Cyprus to push for gender equality at Porto summit

Cyprus will prioritise women’s role in the post-COVID era at the EU social summit in Porto, according to a non-paper seen by EURACTIV.

“Women were hit harder by the crisis, as they are over-represented in the first line of duty against the pandemic. The EU average in the health, social services, hospitality, retail, education and care sectors is revealing in this regard,” the unattributed document reads, adding that the Porto summit provides a good opportunity to address the multiple challenges faced by women.

In a move indicating Nicosia’s strong interest in the Porto summit, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades will be accompanied in Portugal by Minister of Labor, Welfare and Social Insurance Zeta Aimilianidou.

The paper highlights that the pandemic with its negative socio-economic effects has revealed some deep-rooted gender inequalities and has put at risk the progress achieved over the last decades.

Nicosia says the pandemic’s extraordinary measures, not only have impacted on the proper functioning of the Single Market and the Schengen Area, but also affected the personal freedoms of citizens, especially women.

“This unprecedented situation has resulted in longer periods of unpaid care work, due to underlying inequalities between women and men in the form of unequal sharing of domestic and care tasks within the household, foregoing more time of their paid work and eventually of women’s earnings,” the document states.

The European Commission published in March a report on gender equality in the EU, showing the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women.

“The pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities between women and men in almost all areas of life, both in Europe and beyond, rolling back on the hard-won achievements of past years,” the report noted.

Nicosia now wants to see practical solutions when it comes to women’s position in society after the pandemic.

The document notes that caring responsibilities more often fall to women, a fact that has been among the main reasons disadvantaging women even before the crisis.

“This clearly underlines the importance of the availability of affordable and high-quality educational and care facilities for children and other dependents as a prerequisite for labour market participation and career progression of women,” the paper reads, emphasising that the Recovery and Resilience Fund could fund such initiatives.

Cyprus also supports the European Commission’s proposal for a directive to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay between men and women, through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms.

“Setting minimum criteria for wage transparency, in order to reduce gender bias in pay structures, addressing the undervaluation of women’s work, and making discriminatory pay practices identifiable is an important prerequisite to eventually empower female workers to claim their right to equal pay and to ensure effective legislative enforcement and improved access to justice,” it states.

The paper also warns that excessive entitlement to parental leave can inadvertently hinder women’s return to the labour market, while insufficient benefits will discourage men from taking such leave.

“Hence, in light of the new Directive on work-life balance for parents and careers, harmonisation efforts should focus on finding the right balance between duration of parental leave and the level of benefits that will provide adequate wage replacement, as a means to crafting an effective and successful family leave policy,” the paper states.

[Edited by Josie Le Blond]

Read more with Euractiv

EU leaders to give strong backing to new social targets at Porto summit

The 27 heads of EU national governments will commit to “closely following” progress towards new jobs, skills and poverty reduction targets and will be open to adding new indicators to the GDP to measure national progress, according to the latest draft of the Porto social summit declaration seen by EURACTIV.