Copenhagen conference on gender equality

NCW President Grace Attard was invited to participate in a conference on Gender Equality in the EU candidate countries, organised earlier this month by the Women's Council in Denmark, and supported by the EU Commission and the Ministry for Gender Equality in Denmark.

The aim of the conference was to bring together representatives of women's NGOs to discuss the development of gender equality in the candidate countries in the EU enlargement process. Both the enlargement process and gender equality are priorities of the Danish EU Presidency.

The candidate countries represented at the conference were Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta and Turkey. While gender equality legislation is in place at different levels in most EU candidate countries, measures to implement legislation are still far from satisfactory in all countries.

Obstacles to gender equality legislation vary from one country to another. The role of NGOs in the development of implementation strategies was thoroughly discussed.

The importance of networking at national and international level to share good practices was highlighted by Mary McPhail, secretary general of the European Women's Lobby. She also spoke about the immediate objectives of EWL to meet the needs of women in an enlarged Europe, which will be discussed at a seminar and AGM at the end of the month.

The European Women's Lobby represents a wide spectrum of NGOs from member states and recently from candidate countries.

The first conference for women NGOs from EU candidate countries was organised by EWL in Vilnius, Lithuania, last year. Many of the representatives were together again in the Copenhagen conference. This made it possible to review work carried out throughout the year and to make plans for the immediate future. As a result of the success of these meetings, it was suggested that NGOs from EU candidate countries and member states meet more often.

EU parliamentarians highlighted the development of EU legislation and implementation of gender directives over the years. Forthcoming priority issues will deal with parity at national and European level; women's participation in the Convention for the Future of Europe; violence against women; gender mainstreaming in all areas; trafficking of women and children for prostitution; fair sharing of responsibilities by both partners in the public sphere and in domestic life.

Several recommendations were made: the need to increase the rate of female participation in decision making; access to information and structural funds; projects in partnership with other countries; affirmative action; institutional mechanisms with adequate financial and human resources; consultation and participation of women's NGOs in the planning of implementation strategies.

Gender Equality legislation and implementation are mandatory elements to meet the requirements of the acquis and therefore the need for political parties to act now was highlighted in view of the Intergovernmental Meeting in 2004.