Tsjechië, Hongarije en Slovenië gooien hoge ogen voor vestigingsplaats EU Instituut voor seksegelijkheid (en)

EUOBSERVER / STRASBOURG - The Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia are the top candidates for hosting the new EU gender institute.

The European Institute for Gender Equality, announced by the European Commission today (8 March), is supposed to collect, analyse and circulate data to provide a basis for future policies on gender equality.

It will operate with a budget of about 53 million euro for 2007 - 2013, and be located in one of the new member states.

Social affairs commissioner Vladimir Spidla suggested Prague, Budapest or Ljubljana as among the most likely seats for the institute.

Different opinions across Europe remain, however, on what exact measures to take for tackling inequality between men and women.

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the new body would make a "very good contribution to promote our values, because the EU is leading in gender issues

and we do not want to give this position to the others".

However, despite several initiatives in member states to deal with gender-related inequalities, there are still gloomy trends concerning the situation of women in Europe: feminisation of poverty, mainly in old age, as women live longer than men - pension systems do not recognise this difference.

Pay gaps of about 15 per cent between men and women, and unequal job opportunities due to insufficient maternity leave and child care provisions also remain.

Commissioner Spidla pointed out the new institute should provide objective information as a basis for future social policies, as "new inputs which are not based on prejudices".

Quotas on women at workplace?

The EU does not enjoy significant legislative powers in social policy, so it is mainly up to the individual countries to adopt their own tools to promote gender equality.

Several EU member states have introduced so called "positive discrimination" measures, such as quotas to encourage more women in employment or political representation.

However, the issue proved quite controversial among MEPs debating their common resolution on International Women's Day, according to Slovak Hungarian MEP Edit Bauer (EPP-ED).

"While some liberal and socialist parliamentarians consider introducing quotas as the most efficient way to encourage more women at the workplace, several conservative MEPs are strongly opposed [to such a mention in the resolution]", Mrs Bauer told the EUobserver.

According to a recently published study on gender-related legislation across Europe, some countries - like Austria, Denmark and Germany - restrict the positive equality measures to the public sector, while others - such as France, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands - include positive equality measures in the private sector.

Hungary, Slovakia and Spain have no positive measures to promote equality in their legislation, according to the study.

Commissioner Spidla favours the idea of introducing quotas for women, at least in the public sector.

"The countries which have come up with such measures - especially the Scandinavian states - have proved that it can be done and that it leads to better women representation in all spheres."

"It would be stupid not to exploit the women's talents. The mixed teams are better anyway, the European Commission with its highest number of women in history is the clear example", Mr Spidla told the EUobserver.