Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, how can we strive to create a balance between men and women in their working life, both in the private sector and in public institutions, and both at European and national level? We need an effective strategy leading to positive measures. We need to combat ignorance and outmoded clichés about gender roles. Our role model should be those confident women who very effectively occupy senior positions and who actively participate in the community. However, they, and this applies equally to men, have to be able to manage their domestic commitments just as well as they cope with the professional demands placed on them. On behalf of the Group of the , I would like to congratulate Mrs Karamanou on her report, which includes many important sections, such as the demand for the role of women to be enhanced or for action to be taken to counter women's inadequate representation in management and decision-making bodies within companies and also, I have to say, in trade unions. The lack of equal opportunities in the labour market needs to be tackled by developing talent early on. We also support the call for gender-specific statistics in order to produce meaningful comparisons of objectives and outcomes. We are in favour of cooperation between the two sexes and therefore want to see women's concerns, outlook and experience making a contribution. They really do enhance a man’s world. However, on some points there is not a majority amongst the Members of the PPE Group in the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities. That is why one half voted for the report and the other half against – now that is equality. The main concerns are covered in the four amendments which I have tabled jointly with Astrid Lulling. Mrs Karamanou has already agreed to one of them: career and family are no longer to be described as a double disadvantage which women have to face, but rather as a twofold burden which they have to cope with and which they can indeed cope with in practice. Another amendment opposes the idea that women need to be trained in areas like public speaking and assertiveness if they are to get on in the world. For one thing, men also have shortcomings in these areas and, what is more, these days many women do not wait to be given financial support to do this. They are doing it themselves and have been doing so for a long time. However, the two most important amendments are about rejecting the establishment of quotas. We know that there are various systems in the Member States. Some have quota arrangements of one kind or another. Some want a kind of exchange system, alternating men and women, and others stipulate that the parties have to pay fines if an adequate proportion of women is not guaranteed in their lists. The principle of subsidiarity should come into play here. Surely it is not right for individual measures in Member States to be eroded by Europe through the back door. Elsewhere, governments are called upon to review the differential impact of varying electoral systems. That is not a job for governments – it is a job for the parties. They should look at this and draw up their voting lists carefully with this in mind. It is their job and not one for governments. We regard these amendments as so important that we have requested a roll-call vote. If you could give us your support on this, Mrs Karamanou, your report could well secure an overwhelming majority. Anyone deeply concerned about equal opportunities needs to make sure not only that the overall objectives are right, but that the detail is right too. The more precisely we word this, the greater its credibility will be, especially among those who do not have sufficient experience in this field, and that will make it all the more likely that we will secure a broad consensus today.

Political group: PPE-DE