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Commission proposes Fourth Action Programme on Equal Opportunities

On a proposal from Mr Padraig Flynn, Commissioner responsible for Employment and Social Affairs (including Equal Opportunities), the European Commission has adopted a proposal for a Fourth Action Programme on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men. It has, thus, fulfilled one o...

On a proposal from Mr Padraig Flynn, Commissioner responsible for Employment and Social Affairs (including Equal Opportunities), the European Commission has adopted a proposal for a Fourth Action Programme on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men. It has, thus, fulfilled one of the key commitments of the Commission's medium-term Social Action Programme. The new programme will run from 1996 to the year 2000 and will provide the basic framework for all Community activity aimed at promoting equal opportunities over the next five years. The proposed budget for the programme is ECU 60 million. This represents more than a doubling of the funding provided for in the Third Action Programme. The principal aim of the programme is to ensure that the equality issue is taken into account not just for policies, actions and financial programmes at Community level, but also at national and regional. The key concern is to ensure that equality issues become an integral part of all policy areas. The programme focuses on the following priority areas: - Getting the full range of social and economic actors involved and working; - Promoting equal opportunities in response to economic and social change; - Encouraging policies which reconcile family and working life for women and men; - Getting a better balance of numbers of women in decision-making roles; - Making it easier to exercise the right to equality of opportunity; - Supporting the implementation and assessment of all activities which further the programme's underlying aims.