22 Amendments of Michal ŠIMEČKA related to 2021/2254(INI)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas women are more likely than men to work in the informal economy and whereas their importance for the rural economy is not acknowledged; historically undervalued because of traditional gender stereotypes, such as the expectation that woman acts as the primary carer of children and adult dependants; whereas the gap between male and female employment is 3 percentage points higher in rural areas than in urban areas and many women have precarious contracts or play an ‘invisible role’ in rural societies, which may leave them exposed to vulnerable situations, such as no access to social protection or maternity benefits; whereas women in rural areas are more vulnerable to poverty and financial dependence on their partner, which represent strong barriers to their empowerment; whereas preliminary studies suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities between men and women, especially in terms of an increase in unpaid care work and work-life imbalance;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas rural areas are affected by a reduction of population and young women are more likely to leave rural regions than young men; whereas this demographic trend, when coupled with a lack of connectivity, infrastructure and productivity challenges and low access to public services including education and care depriving women from numerous opportunities, can contribute to the lower attractiveness of rural areas as places to live and work;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas women perform more than one function; whereas women are enablers of therepresent a significant driving force for prosperity and social inclusion in rural areas, notably through entrepreneurship; whereas emerging opportunities of the green and digital transition, together with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the diffusion of teleworking, have brought renewed attention to rural areas and opened up new possibilities for women; whereas the consequences of the pandemic will further widen gender inequalities unless the economic recovery response and the Europe’s green and digital transformation are gender sensitive; whereas women are enablers of the transition to a greener society and economy;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas only 30 % of farms across the EU are managed by womenthe number of women in farming has been slowly increasing in the recent years; whereas only 30 % of farms across the EU are managed by women; whereas this number hides significant differences in the representation of women in farming among Member States; whereas SMEs are predominant in rural regions;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas women living in rural areas experience barriers to access healthcare, especially sexual and reproductive health services, and to receive support when victims of gender- based violence; whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has a disproportionate impact on women and girls, especially those living in rural areas, resulting in an increase in domestic violence and discontinuation of services related to sexual and reproductive health;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Recital C c (new)
Recital C c (new)
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Recital C d (new)
Recital C d (new)
Cd. whereas the standard of living is generally lower in rural than in urban areas, affecting in a disproportional way the most vulnerable groups such as migrant women, women from minority groups and women with disabilities, which continue to face an intersectional discrimination in key areas such as education, employment and health; whereas the number of migrant women moving into rural areas will highly increase in the next months due to the Ukraine’s invasion by Russia;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Recital C e (new)
Recital C e (new)
Ce. whereas women in rural areas are often under-represented indecision- making bodies such as agricultural cooperatives, trade unions and municipal governments; whereas increasing women’s representation in such bodies is highly important;
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Recital C f (new)
Recital C f (new)
Amendment 59 #
Draft opinion
Recital C g (new)
Recital C g (new)
Cg. whereas achieving gender equality is key to reducing local and regional, and economic and social disparities, as well as for ensuring the long-term competitiveness and fair, inclusive and sustainable development of the EU’s rural areas;
Amendment 60 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses the importance of ensuring gender mainstreaming in rural development policy; calls for the exchange of best practices between Member States, in particular as regards the professional status of assisting spouses and partners in agriculture; calls for the work of women in farming activities, especially the work of assisting spouses and partners in agriculture, to be fully recognised by granting them legal recognition; stresses the need for women working in farms to have access to social security rights such as maternity leave and pension rights;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls for the needs of women in rural areas to be addressed through appropriate – and where necessary peripatetic – healthcare, including itinerant medicine solutions, such as equipped buses offering women living in rural areas the possibility to undergo preventive screening test or consultation with gynaecologists; stresses the need to strongly improve the access to sexual and reproductive health and rights and maternity care by deploying telemedicine, developing local perinatal centres and ensuring access to information; calls for the needs of women in rural areas to be addressed through appropriate childcare and care for the elderly, thereby promoting women’s social security rights, including maternity leave or pension rights, and women’s access to available EU funds;
Amendment 90 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls on Member States to develop prevention and awareness-raising actions to combat gender-based violence, including in schools, ensure access to information on facilities for helping the victims, develop shelters for victims and preventive intervention and treatment programmes for perpetrators; stresses the need to reinforce vocational training of agents working in law enforcement and public administration and taking care of victims of gender-based violence; urges to promote economic and financial empowerment of women victims of violence through the integration in the labour market and social assistance;
Amendment 94 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Highlights the potential of rural areas as spaces to foster inclusion and integration of the most vulnerable groups of women with specific needs, such as women with disabilities, migrant women, including seasonal migrants, refugees and minorities, victims of gender-based violence, women with little or no training and single mothers, etc.; encourages Members States to design and implement specific measures to promote their training and employment and safeguard their fundamental rights; stresses the important role of local and national authorities in ensuring the inclusion and integration of these women; insists especially on the necessity to prepare an immediate response to the arrival of Ukrainian women with children in order to ensure their quick and easy integration;
Amendment 104 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote digital and hybrid education, reskilling and upskilling of women in rural areas and to further develop access to specific education programmes and quality jobs in order to enhance their potential and to counteract the moving out of high-qualified women from rural areas; calls on the Commission to continue supporting Member States’ work on improving the availability, accessibility and affordability of quality education through investments from the European Social Fund Plus, the European Regional Development Fund, the InvestEU programme and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, paying special attention to people in vulnerable situations;
Amendment 110 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Calls on the Commission and Member States to find adequate responses to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic driven by the current transition to the more digital and greener Europe, especially in term of job opportunities; stresses that Member States should engage a reflection on new skills development and digital inclusion of women, encouraging the remote working possibilities in order to permit the access more easily to high quality jobs while living in rural areas;
Amendment 119 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Calls on the Commission and Members States in coordination with local and regional authorities to better implement gender mainstreaming in their transport policies; underlines the importance of quality, affordable and safe public transports; stresses the need for EU cohesion funds to support the improvement of connectivity and mobility solutions in rural areas;
Amendment 123 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Calls on Member States and the Commission to boost awareness and to facilitate easier access to finance for women entrepreneurs and self-employed in rural areas including alternative forms of financing making sure finance is available and reach the women entrepreneurs and self-employed; encourages Member States and regional and local authorities to make use of the existing European Structural Funds to target and promote women entrepreneurs and self-employed women; stresses the need for awareness-raising and information campaigns regarding existing and future EU funding possibilities for women entrepreneurs;
Amendment 130 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4c. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to systematically collect gender-disaggregated data and take the gender dimension into account when designing, implementing and evaluating policies and programmes in the field of rural development and highlights the importance of gender impact assessments for the design of such proposals in order to better achieve the goals of gender mainstreaming in rural areas;
Amendment 135 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 d (new)
Paragraph 4 d (new)
4d. Highlights the valuable contribution to the promotion of gender equality in rural areas delivered by actions under the Leader programme, co- financed from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, which aims to engage local actors in the design and delivery of strategies, decision-making and resource allocation for the development of their rural areas; calls on the Commission and the Member States to reinforce the Leader programme by reducing the administrative burden on local authorities and simplifying the access, promoting the local ownership of community-led development projects, and encouraging women’s participation in local action groups;
Amendment 138 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 e (new)
Paragraph 4 e (new)
4e. Insists on the need to improve the participation of women in decision- making in rural areas by means of training activities designed to encourage their presence in areas and sectors in which they are under-represented, and by awareness-raising campaigns on the importance of the active involvement of women in management positions; calls on Member States to promote gender equality in the various management and representation bodies to foster equal participation in all types of agricultural organisations, associations and public institutions;