International Women’s Day Event on Violence against Women

Posted on March 18, 2010 by maryhoneyballmep

This year International Women’s Day was celebrated a week later than usual in the European Parliament, with most of the major events taking place on 16th March rather than the 8th. On Tuesday morning, members of the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee organised a hearing on the theme of violence against women, with national parliaments, press and NGOs invited to discuss the issue. Violence against women is a subject that I have blogged about on several occasions, and it is an issue that the European Parliament has tried to address at every available opportunity, particularly since the take over of the Spanish Presidency.

The event was opened by the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, giving a supportive speech for women subject to violence. It was followed by an address by Bibiana Aído Almagro, who is the Spanish Minister for Gender Equality. She underlined that no society can hope to achieve full gender equality if violence against women cannot be eradicated, and stressed the need for EU Member States to develop national strategies to deal with violence, including trafficking. A Bulgarian journalist who attended the event described a horrifying practice in his country whereby acid is thrown on women, leading to blindness and disfigurement. He highlighted that in Bulgaria violence against women is far more accepted than other parts of Western Europe, with large numbers of women affected. It is true that in many parts of the world certain forms of violence are treated not as crimes but as private family business in which the state should not interfere. The distinction between the public and the private is one of the main reasons why violence against women is not always investigated and prosecuted.

One proposal put forward during the discussion was that of setting up a Europe-wide hotline for victims of abuse. In Spain, a hotline has already been established, providing advice and support for women who have been subject to violence. To implement a similar system at the EU level would offer a valuable support network to women who need it, and could, I believe, have a hugely positive impact. The problem is deciding what form this hotline would take. We already have in operation a Europe-wide hotline for missing children; yet many Member States simply haven’t made full use of this service. It is not enough to put in place a hotline with a number that victims can ring. It is also necessary to set up an infrastructure, with a link to police, NGOs and other bodies. This requires money, and a strong willingness on the part of national governments to implement it.

We know that violence against women, in whatever form, violates human rights and presents a significant obstacle to the achievement of equality between men and women. It imposes huge costs on society, and creates a major public health problem. For this reason, it is indispensable that the EU continues to address this issue and encourages Member States to do the same. As I explained in previous blog posts, in 2000 the EU-funded Daphne programme was set up to prevent and fight all forms of violence against women, adolescents and children, taking place in either the public or the private sphere. At present, an ad hoc committee is also drafting a European convention which will establish common standards aimed at preventing and fighting the problem of violence against women.

There are just five years to go before we reach the deadline for implementing the Millennium Development Goals and there is still an awful lot more needing to be done. However I will strive to ensure, along with my fellow members of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, that violence against women remains at the top of the EU agenda. I hope that when we reach International Women’s Day in 2011, we will have seen more substantial improvements in the fight against this grave crime and a greater level of awareness about its damaging effects.

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David Cameron’s Friends Commemorate the SS

Posted on March 17, 2010 by maryhoneyballmep

Sometimes when I write about how extreme the Conservative Party’s friends in Europe are I am doubted. Today’s Independent has an article

Thousands pay tribute to Latvia’s fallen troops

which says

“This year, however, the occasion has put the spotlight on David Cameron’s Conservative Party, which is politically in bed with the event’s backers.”

the article concludes:

“Many Latvian SS veterans insist that they were not party to atrocities. However, Jewish groups point out that Latvian police were recruited by the Germans and took part in the Holocaust. They were responsible for the mass execution of Jews after the Nazi invasion in 1941. These men later willingly joined the Waffen SS. Historians point out that they were involved in a war against so-called “partisans” which almost certainly involved mass shootings.

With all my sympathy for the victims of Communism, the crimes of Communism are simply not the same as the Holocaust. Part of this is fuelled by a desire to deflect attention away from the extensive collaboration with the Nazis during the Second World War,” Mr Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre  said. “They thought they were fighting for Latvia but the real beneficiary of these men’s service and bravery was Nazi Germany.”

Shouldn’t a political party like this be working with the BNP not the British Conservative Party?

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Osteoporosis – the silent disease

Posted on March 17, 2010 by maryhoneyballmep

Together with Anja Weisgerber MEP, Co-Chair with me of the Osteoporosis Interest Group in the European Parliament,  I was very pleased yesterday to host a special osteoporosis event in the European Parliament. Organised by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), the event took the form of a lunch, providing an opportunity for the IOF to introduce their work to MEPs and other interested people, and in the process build stronger relations with the European Parliament. The IOF is a small NGO based in Nyon, Switzerland, which aims to educate the public about osteoporosis, empower people to take responsibility for their bone health, persuade governments to make this disease a health care priority, and to assist health care professionals in providing the best possible care to patients and sufferers.

The IOF representatives attending were Professor John Kanis, Professor Juliet Compston, and Victoria Monti. President of the IOF, Professor John Kanis, gave an informative presentation focusing on the urgent need to involve all member states in a coordinated effort to address the gaps in measures to tackle osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is an extremely costly disease, and unless these gaps are acknowledged and addressed these economic costs will only continue to rise as more people are affected.

Professor Juliet Compston, who is the Chair of the EU Osteoporosis Consultation Panel, also gave a short presentation, indentifying eight key targets for the improvement of osteoporosis management in EU member states. These include making osteoporosis a healthcare priority, improving the delivery, integration and quality of osteoporosis education and implementing stronger research schemes. She acknowledged the great progress that has been achieved in osteoporosis prevention and treatment policy. However, she also noted that unfortunately many aspects of management of the disease remain unsatisfactory and more is still needs to be done. At present 21 countries do not recognise osteoporosis as a health priority, and full access to bone density scans and treatments are not currently available to high risk individuals in many states.

It is vitally important to increase people’s awareness and understanding of osteoporosis and to motivate people to take action to prevent, diagnose and treat the disease. Our lunch was a great success, with MEPs from different groups participating in the debate and in some cases even sharing some of their own experiences. I very much hope they will take what they heard back to their member states’ governments.

Later this year, on October 12th, Ms Weisgerber and I will be co-chairing another event in the Parliament, in collaboration with the IOF, to celebrate World Osteoporosis Day. This will be a much bigger full-day event, building on the success of yesterday, with presentations by experts and general discussions. The idea will be to further MEPs’ knowledge of this serious disease and try and put forward plans for action.

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Cameron and Osborne caught out over “Dwarfgate”

Posted on March 16, 2010 by maryhoneyballmep

David Cameron and George Osborne’s suitability for government must again be seriously in question after their their latest Sarkozy gaffe.

In case you missed the story, Cameron is said to have made a comment about “hidden dwarfs” when discussing a photograph taken with French President Sarkozy, who is 7 inches shorter than the Tory leader.  This follows comments in September by Osborne, who, while standing on stage at a conference hosted by Spectator magazine, removed a stool from the stage, joking that it was the “Sarkozy box”.  Sarkozy has apparently made a formal complaint to the UK government over Osborne’s childish “joke”.

Quite apart from the immaturity and inappropriateness of making fun of people for their size, stature, or appearance – although this is exactly the kind of juvenile humour deemed acceptable among those with the Tory leaderships’ Oxford Bullingdon club background – such mockery of the head of state of a leading nation on the world stage belies a worrying lack of statesmanship.

Cameron has already caused the French President regret by pulling his MEPs out of the EPP Group in the European Parliament.  Now he and his side-kick move on to personal jibes.  Diplomacy under a Cameron government?  More like putting both feet into a very large hole and continuing to dig, and most definitely not good for British interests.

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The Tories’ Real Record on Women’s Rights

Posted on March 16, 2010 by maryhoneyballmep

I have been reading with some amazement recent statements on women from senior Tories, in particular David Cameron and Theresa May.  In David Cameron’s speech to the Conservative Party spring conference last month, he emphasised how “family-friendly” his party’s manifesto would be with the “right to flexibility to everyone with children”.  Last week Theresa May used the occasion of International Women’s Day to make a “pledge of support for women” in the Guardian online pages. 

All fine sentiments, but female voters beware!  Beyond Cameron and May’s words, there is little sense that there is any support for such policies in the core of the Tory party, or little evidence that the party leadership have the will to implement them.  Indeed, as I have blogged before, the voting record of Tory MEPs on women’s rights issues since David Cameron became leader is appalling, and exposes the fact that really nothing has changed in the Nasty Party.

For example, in 2006 Tory MEPs voted against a Report on combating violence against women, which included provisions on making rape within marriage a criminal offence, eliminating female genital mutilation, and encouraging cross border cooperation on so-called “honour” crimes, all matters mentioned by Theresa May in her Guardian article as commitments of a future Tory government. 

Yet it seems her MEPs do not share these concerns.  As recently as 2009, the Tory MEPs abstained in a vote urging member states to improve their national policies on combating violence against women, where the importance of recognising rape within marriage as a criminal offence was again underlined. 

On childcare, the EU adopted Employment guidelines as part of the EU’s Growth and Jobs strategy in 2008.  These guidelines included targets for flexible working, and access to childcare, surely a key element of Cameron’s pledge of the “right to flexibility to everyone with children”.  Again, this failed to get the Conservative MEPs’ backing.

In February of this year, the Tories voted against a report which included provisions on the need to tackle the gender pay gap – another issue Theresa May purports to be in favour of – and to link maternity and paternity leave.  The Tories in the European Parliament explicitly disagreed with the call to establish paternity leave across Europe, and against linking paternity and maternity leave to ensure fathers are able to take time off as well.  The report in question also contained a provision on one of David Cameron’s priority policies, combating persistent sexist stereotyping and degrading images.  Again the Tory MEPs voted against.

David Cameron said last month in his speech that as a parent he “dreads switching on the television and being bombarded with commercial messages”.  However, in 2008, the European Parliament discussed the issue of advertising and stereotypes in the media.  Member States were urged to ensure that marketing and advertising did not uphold discriminatory stereotypes, and consider the impact of advertising on children and teenagers’ body image and self-esteem, and yet 15 Tory MEPs still managed to vote against this measure.

I continue to be amazed at the disingenuousness of Cameron’s approach.  If he and his party were serious about family friendly policies and women’s rights, they would not let their MEPs vote so brazenly against these reports which recognise the importance of these issues. 

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that, with a general election drawing near, the Tories suddenly remember that they need to try and appeal to women, who do make up over 50% of the electorate, but I would urge female voters not to fall for these well-scripted sentiments, when time and time again it can be shown that they are not supported by the Tories in any way that matters.

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Flawed Roadmap for Gender Equality criticised by European Women’s Lobby

Posted on March 15, 2010 by maryhoneyballmep

The success of the Roadmap for gender equality has been marred by a lack of comparable data across the EU, a lack of targeted financial resources, and difficulties of coordination at national and EU level with gender mainstreaming.

This is the hard-hitting conclusion of  a report entitled, ‘From Beijing to Brussels: An Unfinished Journey’, which evaluates the progress made at European level towards the full implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA). It is the third Alternative Report that the European Women’s Lobbly, the Brussels umbrella group for women’s organisations, has produced, following their earlier Beijing +5 and Beijing +10 reports.

Adopted at the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, the Bejing Platform for Action is an agenda aimed at empowering women by speeding up national governments’ implementation of the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women. Twelve areas were identified in Beijing in 1995 as being most critical, including women’s economic empowerment, women’s human rights, the girl child, and violence against women.

Sadly, some areas, such as women and the media, education and the training of young women, and women and health, have been all-but neglected at EU level, even though the achievement of full equality between women and men is one of the main goals of the EU and all 27 Member States are signatories to Beijing Platform for Action. However, despite the problems with the equlaity Roadmap,  the EU has taken a number of important steps in recent years to comply with the BPfA. One of the most significant of these, in addition to the Roadmap, was the founding of a European Institute for Gender Equality which I worked on as a member of the Women’s Committee. I was therefore pleased to see that the Institute began operating at the end of last year.

The EWL report particularly draws on the need to apply more rigorously, at both EU and national level, a policy of gender mainstreaming to all the areas of concern that are not uniquely ‘women’s’ issues. Note that in the field of education, where the perpetuation of gender stereotypes is leading to a lack of uptake in certain subjects by both girls and boys, this is having a hugely limiting impact upon their subsequent life choices. It is crucial we acknowledge and address demographic trends such as these in order to promote lifelong learning and ensure that potential future skills shortages are avoided.

This EWL report is extremely comprehensive, offering a critical assessment of the EU’s record in implementing the commitments that it made in Beijing 15 years ago. It highlights that positives changes have been made, particularly in the areas of violence against women and women in decision-making, but notes that there is still a long way to go. Only when all 12 areas of concerned identified in Beijing have been fully addressed can the EU be satisfied that it has had a significant impact on the progression towards a truly equal society.

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Tony Lennon

Posted on March 13, 2010 by maryhoneyballmep

When Tony Lennon met me at my meeting with the Culture trade unions last month, in his typical self-effacing fashon he didn’t tell me then that it would be our last meeting in that setting. Tony is not standing for re-election as President of BECTU the broadcasting and entertainment trade union.

Tony’s columns in BECTU’s magazine Stage, Screen and Radio have always been informative. He has been a constructive critic, or rather I should say friend to the Labour government and myself as a Labour representative.   I always listened all the more knowing that Tony was a Labour Party member who would be pounding the streets at election time, not looking for glory, just campaigning to ensure the party which has done so much for workers (minimum wage, extended maternity and paternity pay, highest employment levels ever, tax credits for low paid workers, paid holidays, proper rest breaks) would be in a position to deliver.  

I do not know what Tony plans for the future. It says much that instead of marking his final meeting  by mentioning his departure, his desire was to progress the interests of his members.

I think I have learnt more about radio spectrum from Tony than anybody else, and perhaps even more than most people would want to know on this technical subject! Tony’s last another business was to brief me (again) on this key issue for his members, recent developments and things to keep an eye on. His successor will have a lot to live up to and  I look forward to working with them.

My very best wishes to Tony for the future.

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Tory EU U-Turn?

Posted on March 12, 2010 by maryhoneyballmep

I was, to say the least, surprised to read William Hague’s speech to the Royal United Services Institute this week which outlined the EU’s “enormous importance to the United Kingdom and its foreign policy”.  It was also interesting to note that William Hague went out of his way to wish Catherine Ashton well in her role as EU High Representative.  Perhaps he should have a word in the ear of some of his MEPs, who have been anything but supportive.

Hague’s speech demonstrates that, with a General Election approaching, Tory flip-flops on key policy areas know no bounds.  For the past two years Hague himself has been scrambling around Europe making alliances with unsavoury parties from the fringes of far-right politics in order to create the Tories’ new European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament.  In doing so, he seriously undermined the credibility of the Conservative Party in the eyes of key European leaders such as Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, both of whom made known their dismay that the Tory MEPs were being withdrawn from the mainstream centre-right EPP group to which their political parties belonged.

This policy, albeit entirely misguided, has won Cameron and Hague a lot of support from the Tory grassroots, with  ConservativeHome website reporting that 45 of the new Tory candidates for the forthcoming general election listed repatriation of powers from Europe as their top priority.  As regular readers will be aware, we all know how realistic that hope is.

Cameron and Hague are walking a tightrope here.  On the one hand, they have done very well out of EU-bashing with their grass-roots supporters over the past two years.  On the other hand, they have alienated important allies throughout Europe to the detriment of the British national interest. 

William Hague’s speech dripped with hypocrisy and was surely a belated attempt to undo the damage their anti-EU stance has done. 

I doubt that leaders throughout Europe will have such short memories.  And I can only imagine what the new breed of anti-EU Tory candidate makes of this U-turn.

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Baroness Ashton is doing an excellent job

Posted on March 11, 2010 by maryhoneyballmep

Yesterday our very own Cathy Ashton spent an hour with Labour MEPs at our regular meeting in Strasbourg.

 Contrary to what you have read in the press, Baroness Ashton understands her task only too well.  She has very evidently thought through the enormous difficulties in setting up the EU External Action Service from scratch, a truly daunting prospect. I can’t help but wonder how many of those in the British media who feel free to criticise her every move, could go anywhere near making a success of the job Cathy Ashton is doing.

 Baroness Ashton will undoubtedly step on a lot of bureaucratic feet, so you should expect a steady trickle of negative stories as she goes about knocking heads together. Her objective is to make the EU operation effective and  deliver real change for women and men on the ground. Her travel schedule is breathtaking. Moscow, Washington, Madrid, the Balkans in just a few days.

 She is doing all that while also being a devoted mother and making sure she spends quality time with her family. Quite an achievement.

 Now let’s turn to Haiti, the subject of quite unjustified criticism. Last week in Haiti Cathy was thanked for not rushing to the scene in the days after the killer quake. One Foreign Minister who did so had blocked the airport for five hours, stopping vital aid from getting through.  Cathy visited two EU hospital ships, moored outside Port au Prince, one Spanish and one Italian, and met with fire fighters, doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, engineers and NGO staff all working together to deliver real help to the people of Haiti at time of extreme need.

 Cathy also told us about Operation Atalanta in the Gulf of Aden.  Atalanta, the first ever EU maritime operation co-ordinated by the UK, led by Admiral Hudson and involving ships from a number of Member States, is successfully leading the fight against naval piracy. But that’s not all. The EU is working with Kenya to bring the pirates to justice as well as implementing an anti poverty programmes to give local people a real choice – a striking example of the EU being effective, just in case you ever doubted it.

 Meanwhile in the European Parliament Chamber, the UKIP clowns continue to disgrace the country they purport to defend. This time it was the Earl of Dartmouth, who launched what can only be described as a silly personal attack on Cathy Ashton. The Parliament President (Speaker) rightly turned his microphone off, thus precipitating one of the most childish tantrums we have ever seen in the normally well behaved Parliament. Dartmouth shouted, gesticulated wildly and tore up his papers before storming out. First Farage, now Dartmouth – mad (dogs and) Englishmen both of them.

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Tax on Financial Transactions

Posted on March 11, 2010 by maryhoneyballmep

The European Parliament overwhelmingly adopted a resolution to develop a tax on financial transactions this Wednesday in Strasbourg.

Speaking during the debate, the European Commission representative made a point we would all do well to take account of – that without a well-defined redistributive mechanism, the revenue generated could well end up in those few countries with large financial centres. I hope this will be noted back home, since we, as the largest financial centre in Europe, obviously have a special responsibility.

I am also pleased that the resolution urges the European Commission and Council of Ministers to look at how the tax could be used to finance development co-operation and help developing countries to combat climate change.

I also support the part of the resoluton which says that any tax on financial transactions must not harm the banking system’s ability to perform its vital role of financing real economy investments, and must not encourage the migration of capital.   This is linked to the need to avoid negative repercussions on small businesses and individual investors, who surely must be protected from any adverse effects this tax could have on them.

 In order to discourage excessive risk-taking by financial institutions and ensure that the financial industry pays for the damage caused by the financial crisis, the Parliament is asking for pans to be prepared for a global tax. Should a worldwide tax prove unachievable, the EU could consider the option of going it alone.

Parliament is further asking the European Commission to develop the transaction tax plan on a short timetable to be ready to present to the G20 in June. The timing is important as we must not lose the momentum already achieved to introduce this tax.

The Commission is also asked to assess how such a tax could help stabilise financial markets and prevent a similar crisis by targeting “undesirable” transactions. Such transactions would, in the first instance, be identified by the Commission. While preferring a global approach through the G20, the European Parliament also believes that the pros and cons of introducing a purely EU-wide tax should be weighed up.

In its reply to the debate in the European Parliament, the European Commission, who are in favour of the tax and actively considering regulating the financial industry by this means, said it believed the issue is best tackled at global level, since this is the only way to prevent capital flight.

All in all this is a well though out and comprehensive resolution and one which I was happy to vote for.  It’s now up to us as MEPs to keep the momentum going and do all we can to ensure this resolution is put into practice.

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