By Martha Moss - 29th June 2009
Sweden must use its six-month EU presidency to showcase best practice on gender equality issues, according to commission vice president Margot Wallström.
Wallström told TheParliament.com she was confident women's rights would be high on the agenda when her country takes over the rotating presidency on Wednesday, but that it was important not to become complacent.
"Sweden already has a good reputation when it comes to fighting for gender equality, so I really hope that they will keep it up," she said.
"It's a golden opportunity to showcase what are good and best practices in Sweden but also to support the case for women in Europe."
The Swedish commissioner for institutional relations and communication said she expected Stockholm to make gender equality a priority "but to be absolutely sure I will continue to fight for it because we can never be confident enough that it will happen by itself".
However, Eva-Britt Svensson, a Swedish MEP and the vice chairwoman of parliament's women's rights committee, was less optimistic about Sweden's commitment to gender equality.
Asked whether she thought the issue would be high on Sweden's agenda, she told this website, "No, I'm so sorry to say. I have had discussions with ministers and so on but I'm not satisfied because it's not a priority for the Swedish presidency.
"I'm sorry to say that because Sweden has rather good instruments for gender equality."
She also warned that the financial climate risked overshadowing gender issues further, saying, "It's always very difficult to talk about gender equality and what it is necessary to do during an economic crisis.
"But it's totally different in my opinion because if we had more gender equality I'm sure we would have a better economic situation."
Parliament vice president Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, who also sits on the women's rights committee, agreed that gender equality must be a priority during the downturn.
Speaking at the European Women's Lobby conference on Friday, she highlighted the need to reduce the pay gap between men and women and promote a better work-life balance.
"The challenge is to safeguard the importance of gender equality issues in times of crisis," said Kratsa.
Also speaking at the event, Wallström commended the women's lobby 50/50 campaign, which was launched last September with the aim of increasing female representation in the EU.
The commissioner pointed to some "great examples of progress" in the parliament elections earlier this month, with gender parity in Estonia, Sweden and Finland electing more female than male MEPs and Bulgaria, France and Denmark close to parity.
Nineteen of the EU's 27 member states have a rate of female representation above 33 per cent, she said, "a small but encouraging step in the right direction".
She added, "This is not the time to be complacent. We are still far from the 50:50 gender balance and some countries actually saw a dramatic decrease in the number of female MEPs."
Wallström stated the case for quotas to increase female participation and "change the family photo" of the EU.
"Affirmative action is the only way forward," she said.
"If we continue with the same rate as now, it will take around 25 years to achieve a gender representation in the European parliament that reflects the population. Are we willing to wait that long?"
