Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on Beijing +10: Review of progress achieved in the field of gender equality in Europe and in developing countries
Date: 2005-02-09
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: European social policy, economic policy, gender equality, participation of women, political participation, the EU's international role, women's rights

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Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on Beijing +10: Review of progress
achieved in the field of gender equality in Europe and in developing countries

(2005/C 221/11)

At its plenary session of 16 December 2004, the European Economic and Social Committee decided, under
Rule 29(2) of its Rules of Procedure, to draw up an own-initiative opinion on Beijing +10: Review of
progress achieved in the field of gender equality in Europe and in developing countries.

The Section for External Relations, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the
subject, adopted its opinion on 12 January 2005. The rapporteur was Ms Florio.

At its 414th plenary session held on 9 and 10 February 2005 (meeting of 9 February), the European
Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 135 votes to 1, with 6 abstentions:

1. Introduction

1.1
The 49th Session of the United Nations Commission on
the Status of Women (CSW), to be held from 28 February to
11 March 2005, will be concerned with reviewing the applica-
tion of the Platform for Action and the Beijing Declaration,
which were approved at the 4th World Conference on Women
(Beijing, 1995), and of the outcome documents approved at the
23rd Special Session of the General Assembly entitled ‘Women
2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-
first century’ (New York, 2000), which initiated a preliminary
evaluation of progress made and obstacles faced in efforts to
achieve gender equality.

At

the 23rd Special Session,

1.2
the General Assembly
adopted a resolution of ‘Further actions and initiatives to imple-
ment the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action’ and a
political declaration in which the Member States agreed to
meet again 10 years after adoption of the platform to assess
progress and consider new initiatives.

agenda. The First World Conference on Women was held in
1975, when the Decade for Women was declared (Mexico
City). At the Second Conference (‘Mid-point of the Decade’,
held in Copenhagen in 1980), governments (57 initially)
began signing the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 1979), which is one of
the milestones on the long road towards gender equality. The
Third Conference (Nairobi, 1985) approved the Plan of Action
‘Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women’,
in which
organisations
and
proclaimed the objective of gender equality.

governments

international

1.5
A further step in the process of recognising women's
issues and the role of women was UN Security Council Reso-
lution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security (which
recognised that war has a different impact on women and reaf-
firmed the need to strengthen women's role in decision-making
processes relating to conflict prevention and resolution). More
generally speaking, the advancement of women has been taken
into account for more than ten years in the conclusions of all
the major conferences and international meetings sponsored by
the United Nations. (1)

1.3
As provided for in the CSW multiannual programme,
the work of the 49th Session will focus on progress made in the
12 areas defined in the Platform for Action and on identifying
current challenges and new strategies for furthering the empow-
erment of women and children. In order to promote dialogue
on this occasion the Assembly will allow broader participation
of delegations from the Member States, civil society and inter-
national organisations.

1.4
The commitment of the United Nations has been crucial
in putting the problem of gender equality on the international

1.6
Another important point was the United Nations Millen-
nium Summit, held in September 2000, in which the Member
States fixed eight clear and measurable objectives (Millennium
Development Goals)
to significantly reduce poverty, hunger,
disease and environmental degradation by 2015. The Millen-
nium Declaration was also a result of the need to draw up a

(1) Conference on Environment and Development

(Rio de Janeiro,
1992), World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993), Special
Session of the UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS (New York,
2001), International Conference on Population and Development
(Cairo, 1994), World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen,
1995), World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (Durban, 2001), International
Conference on Financing for Development
(Monterrey, 2002),
Second World Assembly on Ageing (Madrid, 2002) and the World
Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002), World
Summit on the Information Society (Geneva, 2003 and Tunisia,
2005).

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coherent list of priorities from those identified over the past
ten years at the various conferences and summits held at inter-
national
level. One third of the objectives have to do with
promoting gender equality and empowerment of women, and
are closely linked to education and training; one fifth concern
reproductive health. However, gender issues cut across all eight
goals.

3.3
In addition, in the context of cooperation with the Euro-
pean institutions — notably the Council, the European Parlia-
ment and the Commission — the Committee has taken on an
important role in monitoring the numerous European Union
initiatives
to ensure gender equality, which represent an
attempt over the past few years to meet the challenges and
overcome the obstacles identified at Beijing.

2. General comments

2.1
Although the United Nations system has established an
important legal framework for achieving gender equality, the
practical application of principles within countries, and their
trade and development policies, sometimes fall short of inten-
tions on paper. Full achievement of civil, economic, social and
political rights for women is in practice often threatened by
macroeconomic policies and trade agreements based on neoli-
beralist principles that do not take any account of gender
issues.

Furthermore,

the complex international

2.2
situation is
certainly not a favourable environment for improving the situa-
tion of women, and there is a risk that gains made over
previous years will be steadily eroded.

3.4
In this sense we believe that — by reviewing progress
made and obstacles encountered since the Fourth Conference
— the Committee could make a valuable contribution to
ensuring that women's issues are systematically taken into
account in an ever larger number of spheres of European
policy and society.

3.5 Moreover, given that the European Union will have to
take on a leading role at international
level, with the heavy
responsibilities this implies, we intend in this opinion to set
out possible EU contributions to improving the living condi-
tions and advancement of women throughout the world on the
basis of its cooperation and trade and development policies.

Current conflicts are further weakening and exacerbating

2.3
the status of women.

4. The European Union

Domestic violence is still a reality throughout the world

2.4
and affects women of all ages, social classes and religions.

It is therefore important to reaffirm gender equality and
2.5
the defence of women's rights as a priority objective and means
of achieving equitable development, better wealth redistribu-
tion,
sustainable economic growth and strengthening of
systems to protect the weaker sectors of the population.

3. Role of the Economic and Social Committee

3.1
It is important for the Economic and Social Committee
to be involved, by drawing up a document of its own, in asses-
sing the progress made by the European Union in relation to
gender equality.

It should be noted here that the Committee has always
3.2
taken a keen interest in activities aimed at improving women's
status, both through its many opinions and by promoting
various initiatives itself. With specific reference to the Fourth
Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) and its follow-up
the Committee contributed two
(Beijing +5)
opinions (EXT/131 and REX/033), in which it highlighted, for
example, the importance of a Committee delegation attending
United Nations meetings.

in particular,

4.1
The issue of gender equality in the European Union,
already present in the Treaty, was further codified with the
Amsterdam Treaty,
in which a ‘two-pronged approach’ was
adopted that combined gender mainstreaming in all Com-
munity policies with the introduction of specific measures to
improve the position of women. However, the question of
equal opportunities for men and women had already been
incorporated into the Community's economic and social cohe-
sion policy and was a key objective of the Structural Funds as
far back as 1994.

The EU has adopted an integrated approach, distin-
4.2
guishing between legislative and financial
instruments and
using the open method of coordination in social policies. The
for achieving gender
most
equality within the EU include the Framework Strategy on
Gender Equality (2001-2005), together with the annual gender
equality work programmes and the Structural Funds.

recently adopted instruments

4.3
The Framework Strategy on Gender Equality (2001-
2005) is designed to coordinate activities and programmes that
were first developed on a sectoral basis, reflecting the two-
pronged approach of Amsterdam, in order to improve coher-
ence, e.g. by developing reliable indicators and a system for
monitoring, evaluating and publicising the results achieved.

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4.4
The strategy identifies five broad areas of action/objec-
tives, which are interlinked, for promoting gender equality: the
economy (linked to the employment strategy and the Structural
Funds, as well as the application of mainstreaming in all policy
areas that have an impact on the position of women in the
economy); participation and representation (linked to decision-
making processes); social rights (linked to living conditions and
disparities inherent
life
(linked to basic human rights and freedoms, with particular
emphasis on violence and sexual trafficking); changes in roles
and stereotypes (linked to culture and the mass media).

in social protection systems); civil

4.8
The gender dimension is still very modest in the other
funds, especially those relating to agriculture and fisheries,
sectors in which women are traditionally underrepresented,
even though they play an active role in those sectors' develop-
ment. Thus there remain profound inequalities in such areas
and women's contribution to society is still undervalued,
including in relation to improving environmental protection.

4.5
Gender equality policies have also been stepped up
using the Structural Funds. Provisions for the period 2000-
2006 are based on a careful and critical analysis of measures to
promote equal opportunities and of their weaknesses, and they
incorporate the two-pronged approach laid down in the
Amsterdam Treaty. In addition, the Structural Funds, and in
particular the European Social Fund, have always been regarded
as the main instrument of the European Employment Strategy.
Under the new Employment Guidelines, adopted in July 2003,
gender equality is a horizontal issue spanning all the objectives,
and is also the subject of a specific guideline.

Considerable progress has been made within the Euro-
4.6
pean Social Fund,
in relation mainly to employment and
training policies. Efforts in this area have focused above all on
improving women's access to, and their participation and posi-
tion in, the labour market (Axis E) and on ways of reconciling
work and family life. There is already an encouraging track
record of successes in this sphere. Thus the ESF has taken on
board the quantitative objectives set by the European Council
in Lisbon (2000), namely that
female employment should
increase from 51 % (2000) to 60 % by 2010, and by the Barce-
lona Council (2002), according to which pre-school education
should be available to 90 % of children between the age of
three and the mandatory school age and to at least 33 % of
children under the age of three.

4.7
However, measures to improve the quality of work and
career prospects, encourage women entrepreneurs, narrow the
wage gap and promote women's position in the new tech-
nology sector are only patchy. As regards the work/life balance
some projects exist to improve childcare structures, but very
few explicitly in relation to caring for elderly people or family
dependants.

4.9
EU policies are backed up by various specific funding
programmes and initiatives e.g. NOW (employment) for the
labour market, STOP to promote cooperation to combat traf-
ficking in women and children, DAPHNE to improve informa-
tion and protection for victims of violence, and Women and
Science (Research and Development Framework Programme) in
the new technologies sector. The Framework Strategy is also
intended to strengthen gender mainstreaming in various Com-
munity initiatives, such as Equal, Interreg, Urban, Leader as
well as Leonardo, Socrates, Youth and Culture in the culture
sector.

4.10
The Commission's report on equality between men and
women (COM(2004) 115) notes that a fairly sophisticated EU
legislative framework already exists in this area (1), backed by
extensive case law. A proposal is also being drawn up for a
single directive on implementing the principle of equal treat-
ment between women and men in the access to and supply of
goods and services, which should consolidate and standardise
the relevant existing legislation.

At their recent meeting during the Dutch presidency,
4.11
the European Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs
concurred, noting with respect to drawing up the single direc-
tive on equal treatment that the areas in which action was
required above all were wage parity, equal access to jobs, equal
treatment under social protection systems, training and career
possibilities, and burden of proof in cases of gender discrimina-
tion.

conditions

and working

(1) Directives on equal treatment for men and women with regards to:
equal pay (75/117/EEC); access to employment, vocational training
and promotion,
(Council Directive
2002/73/EC amending Directive 76/2007/EEC); social security (79/
7/EEC);
legal and occupational social security schemes (86/378/
EEC), and self-employed workers (86/613/EEC); as well as the Direc-
tives on the health and safety at work of pregnant workers and
workers who are breastfeeding (92/85/EEC), the organisation of
working time (93/104/EC), parental leave (96/34/EC), the burden of
proof in cases of discrimination based on sex (97/80/EC), and part-
time work (97/81/EC).

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4.12
The proposal for a Directive implementing the prin-
ciple of equal treatment between men and women in the access
to and supply of goods and services (2003/0265 (CNS)) has
also been examined by the EESC (1), which has identified
certain major shortcomings that must be rectified without
delay.

4.13
In addition, following adoption of the Beijing Platform
for Action and in the wake of the Lisbon Council, more statis-
tics on gender have been produced in the last few years, partly
owing to the introduction of new indicators (e.g. on decision-
making processes, the labour market or domestic violence) that
allow problems to be effectively analysed and the impact of
policies and measures to be monitored. Thus progress is
already evident
in relation to statistics even though much
remains to be done if there is to be serious monitoring of the
various spheres. The exact extent of progress made can only be
ascertained if it is possible to examine and analyse quantita-
tively and qualitatively the phenomena and processes taking
place.

4.14
On the other hand, gender budgets — i.e. application
of gender mainstreaming to the budget procedure — are still
virtually unknown at European level and in the Member States.
Introducing the gender dimension at every level of budget plan-
ning is an acknowledgement that administrators' decisions are
not neutral but have different impacts on men and women; in
this sense gender budgeting is also an instrument for evaluating
the impact of policies,
funding and taxation on men and
women.

Unfortunately,

although Community

4.15
to
support women have been stepped up, there is still a need for
positive action and a supreme effort by the Member States to
ensure that objectives are actually achieved, as they hold the
chief responsibility for implementing these policies.

policies

Although the female unemployment rate has fallen to
4.16
55.6 % in Europe, the goal set by the Lisbon Council still seems
distant in several countries. Women have swelled the ranks of
the weakest category of workers, those in precarious employ-
ment, who often have no system of social protection. In many
countries, wage discrimination between men and women
persists or is worsening, and both vertical and horizontal segre-
gation is still a lamentable reality. As already noted, even in
relation to the work/life balance, measures appear
to be
focused exclusively on childcare; virtually nothing is being
done to support care for other family members, and only

(1) See Opinion …

a few countries have introduced measures
parental leave for working fathers.

to encourage

Just consider that at EU level,

Considerable disparities also exist with regard to deci-
4.17
the college of
sion-making.
Commissioners of
the European Commission comprises 22
men and seven women (only 24 % of the total), while Parlia-
ment has 510 men and 222 women (only 30 % of the total).
Nor is the situation improving at national level: the average
percentage of women in national parliaments is not even 25 %,
whereas in governments it barely exceeds 20 %. (2) Women are
also underrepresented in the EESC: of a total of 317 members
only 79 (25 %) are women.

5. The European Union and third countries: international
cooperation and trade for the advancement of women

The problem of equal opportunities

5.1
for men and
women has now also been fully taken into account in European
Union cooperation and development policies: Commission
Communication COM(95) 423 (18 September 1995), followed
by the Council Resolution on integrating gender issues in devel-
opment cooperation (20 December 1995) formed the basis for
adopting an initial regulation in 1998 (Council Regulation (EC)
No. 2836/98 of 22 December 1998), which has now been
renewed for
(No.
806/2004) strengthens the objectives — support for main-
streaming and adoption of specific measures to promote equal
opportunities as an essential contribution to reducing world
poverty — and identifies as priorities
the monitoring of
resources and services for women, especially with respect to
education, employment and participation in decision-making
processes. Support for public and private measures to promote
gender equality is also emphasised.

the period 2004-2006. The new text

5.2
The Programme of Action for the mainstreaming of
gender equality in Community Development Cooperation
(2001-2006) (3)
is intended to help bridge the gap between
stated principles and practice on the basis of a concrete strategy
and definition of priority areas: support for macro-economic
policies to reduce poverty and social development programmes
in health and education; food safety and sustainable rural devel-
opment;
capacity building and good
governance; trade and development, cooperation and regional
integration; support for gender mainstreaming in all projects
and programmes, both at regional and national
level; and
provision of instruments and appropriate training in gender
equality issues for European Commission staff.

institutional

transport;

(2) European Commission data, Employment and Social Affairs DG,

data as at 29/9/2004
(3) COM(2001) 295 final

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The Programming Document

5.3
for 2005 and 2006
Promoting gender equality in development cooperation identifies the
following priority areas for action: promoting positive attitudes
and behaviour among adolescents to combat violence against
girls and women; and the need for training and methodological
support for key stakeholders in partner countries.

5.4
The European Commission supports action and projects
to improve gender equality through bilateral and regional
cooperation with the western Balkans, eastern Europe and
Central Asia, the Mediterranean, Africa, the Caribbean and the
countries of the Pacific and Latin America. Other financial
support is allocated on a thematic, rather than geographical,
basis.

5.5
The Cotonou Agreement, signed on 23 June 2000 with
the ACP (African-Caribbean-Pacific) countries, also marks an
important point in the development of EU relations with third
countries. This agreement — which demonstrates the link
existing between politics, trade and development — introduces
a social dimension, including by promoting full participation of
non-government stakeholders, including civil society, in devel-
opment strategies. Gender equality is also established as one of
the cross-cutting issues of the agreement, and must therefore
be systematically taken into account (Articles 8 and 31). A very
positive development is that non-government stakeholders will
now participate in the different phases of programming
national strategic documents and we hope that particular atten-
tion will be paid here to including women's organisations.

The agreement also gives the Committee an explicit mandate to
advise economic and social interest groups, thus formalising its
role of preferred interlocutor.

Achieving full

5.6
inclusion and active involvement of
women in development policies will certainly be a difficult and
long-drawn-out process, but we believe it is important that all
the European institutions maintain a high level of interest so
that what has been set out on paper is translated into concrete
measures.

From this perspective we think it is important for Com-
5.7
munity economic and social cohesion policies to be put
forward as a model that can be exported to the rest of the
world and for the EU to promote and apply the principles of
social cohesion at international level through its relations with
third countries.

Although trade liberalisation has certainly boosted
5.9
female employment in developing countries,
it is also often
consigned women to the category of workers in precarious
employment, less-skilled, less well-paid and without any system
of social protection. In addition, trade liberalisation is often
accompanied by structural reforms proposed or imposed by
international organisations, which in the absence of adequate
social protection mechanisms place a particularly heavy burden
on the weaker sectors of the population — where women are
often in the majority.

5.10
These policies, especially trade policy, nevertheless still
seem to take little account of gender questions. Given that they
are by no means neutral and that, on the contrary, they often
have a negative impact on women in particular, and that the
economic development of a country cannot neglect the issue of
social equality,
if (1) such policies were
negotiated taking gender mainstreaming into consideration,
and (2) systems were introduced for monitoring their effects at
macro- and micro-economic level.

it would be useful

6. Conclusions and work proposals

The effective cooperation now built-up by the European institu-
tions has yielded significant results in terms of framing active
policies to help women and of specific programmes and
projects that have promoted women's participation in the
labour market, defence of their rights and improvement of
their living conditions. The EESC notes that there remain many
areas where action should be taken:

— The participation of women in decision-making processes
and their representation is still too low, both in the Euro-
pean institutions and in the majority of Member States at
national, regional and local level; it should be encouraged
in all instances, and a quota system should also be consid-
ered.

— Training measures

to promote gender mainstreaming
should be introduced both in the institutions and in the
Member States, at all levels from decision-making to policy
and strategy implementation.

— Targeted studies and gender assessments, statistics, and
specific indicators are
identifying issues,
essential
improving intervention strategies and policies, and for effec-
it is necessary to continue
tively evaluating their impact;
producing de-aggregated data and defining new indicators.

for

One useful approach could certainly be to include
5.8
specific clauses in trade and cooperation agreements, or even
to adopt positive actions for those countries that respect
women's rights.

— Resources earmarked for positive action in favour of
women in all EU funds and financing instruments, and in
the Member States, should be carefully quantified, above all
by encouraging and promoting gender budgeting.

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tion and violence in their country of origin, should be
stepped up, also within the Member States.

— Efforts should be made to combat the trafficking of women

and children.

— As far as trade and development policies are concerned, it
is necessary to build on the policy of involving society in
general and the role of women in particular; women's
interest groups must be fully involved in framing develop-
ment policies and drawing up national strategy documents
in the countries concerned; it is also particularly important
to increase specific funding for women, so as to boost their
economic and social position.

— The effects of trade agreements and development policies
must be monitored, including at microeconomic level, by
providing for specific analyses of their impact on the living
conditions of the weakest social sectors, and taking gender
differences into account.

— The role of the Commission and its delegations must be
enhanced so that they can be influential in ensuring respect
for human rights and thus also respect for women when
their rights have been violated.

— Delegations should be given a specific responsibility for

promoting mainstreaming of gender issues.

— The European Union should bring all its influence to bear
in persuading as many countries as possible to ratify and
implement international treaties that have a positive impact
on the status of women, especially the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimina-
tion against Women and the Optional Protocol, and in
ensuring that the reservations lodged by signatory countries
are withdrawn.

The Committee intends to look more closely into the state of
women's rights in the EU's new Member States.

In view of the Committee's role, its brief in relation to civil
its objectives and the experience gained through
society,
ongoing monitoring of issues relevant to gender equality,
it
would also be useful for it to be represented on the European
Commission delegation at
the United
Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

the 49th Session of

The president

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Anne-Marie SIGMUND

— The most important basic condition is, however, to ensure
equal rights of access to education and training for women,
as called for in Goal 3 of the Millennium Development
Goals.

— With regard to the Structural Funds, measures to help
women in the agricultural
(EAGGF) and fisheries (FIFG)
sectors should be stepped up and linked to environmental
protection, another area in which Community gender-
linked policies are rather weak.

— New impetus should be given to policies to encourage
female entrepreneurship and increase the presence of
women in the new technologies sector.

— Training activities in the knowledge-based society sector
should be stepped up in order to ensure that this does not
become a further area of discrimination and exclusion for
women, who in fact have much to contribute towards
achieving the Lisbon Strategy objectives.

— More generally, further measures are needed in the labour
market to combat vertical and horizontal segregation and
to remove all obstacles preventing the achievement of true
equality; Member States must identify specific, quantifiable
targets and objectives with the agreement of the social part-
ners. In relation to wage discrimination in particular, the
Member
a multi-faceted
approach, as provided for in the Council guidelines for the
the Member States (1), which
employment policies of
includes education and training, job classifications and pay
systems and cultural stereotypes as basic dimensions of the
problem.

States must

applying

start

— In measures designed to reconcile work and family life
more attention must be paid to providing care for elderly
relatives, partly in view of the ageing of the population,
without diminishing childcare provision.

— In order to promote equal opportunities between men and
women, investment in public services should be encouraged
and improved, especially in school and university educa-
tion, healthcare and welfare services.

— Immigration and asylum policies and policies to promote
the integration of migrant women, as well as measures to
help women who have been victims of conflict, discrimina-

Brussels, 9 February 2005.

(1) Council Decision of 22 July 2003 on Guidelines for the employ-

ment policies of the Member States (OJ L 197/13)