EU Presidencies and the European Union
The Women and Equality Unit actively participates in the European Advisory Committee (EAC) on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men; the Committee implementing the programme relating to the Community Framework Strategy on Gender Equality (2001-2006); and the EU High-level Group on Gender Mainstreaming,
which meets twice a year to consider and advise how to mainstream
gender within the EU.
The Council of the European Union
The
Council of the European Union brings together the Heads of States or Governments
of the European Union and the President of the Commission.
It defines the general political guidelines of the European Union.
The Presidency of the Council of the European Union is held on a rotating
basis. Each year a different Member State holds the Presidency for a
period of six months, from January – June or July – December. During
their Presidency a Member State is responsible for organising and chairing all meetings and working out compromises
capable of resolving difficulties.
Slovenia EU Presidency (1 January- 30 June 2008)
Slovenia is the first new Member State to hold the Presidency of the
European Union. Slovenia is one of the twelve new Member States that
joined the EU in the 2004 and 2007 enlargements. Slovenia’s Presidency
follows its Trio partners; German and Portugal. The next Trio
Presidency consists of France, Czech Republic and Sweden.
The official website for Slovenia’s EU Presidency is
www.eu2008.si/en. The website provides access to Presidency press
releases and statements, meeting calendar and basic information on
Slovenia’s Presidency.
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EU Initiatives
The following are some of the key EU
initiatives that Ministers for Women are leading on:
The European Institute for Gender Equality
The European Commission brought
forward the draft regulation for the establishment of the European
Gender Institute in March 2005. The overall objectives of the
Institute shall be to contribute to and strengthen the promotion of
gender equality, including gender mainstreaming in all Community
policies and the resulting national policies, and the fight against
discrimination based on sex, and to raise EU citizens’ awareness of
gender equality by providing technical assistance to the Community
institutions, in particular the Commission, and the authorities of the
Member States.
In meeting the objectives, the Institutes shall amongst other things, collect, analyse and
disseminate relevant objective, comparable and reliable information as
regards gender equality, including results from research and best
practice communicated to it by Member States, Community institutions,
research centres, national equality bodies, non-governmental
organisations, social partners, relevant third countries and
international organisations, and suggest areas for further research.
In accordance with the Regulation, the Management Board includes 18 Member States in
the order of the rotating Presidencies for a period of 3 years. UK is
not represented at the Management Board during the first 3 years.
However UK will continue to support actively the Management Board as
required during this period. We are presently working toward the
selection of the UK representative at the Board in 2010.
To view the full text on the European
Union website click
here.
Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men 2006 – 2010
The European Commission published the
Roadmap on 6 March 2006. The Roadmap builds on the experience of the
Framework Strategy for equality between women and men 2001 –2005. It
combines the launch of new actions and reinforcement of successful
existing activities. It also re-affirms the Community’s preferred dual
approach of gender equality based on gender mainstreaming and specific
measures.
The Roadmap outlines six priority
areas for EU action on gender equality for the period 2006 –2010.
Within each priority area, it identified objectives and key actions.
The Commission acknowledges that it cannot achieve these objectives
alone and that in many of the areas, the responsibility for action
lies with the Member States. Therefore the Roadmap reinforces the
Commission’s commitment to progressing the gender equality agenda in
partnership with Member States and other actors.
To view the full text on the European Union website click
here.
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Recast Directive
The EU Directive 2006/54/EC on the implementation of the principle of
equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of
employment and occupation (re-cast version) came into force on 15
August 2006. Member States are required to implement this Directive within their domestic legislation
by 15 August 2008..
The objective of the proposal is to simplify, modernise and improve
the Community law in relation to gender equality by putting relevant
Directives into a single text. The text combines seven
Directives about equal treatment of men and women.
They cover:
-
Equal Pay
-
Equal Treatment relating to access to
employment, vocational training, promotion and working conditions
-
Occupational social security schemes
(Pensions)
-
Burden of proof (the standards needed
to bring or defend a claim.
For additional information on GB and European Equality legislation see
the GEO web page
http://www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk/legislation/archive.htm
2007 - European Year of Equal Opportunities for All
The
European Parliament designated 2007 the "European Year of Equal Opportunities for
All". The aim of the 'Year' was to launch a debate on the benefits of
diverse societies with a focus around four core themes:
-
Rights
- raising awareness of the right to equality and non-discrimination, and the
problem of multiple discrimination.
-
Representation
- stimulating debate on ways to increase participation of under-represented
groups in society, in particular groups that are victims of discrimination.
-
Recognition
- celebrating and accommodating diversity and equality.
-
Respect
- promoting a more cohesive society.
The ‘Year’ aptly coincided with the newly establishment of the Equality
and Human Rights Commission and the Government Equalities Office.
The creation of these two bodies showed how seriously the UK takes
equality of opportunity for all.
The ‘Year’ began with a launch event in Manchester followed by a series of
conversation events including regional seminars, across the UK, where
high profile speakers from Government, the Equality and Human Rights
Commission as well as European colleagues, eloquently rolled out the
principles of the ‘Year’ to a large and diverse audience. The main
focus was what we could all do to help create a society that is more
at ease with its diversity.
Looking ahead
2008 has been designated as the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. In the UK,
the National Co-ordinating Body is known as EUCLID; and the
responsible government department is DCMS.
We understand that EUCLID plans to host a number of events in 2008 to mark the
European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. Events include conferences,
exchange fairs and training seminars throughout the UK.
In addition to the events, organisations interested in the European Year are
encouraged to sign up to the partner section of the EYID 2008 website,
which offers a unique networking platform for all people involved in
the European Year.
EQUINET
EQUINET is the EU network of specialised equality bodies. It was launched on 27
November 2007 by Niall Crowley at the European Year of Equal
Opportunities for All closing conference in Lisbon.
Specialised equality bodies are independent bodies established by statute in the
Member States to support the effective implementation of equality
legislation.
EQUINET works to:
-
contribute to the effective implementation by specialised equality bodies of their
mandate through exchanging information and through sharing expertise
on supporting good practice in promoting equality, and on
enforcement strategies;
-
build the expertise within specialised equality bodies on the dynamic
interpretation of equal treatment legislation across the European
Union;
-
support the emergence of a dialogue between the institutions of the European
Union and the specialised equality bodies with a view to
contributing to the inclusion of an effective equality focus in EU
policies and programmes.
EQUINET has been funded by the European Commission to develop an office and staff, and
to further develop its work programme.
For more information please visit:
EYEOA
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/eyeq/
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/newsandcomment/europeanyear/pages/europeanyear.aspx
www.equalityhumanrights.com
EYID
http://www.interculturaldialogue2008.eu (EU website)
http://inter.culture.info (UK website)
EQUINET
Please email:
ncrowley@equality.ie
See
here for background details of the explanatory memorandum of the
proposal for 2007 European Year presented by the Commission.
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