Mr President, Commissioner, I am sure we all welcome the fact that the Council, along with Parliament, has acknowledged that promoting equality between women and men requires, in practice, a range of measures, a structured programme, the involvement of civil society and, most importantly, the involvement of women’s organisations and financial support for these. As one of the founders of the European Women’s Lobby, I acknowledge that its primary role is to promote equality between women and men. I am pleased to see, however, that, as I have been advocating for many years, there are other women’s organisations outside the lobby, which are active at European level in the field of promoting equality between women and men and which are similarly worthy of support. Our rapporteur, Mrs Kratsa, for whom I am deputising today, did not have an easy task, either in the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities, or at first reading here, to persuade people that European women’s organisations outside the lobby should not suffer discrimination. Nonetheless, an agreement has finally been reached with the Council to ensure that the various women’s organisations active at European level are accorded equal treatment. The European Women’s Lobby does not have a monopoly on representing, or on coordinating, women’s NGOs. It is, therefore, only right and proper that other organisations should also receive an annual operating grant in the framework of the Community action programme, covering the period from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2005. This Community action programme is open not only to the twenty-five Member States, but also to member countries of the European Free Trade Association, and to Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, who are waiting in the wings to become EU Member States. In light of this, Mr President, I feel distinctly underwhelmed by the financial envelope for carrying out this programme – EUR 2.2 million over two years – especially given that in the financial provisions, there is a restriction that states, and I quote, that ‘annual appropriations shall be authorised by the Budgetary Authority within the limits of the financial perspective’. In order not to delay any further the adoption of this decision, which should have been adopted before 1 January 2004, when it came into force, I should like to ask you, on behalf of Mrs Kratsa, to endorse her position and adopt this text, which she negotiated so skilfully with the Council, without any amendments. I should like to recall the most important aspects of these texts: the transfer of the European Women’s Lobby from the first part to the annex; the setting of identical cofinancing rates for other organisations active at European level as for the European Women’s Lobby; the non-application of degressivity to the funding of women’s organisations that do not belong to the European Women’s Lobby; and an annual operating grant to support the implementation of the permanent work programme of the women’s organisations. This is a good thing and I welcome this agreement. I trust that the Members of this House, as Mrs Kratsa wishes, will give their approval to this text that she negotiated with the Council, as it is acceptable to everyone.

Political group: PPE-DE