WRITTEN QUESTION E-2882/00

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

(13 September 2000)

Subject: Population trends in Spain and Galicia and EU harmonisation of the legal, economic and social conditions of women's work

According to demographic forecasts by the EU's statistical services, the population of the Spanish state is likely to diminish considerably over the next fifty years (by as much as 10 million), should the current, extremely low birth rate be maintained. Numerous specialists, expressing views which common sense itself confirms, believe that the main cause of the low birth rate lies in the problems faced by women in trying to reconcile the world of work with their family responsibilities and the upbringing and education of children, in the face of the unacceptable rigidity of employers who prefer to recruit women without children, thus deterring women who would otherwise want more children from having them; a further factor lies in the financial penalties attaching today to extended maternity leave, given the lack of creche facilities and the obstacles to women improving their technical and professional skills during their maternity leave.

The demographic problems obviously have numerous additional causes one of them being men's continued unwillingness to help in the home which are independent of the specific problems faced by women. They are also to be found to some extent in most of the Member States, although they are hitting the Spanish state and within it, regions such

as Galicia particularly hard. However, the nature of the economic and social support offered to women varies enormously from one Member State to another, and the situation in the Spanish state is particularly unfavourable in both legal and financial terms. The aid provided in the Spanish state to families with large numbers of children is one-seventh of that granted in France and one-ninth of that obtaining in Luxembourg.

In view of these circumstances, is the Council considering any initiative, by joint agreement with the Commission and Parliament, for the harmonisation of the legal conditions which affect the economic and social dimensions of family life, with particular reference to women, and make it impossible or difficult for women to have more children?

Reply

(8 March 2001)

The Council is aware of the demographic problems and the impact they may have on the job situation in the future.

The Council would remind the Honourable Member that it has no responsibility in family policy matters; however, it is considering ways of better reconciling professional and family life, especially in connection with the monitoring of Member States' implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. That is why the Council is preparing a set of conclusions on this issue.

In addition, the Lisbon European Council on 23 and 24 March 2000 recognised that it was important to further all aspects of equal opportunities, including reducing occupational segregation, and making it easier to reconcile working life and family life, in particular by setting a new benchmark for improved childcare provision. It added that those measures should contribute, inter alia, towards increasing the number of women in employment from an average of 51 % today to more than 60 % by 2010.

It was in that context that the Council adopted, on 29 June 2000, a Resolution on the balanced participation of women and men in family and working life(1).

Furthermore, the Employment Guidelines 2000, approved by the Helsinki European Council on 10 and 11 December 2000, stress how important it is, in order to strengthen equal opportunities, for Member States and the social partners to design, implement and promote family-friendly policies, including affordable, accessible and high quality care services for children and other dependants, as well as parental and other leave schemes. These points are confirmed in the proposed guidelines for 2001.

Finally, the social policy agenda approved by the Nice European Council contains an important section on equality between men and women.

The Council is therefore aware of the problems of reconciling professional and family life raised by the Honourable Member and is taking a number of measures under the powers conferred upon it by the Treaty.

(1) OJ C 218, 31.7.2000, p. 5.