Resolution by the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly on the situation of women in the labour market in the Eastern European partners
Date: 2017-11-01
Institutions: Euronest Parliamentary Assembly
Subjects: Eastern Partnership, Roma, female work, female worker, gender equality, human rights, labour market, position of women








C_2018099EN.01002401.xml










15.3.2018   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 99/24





RESOLUTION
by the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly on the situation of women in the labour market in the Eastern European partners
(2018/C 99/07)
THE EURONEST PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY,






—


having regard to the Joint Declaration of the Eastern Partnership Summit (Vilnius, 28-29 November 2013) entitled ‘Eastern Partnership: the way ahead’,










—


having regard to the Joint Declaration of the Eastern Partnership Summit held in Warsaw on 29-30 September 2011,










—


having regard to the European Parliament resolution of 13 December 2016 on the rights of women in the Eastern Partnership states (1),










—


having regard to the European Parliament resolution of 23 October 2013 on the European Neighbourhood Policy: towards the strengthening of the partnership — Position of the European Parliament on the 2012 progress reports (2),










—


having regard to the Constituent Act of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly of 3 May 2011,










A.


whereas, according to the Prague Declaration, the Partnership is based on commitments to the principles of international law and to fundamental values, including democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; whereas the Riga Declaration referred to gender equality as a ‘promising new area of cooperation’;










B.


whereas enhanced differentiation between, and greater ownership by, partner countries are key principles for the reviewed European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), taking into account the specific situation of each country;










C.


whereas due consideration should be given to the objective of achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, as enshrined in the fifth of the sustainable development goals approved for 2016-2030 at the UN Sustainable Development Summit held from 25 to 27 September 2015 at the UN headquarters in New York;










D.


whereas gender equality between women and men is enshrined in the constitutions and legal systems of all the Eastern European partners, and all the countries have ratified most of the important international conventions in this area without reservation;










E.


whereas all the Eastern European partners have developed strategies, programmes or action plans to improve the situation of women;










F.


whereas vertical and horizontal segregation of women's employment in the labour markets of the Eastern European partners remains entrenched in cultural and social norms; whereas women are also burdened by the ‘second shift’ of unpaid domestic work;










G.


whereas stereotypes can have a negative impact on the role women can play, and these may be reflected in educational and training choices and continue into the labour market;










H.


whereas while significant differences exist among the Eastern European partners in terms of the prevalence of violence against women, the rate is relatively high; whereas the risk of violence is much higher for women belonging to ethnic minorities, such as the Roma; whereas Roma girls and women face double discrimination on account of their gender and ethnic origin, as demonstrated by their lower levels of education, significantly higher rates of unemployment and poorer health than the rest of the population;










I.


whereas in Ukraine more than 1,5 million people — two thirds of them women and children — have been internally displaced since the attacks by terrorist forces began and suffer from impeded access to healthcare, housing and employment; whereas Roma girls in Moldova spend on average less than 4 years in school, compared with 11 years for non-Roma girls, as a result of child and early marriages, unplanned pregnancies and childcare responsibilities;










J.


whereas the EU and its Member States are committed to the protection, fulfilment and enjoyment of human rights by women and girls; whereas gender equality remains a horizontal priority within the ENP and the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI), and whereas the reviewed ENP should include enhanced support for civil society and a renewed focus on the importance of gender equality; whereas civil society plays a very important role in achieving gender equality in the Eastern Partnership;






Gender equality: normative framework










1.


Underlines that all EU Member States and all Eastern European partners have signed and ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW);












2.


Recalls that while Part III (Articles 10-14) describes the economic and social rights of women, Article 11 of the Convention specifically focuses on employment: the right to the same employment opportunities, to free choice of profession, to promotion, job security and all benefits and conditions of service, to receive vocational training, to equal remuneration, to social security, and to maternity leave, and a prohibition of dismissal on the grounds of pregnancy;












3.


Further underlines that Articles 2 and 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) establish gender equality as one of the main principles on which the EU is founded; recalls that Article 23 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union states that equality between men and women must be ensured in all areas, including employment, work and pay;












4.


Recalls that Article 21 TEU stresses that the EU's action on the international scene must be guided by the principles which inspired its own creation;












5.


Stresses that the gender equality acquis which the EU has developed is an important and relevant factor in this respect; underlines that this includes both the legislation and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on gender equality issues;












6.


Strongly believes at the same time that room for further improvement on gender equality issues exists in both the EU and the Eastern European partners, and that the exchange of good practices could be beneficial for all;






Trends in the Eastern European partners










7.


Understands that the situation of women in the labour markets of the Eastern European partners differs at national or local level; nonetheless feels that some common trends can be identified, such as comparatively small gaps in male/female employment rates, a high level of education or the concentration of women in specific sectors of the economy;












8.


Recalls that according to the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report and its Economic Participation and Opportunity sub index, which measures the average of several factors, including labour force participation or wage equality, Eastern European partners score from 66 (Armenia) to 74 (Moldova) — and are thus a more homogenous group than EU countries, which score from 67 (Hungary) to 85 (Finland);












9.


Welcomes, thus, the relatively high level of women's integration into the labour force in the Eastern Partnership countries, which is likely due to their shared historical experiences; regrets, however, the fact that women's participation in the labour force seems to have been declining over recent decades as a result of the retraditionalisation process observed in the partner countries;












10.


Underlines that while some variations remain between Eastern European partners, a lack of standardised official statistics may contribute to disparities being hidden, such as de facto inactivity (isolation from the labour market) and the poverty of women on long periods of maternity leave and who have taken early retirement; point out that, likewise, other possible disparities can be observed in terms of differences in job security, or respect for labour rights and wages, especially between the formal and informal and private and public sectors;












11.


Regrets that the gender pay gap remains high and can be as much as 50 %, despite the fact that a higher proportion of young women than men receive a university education in some of the Eastern Partnership countries, with women encountering a number of cultural and sociological barriers in their access to managerial positions, as is also often the case in the EU;












12.


Stresses that female entrepreneurship may additionally be hindered by stereotypes, limited access to capital and networks, corruption and sometimes high regulatory burdens; considers that, as in the EU, women are also burdened by the second shift of unpaid domestic work, which has, in some cases, been exacerbated by the rollback of social security programmes, following the transition to a market economy;












13.


Underlines furthermore that unemployment, underemployment and insecure and underpaid jobs may put women at risk of prolonged poverty; fears that this may lead to irregular migration and to women becoming the victims of smugglers and traffickers; stresses in particular that vulnerable groups, such as Roma women, are at a higher risk and that only low numbers of trafficked Roma women or children report their traffickers to the authorities and access the victim prevention and protection services;












14.


Underlines that the various categories of migrant women from Eastern European partners who, as workers, are in low-paid jobs, and who may never acquire eligibility for permanent residence or citizenship, unlike professional migrant workers in the country of employment, may be at a high risk of abuse and discrimination; fears that this may cause serious problems as regards access to health services, including reproductive health services, because insurance or national health schemes are not available to them, or they may have to pay unaffordable fees;






EU-Eastern European partners cooperation in the field










15.


Welcomes the fact that, within the ENP's Strategic Priorities for 2014-2020, gender equality has been emphasised as a cross-cutting issue that must be addressed and mainstreamed in all relevant activities;












16.


Further welcomes the fact that the ENP Action Plans for all the Eastern Partnership countries (except Belarus) address gender equality with a view to gradually moving towards EU standards;












17.


Is encouraged by the fact that the Association Agreements with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia all contain articles addressing gender equality and list the EU directives to which the countries should align their legislation within the next few years; underlines the value of seeing specific rights being thus entrenched in the collective acquis across the European continent, on issues such as equal treatment in employment and occupation, on parental leave, on encouraging improvements in the health and safety at work of pregnant workers and on matters of social security;












18.


Stresses, however, that such elements are lacking from the Partnership and Cooperation Agreements that the Commission negotiated with Armenia and Azerbaijan in the late nineties; welcomes the initialled EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement to be signed in November 2017 in Brussels, and the ongoing negotiations for the EU-Azerbaijan Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, and trusts that the new agreements will include a gender-specific dimension;












19.


Recalls that specific projects aimed at empowering women and promoting gender equality are currently financed in the Eastern Partnership area through the EU's European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) and the ENI and that EU regional assistance is focusing on promoting women's entrepreneurship through designing national policies, supporting associations of women entrepreneurs and female-led SMEs, and providing coaching and mentoring;






Looking ahead: possible priorities for future action










20.


Calls for the EU and the Eastern European partners to expressly recognise gender equality as a fundamental common value and its achievement as a goal in their cooperation; stresses that while most of the challenges are common in nature for the EU and its partners, political impetus can help to move women's rights and gender equality up the political priorities of the Eastern Partnership;












21.


Stresses that key values such as equal economic independence, equal pay for equal work or work of equal value and equality in decision-making should thus be recognised as driving principles and common priorities; calls on the Eastern European partners to consider introducing work-life balance measures in order to remove obstacles to female employment and to reduce the gender pension gap; further underlines that obsolete legal provisions which prohibit the employment of women in specific occupations should be reviewed, as they unduly restrict women's access to certain professions and work;












22.


Strongly encourages all types of actions aimed at enhancing women's rights in the labour market, such as effective implementation of the existing legal framework, advancing equality between women and men, measures fostering women's entrepreneurship, awareness-raising campaigns on their situation, better data collection, their assessment and monitoring with a view to proposing tailored measures, and support for women's networks and grassroots organisations; points out that the new opportunities for women might be consolidated with the development of digitalisation and the collaborative economy in the Eastern Partnership countries;












23.


Underlines the need to formulate a gender-sensitive, rights-based policy on the basis of equality and non-discrimination, to regulate and administer all aspects and stages of migration, and to facilitate the access of women migrant workers to work opportunities abroad, thereby promoting safe migration and ensuring the protection of the rights of women migrant workers; calls on the Eastern European partners to design or oversee comprehensive socioeconomic, psychological and legal services aimed at facilitating the reintegration of women who have returned to their countries of origin;












24.


Considers that strengthening the role of fathers in bringing up their children can improve and facilitate work-life balance for both men and women; points out that equal take-up of leave arrangements by men and women across all categories of workers should be encouraged in order to improve women's access to and position within the labour market; stresses that child support systems, including family and child allowances, should be sufficient to ensure that women can afford to support independent households;












25.


Underlines that parliamentarians, on all sides, could direct more scrutiny to gender-specific issues; this could focus on the implementation of the EU acquis, i.e. on ensuring that the relevant directives are properly applied in the three countries that have signed an Association Agreement with the EU (Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) but also on ensuring that Members closely scrutinise the ongoing negotiations aimed at replacing the out-dated Partnership and Cooperation Agreements so as to ensure that similar provisions are included in the ‘new generation’ texts;












26.


Stresses that, while gender equality is a horizontal principle within the ENP and the ENI, more precise and measurable targets should be pursued, also with regard to the new Gender Action Plan in Development 2016-2020;












27.


Calls, within the reviewed ENP, for country-specific reports to focus on priorities agreed with partners, including a focus on gender equality; proposes, in order to achieve these aims, the gathering of harmonised data on the situation of women in the Eastern European partners, through the ENI and notably through the introduction of the Gender Equality Index, developed by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE);












28.


Stresses that the EU should dedicate more energy to assisting the partners in line with their strategies, programmes or action plans to improve the situation of women, and provide its expertise in adjusting labour legislation on gender equality and improving women's participation in the labour market and decision-making; further insists on the urgent need for gender mainstreaming as a strategy for realising gender equality, and for positive action in the national action plans of the European Neighbourhood Policy;












29.


Considers it possible to increase the number of women in the decision-making process, primarily at political level, by changing the political culture of the Eastern European partners and implementing the best European practices of party-building;












30.


Underlines the need for effective implementation of these strategies, programmes or action plans, and for a monitoring report to be presented annually to the Eastern European partners' national parliaments and shared with the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly; encourages gender-related side events to be organised in parallel to the Eastern Partnership summits for reasons of political visibility;












31.


Calls for women's rights and gender equality issues to be systematically included in all regular political and human rights dialogues taking place, together with proposed actions;












32.


Encourages the Member States to develop stronger bilateral and multilateral links with Eastern European partners and to be actively involved in providing transitional help and technical support and engaged in experience-sharing; believes that Member States in close physical proximity to the Eastern European partners could play an important role in facilitating stronger links and in involving other Member States in partnerships; highlights the important role of vocational education and training for women; encourages increased investment in supporting female employment in quality jobs, particularly in sectors and positions where women are under-represented;












33.


Instructs its Co-Presidents to forward this resolution to the President of the European Parliament, to the Council, the Commission, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the Commission, the European External Action Service, and the governments and parliaments of the Member States and of the Eastern European partners.






(1)  Texts adopted, P8_TA(2016)0487.

(2)  Texts adopted, P7_TA(2013)0446.