Mr President, I greatly appreciate the fact that France, during its presidential term, has decided to issue Parliament with a statement on equality. This is, of course, no surprise, as we know that Secretary of State Péry is also extremely active in these matters in France. She is quite right when she says that steps taken forward nationally can inspire us at EU level and, on the other hand, steps taken forward at EU level can give hints to the Member States regarding the direction they should go in. It must also be said that France’s constitutional amendment to establish a policy of equal decision-making would perhaps be ideal as a source of inspiration not just in the Member States, but perhaps also at European Union level. I know that in this we are getting into a very sensitive area as we are stepping into what is almost like the Member States’ areas of competence. We could perhaps say that as the Commission has begun to ensure there is equal representation of men and women in its own committees and expert groups it will perhaps not be such a very big step from there to what Mrs Dybkjær said, dare we say it, that we should work on the assumption that both women and men should represent the European Union at a higher level too, such as at summit conferences. Perhaps the biggest disappointment in this area with regard to the Charter on Fundamental Rights, as far as I am concerned, is that the Charter does not say that we should carry through the idea of equal representation of women and men in decision-making. However, this should have been incorporated in the Charter quite naturally – in a modern society such as ours – but this work will certainly have to be continued and gone into in greater detail. Péry spoke of the importance of reconciling work with family life. I am glad that she also mentioned that the method chosen by Finland was being used in France, in which quite clear indicators are identified to gauge the situation. This will also perhaps serve as an answer for Mrs Swiebel, who was demanding that we must be able to define clear targets and that results must be able to be measured. I believe that this method, which Finland has introduced for the first time, works well in many areas and while it is part of the Commission’s strategy on equality there is good reason to expect much from it. I would also like to mention one problem in the area of work and family life. It would appear that it is getting harder for young families to take advantage of the rights that have been guaranteed them by law, as competition in the job market has become so fierce. We must be very careful that young mothers and fathers do not freely surrender their rights because they are afraid of the problems they might encounter in working life. Reference was also made here several times to mainstreaming, and I can only agree with what has been said here that, for example, in the area of economic policy it is of absolutely major importance to start considering the gender perspective. The fact is, in Denmark, women suspect that the whole European integration project threatens the rights and levels of welfare women have achieved there. This, I think, presents quite a challenge for both the Commission and the Council. (Applause)

Political group: Verts-ALE