91998E0058

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0058/98 by Alex Smith (PSE) to the Commission (29 January 1998)

Subject: Trade and cooperation agreement between the EU and South Africa

The EU is currently negotiating a trade and cooperation agreement with South Africa. The agreement will be very important for the people of South Africa. However, experience shows that women often find it very difficult to participate in the proposed measures of a cooperation agreement.

Will the agreement foresee an obligation to study whether women actually have access to the development and economic cooperation measures set out in the cooperation section of the agreement and whether they actively take part in the proposed cooperation in fields such as human resource development, information and media, and technological and social cooperation? If so, how will the Commission do this? Will it collect gender-disaggregated data?

Agreements normally are evaluated on a regular basis. How are the negotiating partners trying to make sure that women's interests are represented in this evaluation? Will women's representatives of civil society have the right to take part in this evaluation? Will the question be discussed whether the agreement benefits women?

Joint answer to Written Questions E-0057/98 and E-0058/98 given by Mr Pinheiro on behalf of the Commission (12 February 1998)

Gender issue is a priority in the Commission's development policy, and the South African government is committed to promote gender issues and to monitor progress in this area. There is no doubt that this will be mentioned and underlined in the text of the 'Development cooperation' and 'Cooperation in other areas' chapters of the agreement. The Commission will favour provisions promoting the role of women in the fields suggested by the Honourable Member. Therefore, the agreement will benefit women.

The negotiators do not foresee in the agreement any obligation to launch studies, but the Commission is committed to assessing the impact on women of any development programme already launched under the current European programme for reconstruction and development in South Africa (EPRD) programme, and which will be launched in the future.

The agreement will also contain provisions on the follow-up of cooperation between the Community and South African activities. Concerning development cooperation in the framework of the EPRD, the Commission holds annual consultations with the South Africa government where results and achievements of on-going programmes are reviewed, and this practice will be maintained under the future agreement. When it comes to assessing specific programmes, the Commission usually takes into account the views of the beneficiaries. Therefore, when appropriate, the assessment of the impact on women will be done with womens' representatives.