WRITTEN QUESTION E-2141/01

by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(17 July 2001)

Subject: EU policy on equal employment opportunities for men and women

The Commission's annual reports on Structural Fund policy reveal that there is no real specific policy to promote female employment and equal opportunities for men and women, it being left to the Member States to implement small-scale symbolic projects which have no political impact whatsoever on female employment. In view of this situation, what projects has the Commission devised and how much funding is to be allocated to them in an effort to bring about the increase in employment (and the reduction in unemployment) amongst women which were decided upon at the Lisbon Summit?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(10 September 2001)

The Lisbon European Council in March 2000 concluded that the average employment rate of women in the Community should increase to more than 60 % by 2010 in support of the target of an overall employment rate of 70 %, reflecting the long term goal of full employment. This was confirmed and reinforced at the Stockholm European Council in March 2001, where agreement was reached on an intermediate target for a Community female employment rate of 57 % by 2005.

Three major Community initiatives deserve to be mentioned regarding support to the promotion of women's employment. Firstly, the Employment Guidelines for 2001(1) refer for the first time to the Lisbon targets in the horizontal Guideline A. The Guidelines also indicate that Member States should consider setting national targets for raising the rate of employment, in order to contribute to the overall European objective for 2010.

Progress against the Lisbon target and the implementation of the Employment Guidelines 2001 is currently being assessed in the annual process of examining Member States' National Action Plans on Employment, in line with Article 128 (ex-Article 109 Q) of the EC Treaty. The assessment will be published in the forthcoming Joint Employment Report for 2001.

Secondly, the European Social Fund (ESF) gives a high profile to gender issues and women's employment. Reforms in 1993 set gender equality as a common objective in all Structural Funds. During the 1994-1999 programming period, Community intervention involved a mixture of direct assistance for women and indirect support contributing to promote gender equality. Evaluation results suggest that Structural Fund support played an important catalyst role in raising the profile of gender equality in policy initiatives within Member States. This was achieved through both mainstream ESF activities and the pilot projects supported through the Community Initiatives, and, in particular, the Employment initiative.

Structural Fund regulations for 2000-2006(2) make gender mainstreaming a requirement of all programmes and actions. Current European Social Fund (ESF) regulations put the European Employment Strategy (EES) at the heart of ESF programmes. A key element within this strategy is the promotion of gender equality including efforts to raise the employment rate of

women. The Commission has taken a strong line on gender equality in negotiations with Member States over the new programmes. These negotiations helped secure further increases in the level of resources devoted to the specific needs of women above those originally proposed by Member States.

Virtually all Member States propose to adopt a two-pronged approach to equal opportunities between men and women within the (ESF) programmes. These set specific measures to support gender equality alongside a wider commitment to mainstream equal opportunities across all actions and programme priorities. It is difficult to put a definitive figure on the overall investment in gender equality. However, specific actions to promote gender equality supported under ESF will provide nearly 4 billion between 2000-2006. The inclusion of funds supporting mainstreaming actions would boost this figure significantly.

It is also important to recognise the potential impact of projects supported through the Community Initiative EQUAL. EQUAL will test and promote the mainstreaming of new ways of tackling discrimination and inequality experienced by those in work and those looking for a job. Around 3 billion is available through EQUAL, with 8 % allocated to promoting equal opportunities for men and women.

Structural Fund support for women covers the whole spectrum of labour market activities. Many, however, emphasise specific measures designed to develop and support childcare strategies, greater flexibility in delivery arrangements for education and training, measures to combat occupational segregation and specific targeting of activities for women (e.g. business start-ups). Many of these activities should contribute to increasing the participation of women in the labour market.

There are also a few specific projects on gender equality as part of measures for local commitment to employment, focusing for example on the transition to work of young women and men in ways that are gender-sensitive, identification of good practice on local actions in favour of the employment of women, in particular those carried out by the third sector, etc. The evaluation of these projects (for the year 2000) is ongoing and results will be available in 2002.

Thirdly, the promotion of gender equality in economic life is one of the core objectives of the Framework strategy on Gender equality and its supporting Action Programme (2001-2005)(3). 50 million have been allocated to implement the Programme (2001-2005). Transnational projects run by Member States, national equality bodies, non governmental organisations (NGOs), social partners and women's associations as well as awareness-raising activities and research will be funded in order to acquire a better understanding of the gender gaps in the labour market and to disseminate strategies designed to close them.

(1) Council Decision of 19 January 2001, OJ L 22, 24.1.2001.

(2) Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/1999 of 21 June 1999 OJ L 161, 26.6.1999.

(3) COM(2000) 335 final.