Equal opportunities women-men: integration into Community policies (mainstreaming). Progress report

The Parliament adopted its report on gender mainstreaming, drafted by Ms. Marianne Eriksson (GUE/NGL, Sweden). The Parliament urges all the EU institutions and bodies to step up and give practical expression to their work on gender mainstreaming, in accordance with the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and in line with the commitment to promote equality between men and women enshrined in the Amsterdam Treaty. It calls on the Commission to take the initiative to devise clear objectives and accountability mechanisms both internally and externally and to review rules and procedures with a view to promoting gender mainstreaming. It calls on the Commission to actively seek co-operation with national and international experts in the field and NGOs. In the context of the need for gender relevant data and statistics, it expects the Commission to develop a set of indicators and criteria for formulating, implementing and evaluating equality objectives and results and to develop benchmarking. It also makes some recommendation regarding women in decision-making - the balanced participation of women in management and decision-making positions. It calls on the Commission to identify the circumstances and reasons why women as a group and almost without exception are valued lower than men in terms of pay and to enter into talks with the social partners to examine in greater detail and take action on gender-related differences in wage structure, and to report back to Parliament within one year. It considers that the political responsibilities of the Committee on Women's Rights as a committee in its own right in Parliament needs to be redefined and strengthened in line with the new provisions on equality between men and women enshrined in the Amsterdam Treaty. It calls on the EU institutions to draw up equality programmes for and within their own activities and for the establishment of an inter-institutional working party (primarily between Parliament and the Commission) to act as a co-ordinating body to promote the objective of equality between women and men in all spheres of activity in the institutions, using all the mechanisms to further equality, such as positive action, mainstreaming, etc.�