Madam President, Commissioner, Mr President-in-Office, honourable Members, on 18 April 2002 the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities adopted an opinion drafted by Mrs Dybkjær on the basis of the Commission reports submitted in November 2001. Unfortunately, Mr Brok's otherwise very important report does not include any of our proposals on the legal and social position of women in the candidate countries and, as chairman of the Committee on Women's Rights, I should like to express my committee's acute displeasure to the House. Naturally I hope that the amendments tabled by my committee on the subject will be adopted tomorrow. In its opinion, our committee stressed that adopting the acquis communautaire on equal opportunities for men and women is a sine qua non to accession because this is a basic human rights issue. Institution building and strengthening institutional and administrative capacities in this area are basic prerequisites to full application of the European acquis. Equality of the sexes is a fundamental and integral part of economic, social and democratic development, which is why it must act as a guideline in the development and accession process. In other words, the candidate countries must ensure that the acquis on equal opportunities for men and women is applied fully and effectively before they accede. As you know, the acquis communautaire on equal opportunities consists of nine directives on equal pay, equal treatment in the workplace, health and safety, work for pregnant women, parental leave, the burden of proof in cases of discrimination and equal treatment under social policy. We also feel it is very important for the candidate countries to develop or reform their judicial and administrative structures, in order to create the right conditions for applying the acquis communautaire efficiently. The Committee on Women's Rights has of course taken account of progress already made by the candidate countries and has identified areas in which further improvement is needed. It is important, in our view, for the enlargement procedure to include the application of efficient measures to prevent and combat trafficking in women, prostitution, sexual abuse of children and child pornography in the candidate countries, given that many of these countries are still the countries of origin, transit and destination for international organised crime networks in the modern slave trade. In addition, problems persist in certain candidate countries as far as children are concerned, as a direct consequence of weaknesses in social protection systems. The Commission is called on to step up its efforts to wipe out all forms of violence against women as part of the accession strategy, in order to ensure that women's personal rights and dignity are safeguarded and, of course, to act as an incentive for improving children's rights and child protection. We still need a broad programme of institutional intervention and economic support in order to incorporate the gender equality dimension in the economic guidelines for the accession process and counterbalance the negative impact on gender equality of privatisation and cuts in public spending. As you know, the transition to a market economy is exerting huge pressure on all aspects of employment in many of the candidate countries. We are particularly concerned about the adverse impact which this transition has on women, given that they are always the first to suffer from cuts in the budget in the areas of child care, education and the social protection systems which allow them to combine working and family life. The Commission needs to promote suitable public and private investment in social sectors in the candidate countries, in order to make it easier for more women to enter representative institutions and the centres of power. There is a serious democratic deficit in this sector in all the candidate countries. This being so, we call on the Commission to tell us what has been achieved in the candidate countries as regards adopting the social acquis communautaire on equal opportunities. We should also like to know what progress the candidate countries have made in constructing the relevant framework over this period. (The President cut off the speaker)

Political group: PSE