Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, reconciling professional, family and private lives is a crucial aspect of making gender equality a reality. It is therefore a privilege today to be able to present and discuss my own report on this issue. Today, 8 March, is most appropriate because it marks International Women’s Day and because this year, 2004, has been designated International Year of the Family. We are well aware that professional life, family life and private life are all aspects of our lives but at the same time, they form three complementary lives. Promoting equality between men and women is a key Community task, which entails the need to compensate for the disadvantages faced by women as regards conditions of access to and participation in the labour market, and the disadvantages faced by men as regards conditions for participation in family life. In the 1990s, this area received a substantial boost and a great deal of Community legislation was implemented in this field. Member States’ policies, however, lack coherence. Against this backdrop, two issues must be examined: firstly, the demographic challenge. On the one hand, the ageing of the population requires a greater influx of human resources into the labour market and access to this market must be equal for both men and women. On the other hand, there is a need for family policies that favour demographic growth. The second issue is the challenge of economic growth, which requires measures that provide incentives for women’s participation in the labour market. Making policies coherent above all requires a balance to be struck between these two issues. Without this balance, they will remain at odds with one another and reconciling professional, family and private lives will be seriously endangered. I believe the key point in this issue is that women must always be free to choose between working when they have children or staying at home. Measures must, therefore, be in place to enable women to make this choice without their careers or their family and private lives suffering as a result. The diversity of situations must be emphasised and taken into account. I wish to highlight the fact that in the EU, one woman in six between the ages of 25 and 54 is not in paid employment, in other words, is neither employed nor unemployed, because of family responsibilities or because she is not able to reconcile professional and family life. Obstructing or hampering women’s entry into the labour market is a factor for lower productivity in Europe. The disparities between Member States from northern Europe and those from the south speak for themselves. We must focus on the good practices employed by our partners in Denmark, Sweden and Finland, who have the highest rates of female employment. In Sweden, women have a large choice of crèches. Denmark devotes 3.8% of its national wealth to family policies, more than any other European country and its birth rate stands at 1.73%, also one of the highest in the EU. All of the parties involved in this field, families, national, local and regional authorities and the social partners, must be involved. The Lisbon conclusions state that the balanced participation of men and women in professional and family lives, which is in the interest of men as well as of women, is a key factor for progress in society, with maternity, paternity and children’s rights being extremely important social values that must be protected by society, by the Member States and by the European Community. Genuine equality between women and men in both the public and private domains must be accepted by society as a prerequisite for democracy, a requirement for citizenship and as a guarantee for individual autonomy and freedom, which should be reflected in all EU policies. The objectives of the Lisbon and Barcelona European Councils throw down major challenges to the European Union and call for innovative measures. I shall confine myself to suggesting a few: the current Member States and those about to join must monitor the impact of their policies on families. The innovative concept of ‘family mainstreaming’ must be viewed as distinct from the concept of gender mainstreaming. Businesses must be made aware of reconciling professional and family lives as a right pertaining to their employees, as a social obligation and as an essential tool for promoting higher productivity. In conjunction with the social partners, a guide to good practice must be drawn up for companies, which also publicises success stories. The organisation of work, specifically promoting part-time work, reduced working hours and teleworking could be one solution. Setting up Internet sites containing databases of services useful to workers and publicising existing support structures, informing employers and providing incentives for them to establish or maintain social support structures that facilitate the reconciliation of family and professional lives, granting firms tax exemptions or reductions, providing assistance, for example in the form of cash benefits or vouchers (childcare vouchers, vouchers for the recruitment of home helps, etc, special support for single-parent families and for single mothers, specifically in terms of taxation, family support and family credits. These are all ambitious measures that are much needed, because we must make progress in this field. As rapporteur, therefore, I should like to ask the Commission to put in place the necessary mechanisms for drafting a framework directive on reconciling professional, family and private lives, so as to ensure that all Member States, current and future, have the appropriate tools and responses with which to meet the challenges of equal opportunities, economic growth and the demographic challenge.

Political group: PPE-DE