WRITTEN QUESTION P-3696/03 by Anna Karamanou (PSE) to the Commission. Balanced participation of women and men in the decision-making process.
Date: 2003-12-03
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: gender equality, participation of women, political participation, position of women, report

C 78 E/314

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

The Management Board of the EUMC which took the collective decision on the quality of the research is
composed of 15 independent and eminent experts in the field of racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism as
well as a representative of the Commission, the Council of Europe and the Parliament.

The research in question has now been published on the EUMC website at the following address: http://
www.eumc.eu.int/eumc/index.php.

The report is accompanied by a statement setting out why the Management Board deemed the research to
be of insufficient quality.

(2004/C 78 E/0315)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3696/03

by Anna Karamanou (PSE) to the Commission

(3 December 2003)

Subject: Balanced participation of women and men in the decision-making process

Council recommendation 96/694/EC (1) of 2 December 1996 calls on the Commission to submit to the
Parliament (inter alia) a report on its implementation ‘on the basis of the information provided by the
Member States and the institutions, subsidiary bodies and decentralised bodies of
the European
Communities’, for the first time three years after adoption of the recommendation and thereafter annually.
Only the first of these reports has so far been transmitted to the European Parliament in 2000.

When is the Commission intending to transmit the annual reports which should have followed? Have the
questionnaires been sent to the Member States (and those states and institutions concerned by the
recommendation)
to gather and assimilate information on progress achieved in the
implementation of the recommendation? Why has the Commission not yet complied with its obligation
under the Council recommendation?

in order

(1) OJ L 319, 10.12.1996, p. 11.

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(27 January 2004)

A balanced participation between women and men in decision-making is a subject
Commission attaches much importance.

to which the

Council recommendation 96/694/EC on the balanced participation of women and men in decision making
was followed up by a report by the Commission in 2000. The report concluded that the policies
implemented since 1996 have had a positive effect overall. However, original expectations had not been
met and further follow up has taken place.

The Commission has been following the situation in regard to gender equality in decision- making in its
annual reports on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men. The reports produced from 2000 onwards
have provided selected figures in the field and also described trends in the development of legislation in
Member States concerning gender balanced political participation.

Since 1999 the Council of Ministers has adopted conclusions on indicators for monitoring progress in
policy areas related to the Beijing Platform for Action. A set of indicators and statistics focusing on women
in economic decision-making was adopted at the meeting of the Council on 1 December 2003.

Under the framework of the 4th Union Action Programme on Equal Opportunities, the Commission
funded the ‘European Database Women in Decision-Making’. The balanced participation of women and
men in decision making in all spheres of life was the central theme of programme activities for grants in

27.3.2004

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/315

2003 within the 5th Action Programme. The Commission will fund some 20 transnational projects which
will contribute to the promotion of women in decision-making.

Based on an analysis of these different initiatives, the Commission has decided to establish the database
‘Women and men in decision-making’ which is forward looking in its approach and scope. With
information gathered from a broad range of actors the database will be a continuous source of information
on progress achieved for the balanced participation of women and men in decision-making in the political,
public, judicial, social and economical domains.

(2004/C 78 E/0316)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3761/03

by Astrid Thors (ELDR) to the Commission

(5 December 2003)

Subject: Obligation to destroy horses where nandrolon has been used

A case has recently come to light in Finland of a trotting horse being doped by the injection of nandrolon.
The regional veterinary officer in the area in question claims that the law classifies all trotting horses as
working animals and concludes that doped animals ought to be put down immediately and thus be
prevented from ending up on the dining table despite the fact that the horse was never intended to enter
the food chain. However, the relevant legislation is not clear since it is stated that the horse ‘can’ be
destroyed. The law makes reference to EU Directives 96/22 (1) and 96/23 (2).

Does the Commission consider the regional veterinary officer’s interpretation of Directives 96/22 and 96/
23 to be correct and that this trotting horse needed to be destroyed immediately?

(1) OJ L 125, 23.5.1996, p. 3.
(2) OJ L 125, 23.5.1996, p. 10.

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(27 January 2004)

Directive 96/22/EC (1), as amended by Directive 2003/74/EC (2) and Directive 96/23/EC (3), in particular
Article 23(2) thereof, could be construed to require that a horse, doped by injection with the hormone
nandrolone, should be immediately sent to a designated slaughterhouse or knacker’s yard.

However, this does not apply if the owner of the horse excludes the animal definitively from slaughter for
human consumption according to the control mechanisms laid down in Decisions 93/623/EEC (4) and
2000/68/EC (5).

Art 23(2) of Directive 96/23 provides:

2.
After sampling has been carried out in accordance with Article 17, if there is confirmation of a
case of illegal treatment, the animal or animals found to be positive shall be slaughtered immediately
on the spot or taken immediately to the designated slaughterhouse or to the knacker’s yard under
cover of an official veterinary certificate in order to be slaughtered there. Animals so slaughtered shall
be sent to a high-risk processing plant as defined by Directive 90/667/EEC (21).