Whilst the Commission notes that the Council's common position incorporates a large part of its original text, important aspects have nevertheless been excluded. Specifically, the Commission regrets that the Council failed to set higher targets for a social dialogue. This would have included agreements taking into account the objective of equality between women and men and where appropriate strategies to achieve such an objective in a timely way. Failure to incorporate higher targets means Parliamentary concerns on the promotion of equality at the company level are not reflected in the revised Directive.
The Commission has accordingly annexed a declaration to the Council's common position, which reads as follows:
1) The Commission regrets that the Council did not, in line with the amended proposal presented by the Commission, take a more ambitious approach by taking further into account the views of the European Parliament as this would have strengthened and clarified its initial proposal modifying Directive 76/207/EEC.
2) In light of the amendment to the definition of indirect discrimination, the Commission will propose and appropriate amendments to Directive 97/80/EC as amended by Directive 98/52/EC; as expeditiously as possible.'
At the same time, the Commission acknowledges that the narrow time-frame between the adoption of the Parliament's opinion and the Council meeting made taking up some of the Parliament's amendments difficult.�