Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Ordinary meeting
Legend
Transcript markers
- text Sentence being played
- text Search result
- text Intervention cited by the link you opened
Click a sentence to play the video from that moment. Select text to quote it with the speaker, timestamp and link.
More options
FEMM European Parliament
Follow its sittingsMargarita de la Pisa Carrión
Aborto. No hay un solo texto europeo en el que no se intente introducir con una ligereza preocupante, como si fuera una cuestión menor, casi administrativa, que deba incorporarse sin más en cualquier política pública o cualquier línea presupuestaria. Eso sí, de hablar de ayudar a la mujer en un momento vulnerable como es el embarazo, silencio. Esta banalización constante es preocupante, no solo porque ignora la gravedad de lo que está en juego, sino porque revela hasta qué punto se intenta imponer ideas sin admitir siquiera debate. Mientras tanto, hay mujeres que siguen teniendo dificultades para llegar a fin de mes, para conciliar el trabajo y familia, para sacar adelante a sus hijos y cuidar a sus mayores.
De eso se habla poco, porque parece que algunos están más interesados en extender una ideología que en ocuparse de las preocupaciones que tienen las mujeres de cada día. Lo que defendemos es algo más sencillo: que el dinero de los europeos se utilice para resolver problemas concretos y no para financiar proyectos de ingeniería social. Defendemos la igualdad entre hombres y mujeres, la dignidad de toda persona, la protección de la maternidad y el derecho a las familias a educar a sus hijos conforme a sus convicciones. Y defendemos también algo que parece cada vez más haberse vuelto revolucionario, que es el sentido común. Esperemos que nuestras enmiendas sean tomadas en consideración tras las reuniones de compromisos.
Gracias.
Lina Gálvez
Gracias, thank you. And now Giusy Princi is EPP shadow rapporteur. So Giusy, the floor is yours for two minutes and a half.
Giusi Princi
Grazie Presidente. Parlerò in italiano. Colleghe e colleghi, vorrei ringraziare tanto la relatrice per il lavoro svolto su un dossier tecnicamente complesso e politicamente rilevante. Questa proposta rappresenta un passaggio importante per l'Unione Europea che per la prima volta riconosce la parità di genere come principio orizzontale nelle regole che disciplinano il bilancio UE. Gli oltre trecento emendamenti presentati dimostrano quanto questo tema sia sentito e quanto sia importante costruire un quadro solido.
Per il PPE il regolamento costituisce un'opportunità per passare da un approccio frammentato a una valutazione sistematica dell'impatto della spesa europea sull'uguaglianza fra donne e uomini. In questa prospettiva, e proprio perché si tratta di un primo passo, riteniamo essenziale un approccio graduale, proporzionato e realisticamente attuabile. Condividiamo pienamente l'obiettivo del testo e riteniamo prioritario garantire la coerenza con il quadro normativo esistente, in particolare con l'articolo trentatré del regolamento finanziario. Si tratta di uno strumento orizzontale applicabile all'intero bilancio, per cui è fondamentale integrare la dimensione di genere in modo efficace evitando sovrapposizioni. I nostri emendamenti si concentrano quindi su priorità chiare.
Sosteniamo un approccio sistematico al gender mainstreaming nel bilancio europeo basato su un quadro armonizzato e coerente con la legislazione settoriale. La parità di genere dovrebbe essere prevista come obiettivo nei programmi in cui è attinente.
Insistiamo su una metodologia comune di gender tracking per tutte le attività del bilancio basata su standard internazionali riconosciuti e pienamente allineata all'approccio dell'OCSE. Riteniamo fondamentale che i dati sugli indicatori di performance siano disaggregati per sesso laddove pertinente. Una base dati solida è essenziale per misurare risultati e progressi, ma occorre arginare oneri amministrativi eccessivi. Chiediamo inoltre un maggiore coinvolgimento dell'Istituto europeo per la parità di genere come punto di riferimento tecnico. Infine crediamo sia necessario mantenere il testo chiaro e preciso evitando ridondanze e rafforzando il collegamento con gli altri strumenti dedicati alla parità di genere, in particolare la strategia 2026-2030 e la tabella di marcia per i diritti delle donne per garantire una visione comune e coerente a livello europeo.
Il PPE continuerà a lavorare in modo costruttivo per raggiungere un risultato equilibrato, ambizioso e attuabile. Grazie.
Lina Gálvez
Grazie. And now I would like to pass on the floor to ECR shadow Beatrice Timgren. Please the floor is yours for two minutes and a half.
Beatrice Timgren
Thank you chair. I will speak in Swedish. Ja, det här yttrandet som vi behandlar just nu visar exakt vad det är för fel med EU:s utveckling. Man fokuserar inte på några verkliga resultat. Istället så vill man bygga in symbolisk genuspolitik i hela EU-budgeten.
Man vill till och med öronmärka 20 procent av EU:s utgifter till jämställdhetsrelaterade mål.
Lina Gálvez
One second. I have no translation to Spanish. I don't know. Ahora sí, ahora sí, pero antes no. Gracias.
No sé por qué. No, no, no, me da la disculpa pero no, no vamos, no iba antes. Gracias, vale. Could you please restart because not because I'm the chair but because I'm the rapporteur so I really need to take notes of what you are saying, especially in this file. Sorry about that.
Please. Sorry about that.
Beatrice Timgren
Inga problem. Yeah, I will take it in Swedish. Det här yttrandet som vi behandlar visar exakt vad det som är fel med EU:s utveckling. Man fokuserar inte på verkliga resultat för kvinnor. Istället så vill man bygga in symbolisk genompolitik i hela EU-budgeten.
Man vill till och med öronmärka 20 procent av EU:s utgifter till jämställdhetsrelaterade mål. Dessutom vill man införa nya genuskontroller i flera EU-program och bygga ut byråkratin ytterligare. EU har redan problem med ineffektivitet, slöseri och krångliga regelverk. Svaret kan inte vara ännu fler checklistor och ännu mer ideologisk styrning. Symbolpolitik och budgetkvoter gör inte livet lättare för europeiska kvinnor.
Vi vill att EU:s pengar ska gå till resultat, inte till kvoter, symbolpolitik och nya administrativa plågor. Därför säger vi nej till de här förslagen. Tack.
Lina Gálvez
Thank you. And now we move to Renew, Abir Al-Sahlani. Please the floor is yours for two minutes and a half.
Abir Al-Sahlani
Thank you, Madam Chair, looking at the amendments and the ongoing technical negotiations, I am hopeful that we will be able to find some broad compromises in this file when it comes to strengthening the horizontal gender equality principles in the regulation and make sure that we gender mainstream the entire budget and the whole budget cycle. I have said this before, gender equality should never be reduced to a checklist to be ticked off or a theoretical dimension added after the budget has been divided among other policy areas and me, my and Renew Europe's main goal in this file is to ensure that this regulation helps make the EU budget deliver real results for gender equality and not allow equality to be treated like a side issue. Besides that, if you do not have earmarked money for gender equality, we know it runs out in the sand. If you do not have earmarked money for women, these women, the 50% of the EU population, will be forgotten when money and funds are allocated. We know that as a matter of fact history has taught us and any political group saying otherwise either is not interested in gender equality nor has it read history.
And claiming that we are not addressing real problems of women just because we are not talking about the problems these groups are pointing out is false. When you go to women, when you ask these women what their biggest problems are in the EU, then we know that the unfreedom, the lack of opportunity to be fully a human being in the EU is exactly what is lacking at the moment. And the backslide is here and I hope that this file can address some of it, but unfortunately, as long as some of the groups here are blind to the real challenge, to the backsliding of democracy, I think it will be very difficult, but as Renew group, we are committed to make this file as good as possible, go away from checklist and to real change in women's lives. Thank you.
Lina Gálvez
Thank you, thank you very much. I don't see any other shadow rapporteurs in the room, but other members have asked for the floor, so Ms. Anthoer, the floor is yours for one minute, please. Patriots, sorry.
Mathilde Androuët
Chers collègues, oui, nous avons besoin d'un budget européen plus lisible. Oui, les citoyens ont le droit de savoir où va l'argent public, quels projets sont financés et avec quels résultats. Sur ce point, l'objectif de simplification et de transparence peut être entendu, passer de 5 000 indicateurs de suivi différents du budget pluriannuel à 700 est un immense défi. Mais nous refusons que sous couvert de performance budgétaire, l'Union européenne transforme chaque euro dépensé en instrument de contrôle idéologique. L'égalité entre les hommes et les femmes mérite mieux qu'une nouvelle usine à gaz, productrice de notes, de scores, de rapports ou de nouveaux indicateurs.
Combien de temps avant que ce critère ne devienne contraignant dans toutes les politiques de l'Union européenne ?
Avec ce texte, vous allez généraliser l'application du principe d'égalité de genre dans toutes les politiques budgétaires de l'Union. Certaines entreprises essentielles dans le domaine de l'industrie, de l'agriculture ou de la construction attirent peu les femmes. Elles seront donc très mal notées, là où des entreprises de services le seront beaucoup mieux. La méthodologie employée mettra donc en avant l'idéologie avant l'efficacité. Dans un contexte de réarmement nécessaire, dans un contexte de crise économique et énergétique, est-ce vraiment la priorité ?
Il y a fort à parier que comme d'habitude, ce genre de mesure ne soit contre-productive et n'empêche par idéologie les entreprises, surtout les PME et les TPE, d'accéder aux sources de financement. Comment allez-vous obtenir des critères objectifs et significatifs d'évaluation de l'égalité homme-femme dans ce cas ? La méthodologie n'en dit rien. Une petite entreprise mal notée aura-t-elle encore le droit d'accéder à certains fonds européens ? Cette politique sera assurément une impasse.
Il faut défendre une ligne claire : des données fondées sur le sexe alors que c'est pertinent, des statistiques précises et des priorités sociales concrètes pour les femmes les plus exposées comme les mères célibataires, les femmes âgées ou les aidantes. En résumé, l'inverse de votre idéologie.
Lina Gálvez
Et merci. Raquel García Hermida-Vanderbelle, the floor is yours for one minute, Renew.
Raquel García Hermida-Van Der Walle
Yes, thank you. Thank you, Chair, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on these points. I am the rapporteur for the opinion for the REGI committee and as I've said in previous meetings, it's also for us an important element to take on board the gender equality elements. And why I'm saying this is because we have heard this morning a couple of times already that the proposal is ideological and does not contribute to spending Europeans' money right. And I will dispute the both points.
The proposal is not ideological. The proposal is the reflection of two horizontal priorities in the EU text, in our treaties, in our legislation. Those horizontal priorities are, on the one hand, climate, on the other hand, gender equality. There might be some who don't like that either climate or gender equality are horizontal priorities or principles of the European Union, but that came to stand, came to be through a very democratic process. So I understand you might not like it, but it's not like we are coming now and imposing ideology.
No, we have all agreed with each other through our usual legislative procedures that those are horizontal priorities of the European Union. So it's only logical that our budget reflects those priorities, also when it comes to gender equality. And I am very, very surprised at the colleagues who say there are no clear effects for the well-being or the advancement of women in this regulation, because then I am thinking you have not read the annex, because in the annex there are a number of indicators which clearly have a correlation with advancement of the position of women. Lastly, it is good for our economy to have gender equality. That has been proven again and again and again.
It is good for our employment to have gender equality. That has been proven again and again and again. It is proven that European policies on the field of social spending help most vulnerable groups, among them women in, for example, poverty or at risk of social exclusion. Those are not things that we are making up. Those are things that research shows.
So I would appreciate if colleagues did the reading a bit better before coming here with tales about ideological motivation when we have science supporting these positions. Please, do your reading, then come here and we can have a conversation about the facts. And that is what tracking and performance is, that's the motivation for this regulation. Thank you very much.
Lina Gálvez
Thank you, thank you very much. And thank you to all colleagues for their input, the ones that are part of the shadow meetings and the ones who are not. Indeed, the proposal, both the Commission proposal and at least my amendments, are evidence-based. It's clear and they all link with many of the goals we are following as competitiveness, indeed, as demography, as well-being and as democracy as well as the Union. I would like just to say just a couple of words just to say that obviously the budget could have a technical part, but it is not a technical exercise.
It's the most political exercise any government or institution has in his hands because it's the way to share, to show, to point out the political priorities. And in our case, also to follow the principles that are included in our treaties and our fundamental values. And I would like to remind that gender equality, it is one of them. You might want to change it, but so far, as Raquel was saying, is the outcome of a long-term democratic process. And if we really believe in gender equality, we have both to include it as a horizontal principle, just bringing equality to all policies through this mainstreaming process, because everything we do affect in a different way to people that are in an unequal situation.
And unfortunately, we are still in an unequal situation. But we have also, we need also to allocate money to specific programs. And as Xavier was saying in the past, we know very well that how we have allocated money in our budget, it is not really helping or is helping very slowly to advance on achieving gender equality. And just one last thing regarding the bureaucratic burden. Yes, democracy implies bureaucracy and there is, I guess, a cost for democracy.
But just try to think for a moment the cost of non-democracy. And not to develop a gender budgeting and to do it right, it is very undemocratic because it's not that we are half of the population, as I normally say, we are 10 million more women in the European Union. So it will be a very undemocratic step not to advance on gender budgeting, not to advance on gender equality in our budget, both a horizontal and a specific principle. So thank you very much, really looking forward the discussions that are still open, contrary at what it had been said that it's like it is a closed discussion. This discussions are still open, so there is still time that we could collectively improve the test, our opinion, and then to work in a united as possible and hard way in order that the outcome in the whole of the Parliament, it is consistent with the European Union principle of achieving gender equality.
So having said that, I think we can conclude this morning session and to go back at 2:30, from 2:30 to 4:00 for continuing with a jointly committee with LIBE committee on the new strategy on anti-trafficking. So thank you, thank you very much and see you later.
Good morning, everyone. I would like to welcome you to this meeting of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. We have a very full agenda today, so I would like to start as soon as possible. First of all, I would like to ask you to check if you have your voting cards with you, as we will have several votes during this meeting. The first item on our agenda is the adoption of the draft agenda.
Are there any comments or objections to the agenda as proposed? I see none, so the agenda is adopted. The second item is the approval of the minutes of the meetings of the 25th of January and the 15th of February. Are there any comments or objections to these minutes? I see none, so the minutes are approved.
The third item is the Chair's announcements. I would like to inform you that the coordinators met yesterday and agreed on several points. First, they agreed to request the application of Rule 58 for the report on the proposal for a directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence. Second, they agreed to request the application of Rule 57 for the report on the proposal for a directive on pay transparency. Third, they agreed to organize a hearing on the situation of women in Afghanistan on the 10th of May.
Are there any comments or objections to these announcements? I see none, so they are approved. Now we move on to the first substantive item on our agenda, which is the presentation of the study on the gender dimension of the EU's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was commissioned by the Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of our committee. We have with us today one of the authors of the study, Ms. Lina Gálvez Muñoz, who is also a member of our committee.
Lina, you have the floor for ten minutes.
Lina Gálvez Muñoz
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. It is a pleasure for me to present this study, which I co-authored with several other experts. The study aims to provide an overview of the gender dimension of the COVID-19 pandemic and the EU's response to it. As we all know, the pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women, both in terms of health and socio-economic consequences. Women are more likely to work in sectors that have been hit hard by the pandemic, such as healthcare, social work, and retail.
They are also more likely to bear the burden of unpaid care work, which has increased significantly during the lockdowns. Furthermore, the pandemic has led to an increase in gender-based violence, as many women have been trapped at home with their abusers. The study analyzes the EU's response to the pandemic from a gender perspective, looking at both the immediate measures and the long-term recovery plans. We found that while some measures have taken gender into account, many others have not. For example, the NextGenerationEU recovery package includes some gender-related targets, but it is not clear how these will be implemented in practice.
The study also identifies several gaps and challenges in the EU's response, such as the lack of gender-disaggregated data and the limited involvement of women's organizations in the decision-making process. Based on our findings, we have developed several recommendations for the EU and its member states. These include the need to integrate a gender perspective into all recovery measures, to increase funding for gender equality initiatives, and to improve the collection of gender-disaggregated data. We also recommend that the EU should strengthen its legal framework on gender-based violence and pay transparency. In conclusion, the pandemic has highlighted the persistent gender inequalities in our societies and the need for a more gender-responsive approach to crisis management and recovery.
I hope that this study will provide useful insights for our committee's work and for the EU's future actions in this area. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you very much, Lina, for this very interesting and timely presentation. I think it is clear that we need to do more to ensure that the gender dimension is fully integrated into the EU's response to the pandemic. I would now like to open the floor for questions and comments from the members. Please raise your hand if you would like to speak. I see that several members have already raised their hands.
I will start with Ms. Frances Fitzgerald.
Speaker 13
Bonjour à toutes et à tous. Nous allons commencer notre réunion. Je vous souhaite la bienvenue. Je voudrais tout d'abord vous informer que l'interprétation est disponible en 18 langues. Allemand, anglais, français, italien, néerlandais, danois, grec, espagnol, portugais, finnois, suédois, tchèque, estonien, letton, lituanien, hongrois, polonais et roumain.
Je voudrais également vous informer que la réunion est retransmise en ligne. L'ordre du jour a été distribué. Y a-t-il des observations sur l'ordre du jour ? S'il n'y en a pas, l'ordre du jour est adopté. Nous passons maintenant aux communications de la présidence.
Lors de leur réunion du 13 juillet, les coordinateurs ont décidé de demander l'autorisation d'élaborer un rapport d'initiative sur le thème de l'égalité entre les femmes et les hommes dans l'Union européenne en 2022. Ils ont également décidé de demander l'autorisation d'organiser une audition sur le thème de la lutte contre la traite des êtres humains à des fins d'exploitation sexuelle dans le contexte de la guerre en Ukraine. Enfin, les coordinateurs ont décidé de demander l'autorisation d'organiser une mission en Pologne en novembre 2022. Y a-t-il des observations sur ces décisions des coordinateurs ? S'il n'y en a pas, ces décisions sont réputées approuvées.
Nous passons maintenant au point 4 de notre ordre du jour. Il s'agit de l'approbation des procès-verbaux des réunions des 10 mai, 16 juin et 13 juillet 2022. Y a-t-il des observations sur ces procès-verbaux ? S'il n'y en a pas, les procès-verbaux sont approuvés. Nous passons maintenant au point 5.
Il s'agit d'un échange de vues sur les priorités de la présidence tchèque du Conseil de l'Union européenne. J'ai le plaisir de souhaiter la bienvenue à Monsieur Marian Jurečka, vice-premier ministre et ministre du travail et des affaires sociales de la République tchèque. Monsieur le Ministre, vous avez la parole pour présenter les priorités de votre présidence dans le domaine des droits des femmes et de l'égalité des genres.
Ask anything about this video — I analyse its transcript to answer.