On 5 March 2015, the European Parliament also hosted an interparliamentary meeting on “Empowering Women and Girls through Education”.
The European Parliament organized both events to mark the 2015 International Women’s Day.
The interparliamentary seminar was attended by the women members of the relevant committees of the parliaments of the Western Balkans and Turkey: Albania, Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey, and representatives of UNMIK/Kosovo.
The seminar also gathered MEPs Ulrike Lunacek, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Iratxe Garcia Perez, Chair of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, Dimitris Papadimoulis, Vice-President for Gender Equality and Diversity, Norica Nicolai, shadow rapporteur on “Women’s rights in the Balkan accession countries”, and Marijana Petir, member of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality.
The National Assembly delegation comprised European Integration Committee members Vesna Markovic and Gordana Comic and the Deputy Chairperson and deputy member of the Committee on Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality Ljiljana Malusic and Ljiljana Nestorovic.
The MEPs shared the EU’s and their countries’ national experiences, saying how women remain inadequately represented in high executive positions and in the business world. According to the European Commission reports, the situation is very much the same in the accession countries.
The women parliamentarians of the region said that all the regional parliaments share similar characteristics e.g. compulsory quota for women ensuring the participation of women in the parliaments. Boosting the number of women in the executive is something that requires additional efforts.
In her presentation, the Deputy Chairperson of the Committee on Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality Ljiljana Malusic said that women make up 34% of all the MPs in the National Assembly. Women chair eight of the 20 committees. The National Assembly Speaker and Secretary-General are also women. Out of the 19 ministries of the Serbian Government, four are headed by women. However, women are considerably less represented in the local authorities, which is an issue the National Assembly’s Women’s Parliamentary Network, set up in February 2013, is hard at work.
Ljiljana Nestorovic spoke of the compulsory quotas for women in parliaments and the need to not only educate, but to change the attitude of both men and women toward gender equality.
The seminar was co-chaired by EP Vice-President Ulrike Lunacek and the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and European Integration Committee member Gordana Comic. Giving the conclusions of the seminar, Gordana Comic said that the gender equality issues and the obstacles women come up against are either the same or very similar in all the countries in the region, so they should be addressed together, through constant cooperation and dialogue.
The interparliamentary meeting on “Empowering Women and Girls through Education” was attended by the women members of the relevant parliamentary committees of EU member countries, countries of the European Economic Area and accession countries. They spoke about the need to constantly educate women, girls, as well as boys, so that the society as a whole could become more aware of the need to respect gender equality and change female stereotypes in the media.
Vesna Markovic said that the Serbian Government is dedicated to the improvement of the education system so as to emphasise gender equality, and the fight against all types of violence against women. Ljiljana Malusic outlined the education system in Serbia highlighting the introduction of the issues of equality between men and women, mutual respect, non-violent resolution of problems and prevention of violence against women, with a special focus on women in marginal groups such as Roma. Gordana Comic emphasised the need for constant dialogue between women and men, and networking among women politicians.
The interparliamentary meeting was chaired by Iratxe Garcia Perez, Chair of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality.