This strong political message from EU citizens’ representatives in Europe was initiated by the selfless work of two MEPs from the PES family. They were the European Parliament rapporteur, Marie Arena and the Chair of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality – Iratxe Garcia Perez. The PES also pays tribute to civil society, the European Women’s Lobby and Trade Unions who pushed hard this outcome.
Zita Gurmai, PES Women President reacted to this good news: “Regardless of where they live, all women in Europe deserve the same rights to take maternity leave and to balance their work and private life. Women must be able to gain and maintain jobs, if this is achieved, we will edge ever close to true gender equality.”
Sergei Stanishev PES President added: “Thanks to our MEPs the European Parliament is the progressive voice for action on maternity leave. It is about time that we made gender equality a reality. The fact that the EPP abstained from the vote only reinforces their lack of commitment to the advancement of womens’ issues.”
The PES hopes that this will be a step to finally achieving the EU2020 goals for women’s employment, and will continue working with the EP and the Luxembourgish presidency to this end.
