Applicants ‘must act’ on sex equality

Date: 20/07/2000

By John Shelley

MEPS have called for all the countries applying to join the EU to appoint an ombudsman for women to tackle the applicants' woeful record on sex equality.

In a scathing report, members of the European Parliament's women's committee argue that the move is necessary to counter judges who do not understand Union anti-discrimination rules and cultures which are not conscious of equality issues.

"Gender equality is still not a reality in any of the candidate countries," said Lone Dybkjær, the Danish Liberal MEP charged with drafting the assembly's opinion on the applicants' record in this area. "There is a general gender awareness problem in most candidate countries, which also lack the implementation and enforcement mechanisms necessary to translate laws into practice. The problem is that equality is not just a matter of the law, but of attitude."

MEPs argue that an ombudsman would offer women a simpler alternative to taking their complaints to court and also act as a focus for launching equal opportunities initiatives. Lithuania is currently the only applicant country which has an ombudsman specifically dealing with sex equality. "The great advantage of the ombudsman system is that it is easily accessible to the citizens," said Finnish MEP Heidi Hautala, leader of the Parliament's Green Group.

Dybkjær's report argues that women in applicant countries suffer huge disadvantages both in the labour market and at home.

She says millions of women's jobs have been lost due to the privatisation of state-run industries, but the new jobs being created go mostly to young entrepreneurial men, and adds that the closure of nationalised industries has also meant childcare and welfare benefits have disappeared.

The paper, which was adopted by the women's rights and equal opportunities committee last week, also calls for candidates to be included in current EU sex equality programmes.

MEPs have called for all the countries applying to join the EU to appoint an ombudsman for women to tackle the applicants' woeful record on sex equality.