Mr President, Article 3 of the Treaty stipulates that the European Community wishes to eliminate all inequality and promote equality between men and women. In 1995 in a resolution, the Council specified gender equality as the foundation for development cooperation. Also in 1995, a ten-point action programme was adopted at the International Women’s Conference in Peking to promote gender equality. This action programme was signed by all the countries attending the conference. However, the situation still leaves a great deal to be desired, certainly in the area of development cooperation. There is a lack not only of projects for women but also, and above all, of projects that are implemented in consultation with women. During the previous part-session, we adopted the very controversial Izquierdo Rojo report on women and fundamentalism. This report was approved unanimously in the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities. The problem in this field is obvious to everyone. We are also largely agreed on the directions which the solutions should take. Development cooperation is still too much a matter that involves men only. Seventy percent of the approximately one and a half billion people who live below the poverty line are women. This means that they are greatly lacking in financial resources, but there is more to the matter in practice. In many cases, there is also a lack of fundamental human rights and social rights, such as the right to proper food, drinking water, education health care and work. People who live below the poverty line often have too little control over, and access to, services, sources of aid and goods and are barely involved in the decision-making process. Interestingly, there are increasing indications that there is a link between poverty and gender inequality. Countries which struggle with a high level of gender inequality, such as Sierra Leone, Niger, Burkina Faso or Mali, also suffer the highest levels of poverty. In countries where there is less gender inequality, there is also less poverty. Moreover, it appears that development projects, for example in the area of health care, literacy or agriculture, are more successful if women are also involved. Investing in girls seems to result in lower levels of child mortality and mortality among women, creates better food safety and means an improvement in the fight against poverty. Not for nothing, therefore, is development policy based on the principle of sustainable, fair, human and social development based on participation. Human rights, democracy and the rule of law are inextricably linked to this, and this is why women should also be involved. Since the Council defined gender mainstreaming as a point of departure for development cooperation policy six years ago, disappointingly little has actually happened. This is why I am pleased with this Commission communication. The action programme can provide an additional boost to the implementation of gender equality in the EU’s development cooperation policy. I can identify with the three main points which the Commission outlines, namely the analysis and integration of the gender aspect within the priority fields of Community development cooperation, the horizontal integration of the gender aspect in projects and programmes, and the development of an internal gender capacity in the European Community itself. These three points, and particularly the last one, are extremely important. For a change in mentality is also required in the bodies of the European Union itself. If the staff who are to assess, implement and evaluate the programmes do not take this sufficiently into account, how can the situation ever improve? It is necessary to train our own people, as it is to provide adequate financial support for the policy. It is unfortunate and disappointing in my view that the Commission is once again opting for an economic approach and describing women mainly as a means of achieving economic growth. The fact that women are people who are entitled to quality of life in their own right and, as such, can, and should, be able to lay claim to civil rights, political rights and human rights, is still too much overlooked in my view. The five-year action plan is there to implement the good intentions which the Commission formulates. Indeed, the intentions should not remain merely good intentions. This is why the plan also requires the further development of a work programme with clearly defined working methods, deadlines, financial resources and indicators. I welcome the intention of deciding in favour of an interim evaluation, and I hope that the Commission will involve the European Parliament in this in good time. I should also like to note the importance of cooperation with non-governmental organisations and other related organisations at international level. These can often be of major significance. Finally, the Regulation in question lapses in 2003. It forms the legal basis for the budget line which promotes the integration of the gender issue in the development cooperation policy. In my report, I therefore call for a renewal of this Regulation, thus allowing the work that needs to be done in the field to be continued. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE