(2004/C 70 E/226)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3071/03

by Lissy Gröner (PSE) to the Commission

(20 October 2003)

Subject:   Gender budgeting

In the budget debate held in plenary on 23 September 2003, Commissioner Schreyer spoke about the overarching introduction of gender budgeting in the EU budget.

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(21 November 2003)

The Honourable Member is asking the Commission what tangible measures the Commission has taken to implement the proposals set out in the (A5-0214/2003) and if gender budgeting will be taken into account as early as the 2004 budget.

In response to the Parliament's request to distribute information on gender budgeting, the Honourable Member may wish to note that the Commission has already disseminated the opinion of the Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men within the Commission, to the Parliament and in the Member States. This document includes valuable information on the principles, methods and tools of gender budgeting. It is available to a wider public on the Commission web site (1). The Commission might also consider disseminating a brochure on gender budgeting.

Promoting gender equality in economic life is one of the objectives of the Framework Strategy on Gender equality 2001-2005 and the related programme. Although the priority theme for the action programme in 2004 and 2005 is: ‘change of gender roles and stereotypes’, proposals for projects on other themes can also be considered for financial support if the projects meet the conditions required. In this context projects on gender budgeting might be considered.

So far, the public budgets in Europe as well as the household of the Union are to a large extent gender blind.

However, some progress is underway as many programmes within the Community budget, such as the Structural Funds, programmes within education, research, development co-operation etc. explicitly refer to the aim of fighting discrimination and promoting equality between women and men, including the empowerment of women. Gender budgeting requires the development of indicators, and statistical information about the state of affairs. As the Member States administer approximately 80 % of the Community budget, the Commission relies on information from them. Data often exists only in aggregated form, which does not permit a gender-specific analysis. Further efforts are needed at all levels to develop statistics and indicators broken down by sex.

The integration of the gender perspective into the budgetary process is part of the gender mainstreaming strategy and the Commission will continue developing methodologies and tools, including gender statistics and indicators, for the implementation of gender mainstreaming.

(1)  http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/equ_opp/index_en.htm