The EP invited to a talk about the role of women, gender issues and pay gap -&nbsp;"Latvian Presidency and women" during the plenary session of January in Strasbourg. Speeches by Martin SCHULZ, EP President, Laimdota STRAUJUMA, Latvian Prime Minister and Kristalina GEORGIEVA, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Budget and Human Resources.

SCHULZ, Martin (S&D, DE)

exhibition

gender balance (T)

EU - Latvia (T)

GEORGIEVA, Kristalina (BG)

Latvian Presidency of the EU (T)

STRAUJUMA, Laimdota (LV)

Latvian Presidency and women: speeches by Martin SCHULZ, EP President, Laimdota STRAUJUMA, Latvian Prime Minister, Kristalina GEORGIEVA, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Budget and Human Resources

Arrival shots and opening of the event, (6 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Laimdota STRAUJUMA, Latvian Prime Minister, "Dear President, Dear members of this group, Dear women, it is really an honour to be here, so many women, it is not so usual even in Latvia, but in Latvia we don't feel any problems in the gender field."

SOUNDBITE (English), Martin SCHULZ, EP President , "In the morning when Prime Straujuma came with her governmental delegation, there were 5 women, for decoration 1 man. (Laughter) And what is the difference, I told with the Cyprus Presidency, they came with 6 men and I said where are the women? And they said why? - You see we have different culture in Europe."

SOUNDBITE (English), Martin SCHULZ, EP President , "The debate like in my country, in Germany that we need a percentage in leading positions, also in enterprises, it is not solving all the problems, but it shows that more and more Member states are under pressure to solve the inequality between men and women."

SOUNDBITE (English), Martin SCHULZ, EP President , "I have a son and a daughter and imagine if my son has a job and my daughter is doing the exactly the same job, same working time, same working place, same content of work, in average my daughter would earn 20 per cent less than my son only because she is a girl, this is a shame. It is for me as a father inacceptable that one of my children is in such a way humiliated and therefore I think that we have fight together for this equality, for equal chances and that is in my eyes one of the main goals that women in Parliament should have. Thank you very much for this initiative and good luck." - (Applause)

SOUNDBITE (English), Kristalina GEORGIEVA, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Budget and Human Resources, "For Europe as a whole the pay gap is 16.4 per cent and that makes (saying Feb) March 28 an important date, why, because it takes that much for women to catch up in pay. And the set story is that this day was marked on March 5, than on March 3rd and now 2 years in the row is February 28. And our wish is that it is marked on January 1st and this day must come."

SOUNDBITE (English), Kristalina GEORGIEVA, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Budget and Human Resources, "What does it mean for us in the Commission, two things: one in our programs to promote gender equality at home and in our development work elsewhere, just in getting girls more into school can do more for world peace then probably any other action. Two: to do in the Commission at home what we tell the rest of the world to do, that means to strive to gender equality. One of the best tasks of my job is that I'm tasked by President Juncker to reach by 2019 40 per cent of women in senior leadership positions."