WRITTEN QUESTION E-0222/03 by Guido Podestà (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Child labour.
Date: 2003-02-03
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Central and Eastern Europe, Community acquis, accession to the European Union, child labour, child protection, labour law, national implementing measure

C 161 E/198

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

10.7.2003

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(28 February 2003)

Based on the information available to the Commission, the Mytilene town hall building to which the
from Community funding. Nor did the
Honourable Member refers was not acquired with support
company NEL Lines receive assistance from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the
1989-1993 and 1994-1999 Community support frameworks.

But a number of projects proposed to the Greek authorities by the Lesbos municipality of Mytilene did
including via the 1989-1993 and 1994-1999 Community support
receive Community assistance,
frameworks. That assistance mainly came under
the operational
programmes for the North Aegean region.

the EAPTA sub-programme of

The installation in Mytilene of a 300 kilowatt (kW) electricity-producing wind turbine was 70 % part-
funded in 1994 by the special programme for the Greek islands of the Aegean Sea. The total installation
cost was ECU 390 070.

The Commission would also inform the Honourable Member that the construction of the Mytilene
municipal waste-water and sewage treatment plant, opened in 2002, was the subject of a specific
Commission decision as a Cohesion Fund project. The Community assistance granted for this amounted to
EUR 35 179 980, out of a total cost of EUR 42 286 533.

Lastly, the Commission would invite the Honourable Member to ask the national and regional authorities
responsible to provide a full list of the funding received by the municipality of Mytilene.

(2003/C 161 E/207)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0222/03

by Guido Podestà (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(3 February 2003)

Subject: Child labour

According to the latest report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), there are 211 million
children aged between 5 and 14 working in the world. Of these, 186 million are doing types of work that
are prohibited by various international instruments. There is equal involvement of boys and girls in these
activities up to the age of 14, at which point the proportion of boys increases.

The agriculture sector exploits the largest numbers of children, followed by the informal urban economy,
industry, tourism and domestic services. 8,4 million boys and girls of all ages fall
into the bracket
comprising the most unpleasant forms of child labour. Around 2 million of them are exploited by the
prostitution and pornography industries, which are thriving in Moldavia, Romania and the Ukraine in
particular thanks to organised trafficking to western Europe.

The area of the world most affected by this phenomenon is the Asia-Pacific area, which has 127 million
child workers, or in other words 60 % of the estimated world total. Sub-Saharan Africa is next with 23 %,
but the problem is more acute in Africa than in Asia as 29 % of the children working there are under 15.
However, child labour is not confined to poor or developing countries, but concerns all the countries of
the world to varying degrees. 3 % of children aged between 10 and 14 work in developed countries.

The problem of child labour remains an issue at world level. In fact, the number of children doing high-
risk work is increasing markedly since around two thirds of them (i.e. 111 million children) are under the
age of 15.

Given that the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union does not explicitly prohibit child
labour, how does the Commission intend to combat this phenomenon?

What measures will it take to eradicate this phenomenon in Eastern European countries that are soon to
join the European Union?

10.7.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 161 E/199

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(14 March 2003)

The Commission is extremely conscious of the need to ensure that all aspects of the Community labour
law acquis, not least that relating to the protection of young people,
is implemented and effectively
enforced in the candidate countries. The Commission is currently actively engaged in ensuring that Council
Directive 94/33/EC of 22 June 1994 on the protection of young people at work (1) is implemented in the
candidate countries at the earliest possible date and, at the latest, by the date of their accession to the
Union.

Ongoing monitoring has shown that the Community ‘acquis’ in this field had already been transposed in
the majority of candidate countries. Of the ten future Member States, only the Czech Republic, Estonia and
Slovenia have not introduced legislation to transpose the Directive on young people at work.

It should be noted that, according to Article 32 of the Charter, ‘The employment of children is prohibited’.

(1) OJ L 216, 20.8.1994.

(2003/C 161 E/208)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0223/03

by Guido Podestà (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Increased life expectancy: women beyond retirement

(3 February 2003)

The 65-and-over age group represents 16 % of the total EU population. Since 60 % of that age group are
women, one can say that women have a longer life expectancy than men. In other words, there are more
women than men in the 65-and-over age group, and especially in the very oldest age groups (72 % of
over-85s are women).

This imbalance has repercussions in several areas. Firstly, the composition of households is altered since,
from a certain age onwards, far more women than men live alone. In 1998, 45 % of women aged 65 and
over were living alone, as opposed to only 17 % of men. Secondly, the relative income level of elderly
people varies according to their sex. In 1997, women’s average income was 10 % lower than that of men
in the same age group and around 20 % lower than the average income of the under-65s. Moreover, the
average income of women living alone was 20 % lower than that of women living with another person.
The gap was considerably smaller in the case of men.

In conclusion, women over the age of 65 run a far greater risk of falling into poverty.

In the light of Articles 21, 23 and 25 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, how
will the Commission guarantee European citizens the right to grow old with dignity in circumstances
where women are not socially marginalised?

Answer given by Ms Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(21 March 2003)

The fact that elderly women are at greater risk of poverty and social exclusion, as noted by the Honourable
Member, has been highlighted by the Commission in the European social inclusion process (1) and the
more recent analysis of the national pensions systems (2).

There is a wide range of underlying factors. Reducing this exposure to poverty and social exclusion thus
requires multi-dimensional approaches, both remedial and preventive.