy beginning as from paragraph 2 (‘The Strategy’). I am saying this so that no mysterious or technical procedures cause this to be misunderstood, for no less than seven different amendments in the same spirit have been tabled. In other words, the Council too must adopt the Commission’s strategy. It is therefore important that non-governmental organisations should obtain influence in the course of implementation. One amendment is to the effect that it should be possible to hold an annual debate here in Parliament, together with the Commission. This perhaps affects only the Commission and Parliament, but I am very grateful indeed for the fact that you, Mrs Diamantopoulou and you, Mrs Péry are here, and I am very much looking forward to hearing your points of view on all the amendments.

Political group: GUE-NGL