Press Release: Anna Diamantopoulou : ‘Gender equality rules will remain a dead letter unless they are properly enforced on the ground’

Speaking on 22.1.01 before an informal Council of Ministers meeting in Nörrkoping, Sweden, the Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Anna Diamantopoulou, challenged Member States to enforce rules on equal pay and conditions for men and women in Europe or to risk equality rules becoming a dead letter. She also called upon governments to provide more and better childcare facilities throughout Europe to help lift obstacles to women's entry or return to the labour market. She appealed to Member States to 'gender-comb' their tax and social security systems in order to break down disincentives to full participation of women in the jobs market.