91997E3171

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3171/97 by Friedhelm Frischenschlager (ELDR) to the Commission (13 October 1997)

Subject: Equal opportunities for women and men in the EU

What means will the Commission be using in future to put an end to violence against women, particularly sexual exploitation in the form of pornography and prostitution?

Will the Commission be involving NGOs in its work in future?

What initiatives will the Commission be taking to achieve a balance between men and women recruited to posts in the European institutions?

How many women of Austrian nationality are currently employed in these institutions (Council, Commission and Parliament)? How well is Austria doing in comparison with the figures for Finland and Sweden, which also joined the EU in 1995?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission (20 November 1997)

The Commission is aware of the seriousness of the patterns of violence against women, and in particular sexual exploitation, about which the Honourable Member is concerned. As part of the Daphne initiative, it has allocated ECU 3 million from the 1997 budget to support a series of measures to combat violence against women, adolescents and children. A call for projects might be renewed in 1998 depending on the 1998 budget and the priorities set out in it.

The Commission is particularly interested in encouraging cooperation between non-governmental organisations and the relevant authorities, in particular with a view to establishing or strengthening networks to support and coordinate European-level information and projects with a bearing on measures to prevent violence and protect women.

The imbalance in the breakdown of posts to which the Honourable Member refers is reflected in the Commission in the under-representation of women in Category A posts and men in Category C posts, although the overall figure evens out (46% women). It is linked to the number of applications from women and the number of successful candidates on the reserve lists from general competitions. In 1995 the Commission sought to reduce this structural imbalance by adopting annual targets for recruitment of women to category A and for the appointment of women to management and senior management posts. The strategy consists in recruiting an equal number of men and women at the starting grade in Category A on the basis of the number of successful candidates in the reserve lists. With regard to the readjustment of the balance between men and women in Category C, the Commission will give fuller descriptions of the various tasks carried out by officials in that Category, with special emphasis on the new technologies in office automation, in order to attract more applications from men.

The general total of Austrian officials recruited by the Commission up to September 1997 (excluding the language service) is 223, including 119 women, i.e. 53%. During the same period the number of Finnish women officials recruited by the Commission (still excluding the language service) represented 61% of the total (161 women and 105 men) and the number of Swedish women officials represented 64% of the total (190 women and 105 men).