Joint debate on the situation of women in Europe&nbsp;during theEPPlenary session (7-10 March) in Strasbourg. Statements byVĕraJOUROV&Aacute;, Member of the EC in charge of Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Constance LE GRIP (EPP, FR),VilijaBLINKEVICIUTE(S&amp;D,LT),BeatrixvonSTORCH(ECR, DE),BeatrizBECERRABASTERRECHEA(ALDE,ES),MarisaMATIAS(GUE/NGL, PT) and TerryREINTKE(Greens/EFA, DE)

Strasbourg

plenary session

JOUROVÁ, Věra (EC)

REINTKE, Terry (Greens/EFA, DE)

BECERRA BASTERRECHEA, Beatriz (ALDE, ES)

joint debate

MATIAS, Marisa (The Left, PT)

International Women's Day (T)

gender balance (T)

von STORCH, Beatrix (EFDD, DE)

BLINKEVIČIŪTĖ, Vilija (S&D, LT)

LE GRIP, Constance (EPP, FR)

The socio-economic situation of women in Europe: extracts from the joint debate

SOUNDBITE (English), V&#277;ra JOUROV&#193;, Member of the EC in charge of Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, If we continue at this pace it will take us another 70 years to achieve gender equality, still for every hour of women's work they take home 16% less than men. Still, fathers spend about an hour per day taking care of the children and the house while mothers devote three hours. Parents and mothers far more than fathers face such great challenges in combining their private life with their work.

SOUNDBITE (English), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Member of the EC in charge of Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Women's pensions are 40% lower than men's pensions on average and this gap shows no sign of narrowing. We need to accelerate the positive changes of the previous decades to create a kind of society where every boy and girl can thrive.

SOUNDBITE (English), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Member of the EC in charge of Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Only a little over 20% of all board members are women. The Commission's proposal to achieve greater gender balance on boards of listed companies aims to tackle this inequality by ensuring boards consist of at least 40% of both sexes. We must get this adopted and you must help advocate in the member states which are still reluctant.

SOUNDBITE (French), Constance LE GRIP (EPP, FR), Yes of course, we need European legislative tools ensuring that we have more women on boards in listed companies.

SOUNDBITE (Lithuanian), Vilija BLINKEVI&#268;I&#362;T&#278; (S&amp;D, LT), What can we do to avoid women from losing their jobs while taking care of their family members? And what can we do to ensure that they have time for their own healthcare? We need the new legislation on maternity/paternity and childcare leaves. Also the legislation on care leaves, in order to take care of elderly family members or disable family members without losing their jobs.

SOUNDBITE (German), Beatrix von STORCH (ECR, DE), Wealth creation starts with the appreciation of values and the Commission is actually not recognising the value creation, the wealth creation by mothers. In fact we can almost talk about discrimination against families and mothers; that would be something new.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Beatriz BECERRA BASTERRECHEA (ALDE, ES), We need to push forward the 'women on boards' directive; there are only a few countries blocking this agreement, including the country holding the EU presidency, and it's in our best interest to get to a 40%, it's not a whim, we need to speed up the process.

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Marisa MATIAS (GUE/NGL, PT), I think this Commission started badly when it withdrew the maternity and paternity leave directive; you are not recognising that there is a real inequality and we can have this debate over and over again but I'd like to see the speeches be followed by actions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Terry REINTKE (Greens/EFA, DE), Don't let me and my generation who are born 30 years later grow old in a Europe where we do not get what we deserve: equal pay and equality in all European societies. We have a very clear legal base for forcing member states to do something.

SOUNDBITE (English), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Member of the EC in charge of Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, I am mother, and it was the best role I could I ever have in my life, but still: isn't it the society which needs children? To put it in a very cynical economical way: society needs children; the society needs the future tax payers. And why only women should bear this burden? This is not sustainable anymore. So this is where we try to work, this is our direction in working on this new package. What we want to bring new in this package is not only better arrangements for women, but arrangements for working parents, and this is the real result from (comparing to) the previous proposals.