Veel interne kritiek op EP-commissie rechten van de vrouw (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Parliament's women's committee (FEMM) is facing a collapse in confidence, with some insiders suggesting that its work could be better carried out by other means.

"We are in a period of crisis", French Liberal MEP and committee member Claire Gibault told EUobserver, adding that two unnamed committee members are pushing to scrap the committee altogether.

Dutch Liberal member Sophie in 't Veld and Swedish Liberal Maria Carlshamre also complained that the women's body is badly run and split between far-right and far-left opinions on key issues.

"There might be better ways to push forward women's rights in the European Parliament", Ms In 't Veld said, while a spokeswoman for Ms Carlshamre remarked that "FEMM is not a real committee".

The scepticism is not limited to Liberal group members, with Austrian Socialist Christa Prets also criticising the body's low standing in the European Parliament and the fact that too much time is spent debating administrative details.

"We have to change the procedure and the chair has to become more effective", she indicated.

Special statute causes problems

A Conservative group assistant who follows the committee's work closely explained that the problem stems from the body's special statute, which allows MEPs to be full members of more prestigious committees on agriculture, for example, as well as full members of FEMM at the same time.

The situation leads many members to avoid the women's committee whenever meetings clash with other obligations, with over half of the 10 full FEMM members surveyed by EUobserver declining to remark on the situation on the grounds that they have not followed FEMM closely enough in recent months.

"There are just a few members in the meetings and it is hard to get a vote on the amendments", the Conservative group source said, adding that "other committees, when they have an opinion from the women's committee, they usually ignore it".

Slovak Conservative MEP and FEMM chairwoman Anna Zaborska was unavailable for comment.

Ms Zaborska is currently involved in a legal battle with two French newspapers who accused her of making homophobic remarks.

Commission defends FEMM

But the director of the European Commission's equal opportunities department, Luisella Pavan-Woolfe, stepped in to defend FEMM's work, saying that the current initiative to create a European Institute for Gender Equality is down to the group "hammering away".

"They are quite successful and they are very aware of what's going on", Ms Pavan-Woolfe said.

The commission's equal opportunities chief said the debate whether FEMM's work should be carried out by other committees such as employment or civil rights has been doing the rounds in Brussels for at least five years.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Conservative group leader Hans-Gert Pottering said there was no question of dissolving FEMM before the next parliamentary elections in 2009.