C Explanatory memorandum,
by Ms Nursuna Memecan, rapporteur
1 Introduction
1. The Parliamentary Assembly has already debated the
current economic and financial crisis.
Note Its harmful impact on
women, in particular, has, however, not yet been studied by the
Assembly. For this reason, Ms Wurm (Austria, SOC), tabled a motion
for a resolution on the subject on 4 May 2009 (
Doc. 11891). The motion pointed out that European women were, on
average, poorer than European men, less likely to be gainfully employed, more
likely to be earning less, and also more likely to be working part
time (not necessarily of their own choosing) already before the
crisis struck.
2. As the motion rightly pointed out, the crisis has affected
women badly, as well: much attention has been focused on the male-dominated
industries such as the construction and the automotive industry.
However, the retailing, services and tourism sectors, in which many
women are employed, have been equally badly affected. It is thus
urgent to address the gender dimension of the impact of and solution
to the economic recession in national and European recovery plans.
At the same time, it is important to ensure that such a crisis cannot repeat
itself. Since the financial crisis which started the recession was
literally “man-made”, it is important to ensure that women be equally
included in the decision-making processes in the political, economic
and financial spheres.
3. The Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men appointed
me its Rapporteur on the subject during the June 2009 part-session
and organised an exchange of views with two eminent experts at its
meeting in Paris on 8 September 2009.
Note This report is due to be debated by the
Assembly already during the April 2010 part-session, together with
other related reports. I am glad that it was possible to fast-track
this report, before the crisis ends without its lessons being learned.
4. I am also glad that the committee agreed at its meeting in
November 2009 to broaden the subject matter of this report to not
only include the impact of the financial and economic crisis on
women (which reduces women to mere victims, as so often), but also
portray women as actors of change in establishing a new financial and
economic world order, so to speak.
5. Women’s increased participation in the labour market is one
of the most important evolutions concerning the economy. However,
because of the “glass ceiling” and the financial and the economic
crisis, women have still not been able to reach the positions where
they can positively contribute to economic growth. At this point, we
must transform the crisis into an opportunity, by making laws, supporting
NGOs working on the subject and creating more gender awareness.
2 The “man-made” financial
crisis
6. Decision makers in the financial services sector
are widely blamed for starting the financial crisis (although politicians,
supervisors, regulators and even imprudent households and businesses
share some of the blame). As Professor Anne Sibert of the Birkbeck
University of London put it on 18 May 2009: “Bankers imprudently
counted on a continuation of the United States housing boom long
after most economists predicted its demise; they were overtly sanguine
about sustainable leverage ratios; managers of insurance companies and
pension funds failed to exercise sufficient caution when they purchased
collateralised debt obligations and asset-backed securities they
did not understand or know the value of.”
Note
7. It is no secret that there are few women in the financial
services sector, and even less in decision-making positions in that
sector,
Note so it should come as no surprise
that a debate quickly started on whether the bank that went down
first and started the financial dominoes off, Lehman Brothers, would
have gone bust if it had been Lehman Sisters. There is substantial
economics literature on the effect of gender on attitudes towards risk,
and most of it appears to support the idea that men are less risk
averse than women in their financial decision making. There is also
sizeable literature documenting that men tend to be more overconfident
than women.
Note Combined
with a behaviour-distorting bonus system which rewards the short
term over the long term, it is clear that the extreme male dominance
of the financial services sector was – and is – not a good piece
of news.
8. My favourite columnist, Nicolas D. Kristof of the
New York Times, reported on 8 February
2009 that the consensus at the 2009 annual World Economic Forum
in Davos, Switzerland, was that the optimal bank would have been
Lehman Brothers and Sisters – an opinion not only I share. It is
indeed high time to feminise the boards of banks and other big companies,
following the good example set by Norway, which has required at least
40% of women on (some – indeed the most important) company boards
for a few years now. The only question is whether banks and other
big companies will have to be forced, for example via legislation
and the threat of sanctions, to change their ways (which seems increasingly
likely, considering recent news on oversized bonuses even for banks
and businesses on state-financed “life support”), or whether they
will see the light themselves,
Note perhaps encouraged
by awareness-raising campaigns.
3 The impact of the financial
and economic crisis on women
3.1 Employment/unemployment
9. The economic crisis which followed the financial
one has impacted on practically everyone, whether they are women
or men, and whether they live in developed or developing countries.
Everyone’s quality of life has been reduced. However, the impact
on women has been much greater than on men
Note – and this in the context of
women already having less of everything before the crisis struck.
A small reminder: the World Trade Organization (WTO) has pointed
out that women own 1% of the world’s wealth, have a 10% share of
global income, and occupy 14% of leadership positions in the public
and private sector. But women account for 70% of the world’s poor.
Note
10. Evidence from previous crises suggests that women are first
amongst the groups which suffer disproportionately, having fewer
and less effective buffers to cope with economic hardship. Specifically
with regard to women and girls, gender-based vulnerabilities, including
limited legal benefits and protection, lack of decision-making authority
and limited control over financial resources, are likely to leave
them less equipped to cope with the crisis than men.
Note Furthermore,
as the European Women’s Lobby has pointed out, the crisis has been
obscuring the enormous disparities between household and paid work.
The female participation rate in the labour market has fallen in
a number of countries, with women falling back on essential services,
on an unpaid basis.
Note In
other words: in Europe, women are very likely to have low-paid,
insecure jobs, often in the informal sector of the economy, and
are thus amongst the first to get laid off – that is, if they had
paid jobs in the first place.
11. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has found that
the number of the jobless worldwide reached nearly 212 million in
2009, following an unprecedented increase of 34 million compared
to 2007, on the eve of the global crisis.
Note While the impact was evident
both in developed and developing countries, it varied depending
on the gender dynamics of employment. For example, in some developed
economies, men are experiencing heavier job losses than women as
sectors where mostly men work – like construction and automotive
industries – suffer from the sharp decline. However, in other contexts,
female joblessness is now rising at a higher pace due to public
sector budget cuts for education, health and social services, reduced orders
and increased factory closure in export-oriented industries (particularly
textiles and garment manufacture), decline in service industries
(especially tourism), and losses in the retail industry. ILO studies also
reveal that vulnerable workers – such as young women or those without
union representation – will accept indecent working conditions (poor
pay, long working hours, loss of benefits) rather than face dismissal.
Note
12. According to the
Global Employment
Trends for Women released in 2009, a distinction should
be made between the continued disadvantaged position of women in
labour markets around the world and the impact of the economic crisis.
Between 2008 and 2009, the unemployment rate for women increased
by 0.8 percentage points and for men by 0.7 percentage points. This
means that the gap in unemployment rates by sex increased slightly
to 0.6 percentage points between 2008 and 2009 which is the same
gap as 10 years ago.
Note
13. According to the Global Gender
Gap Report, there is not a profound difference between
women and men concerning the official unemployment rates. For example,
in France the female adult unemployment rate was 8.53% and the male
adult unemployment rate was 7.44%. But these ratios do not take
into consideration the over-representation of women in part-time
work which is not included in the unemployment statistics, nor those women
who have given up looking for a job (so-called “discouraged workers”:
workers who are not included in the unemployment statistics of their
country because they do not actively seek work although they do
want to work, because they feel that no work is available to them,
they have restricted labour mobility, or they face discrimination
or structural, social or cultural barriers).
14. Women’s labour participation rates across the European Union
vary from 36.9% to 73.2%.
Note According to the statistics published
by Eurostat, in Latvia the harmonised unemployment rate among women
jumped from 9.6% to 19.3% between January 2009 and December 2009
which is the most significant increase in the region. And also in
Spain, it increased from 16.5% to 19.4%. On average in the European
Union, it rose from 8.1% to 9.3%.
Note
15. In 2009, the only two regions where there was a significant
difference in unemployment rates in favour of women (officially,
at least) were East Asia, Central and South-Eastern Europe (non-European
Union) and the Commonwealth of Independent States where the male
rate exceeded the female rate by 1.2 and 0.8 points respectively,
according to
Global Employment Trends2010.
Note However,
a recent ILO report specific to the Asian region came to the opposite
conclusion, since women make up a greater share of the so-called
“buffer workforce” in Asia (casual and contract labourers, temporary
workers, rural migrant and seasonal workers, and employees in subcontracted
and small-scale enterprises) and since there is a stronger tendency
for women than men to fall outside of the labour force rather than
continue with the job search (so-called “male breadwinner bias”).
Note
16. In the United States, since December 2007, although much of
the slowdown has occurred in traditionally male fields such as automotive
or construction, a few traditionally female fields such as health
and education have shown job growth or minimal job loss. That is
why many reports have focused on the job losses among men in the
labour force. But the substantial job losses that have also occurred
at the same time among women in sectors such as retail, hospitality
and personal and business services are not discussed. The number
of unemployed women is now 6.3 million (as of December 2009). An
increase of 2.8 million unemployed women can be attested to since
the recession began.
Note
17. Even women entrepreneurs are badly hit. Access to adequate
finance is critical to any business’ success. However, women entrepreneurs
had limited access to financial resources even before the crisis,
as unlike other borrowers, women have few other sources of financing.
With the tightening of the credit market, women are further squeezed
out.
3.2 Social services, wage equality
and remittances
18. A smaller share of unemployed women collect unemployment
insurance benefits compared with unemployed men. Between December
2007 and November 2009, 36.8% of unemployed women received unemployment
benefits, on average, compared with 40.3% of unemployed men.
Note
19. Furthermore, there is an important gap between the salaries
of men and women. In the fourth quarter of 2009, in the USA, women
working full time earned only 81% as much as men who worked full
time. Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary
workers in the fourth quarter of 2009 for women are US$670 compared
to US$825 for men.
Note On the European continent, one can
also easily observe the gender wage gap. In Austria in 2009, concerning
the wage equality for similar work, female to male ratio was 0.48
and in France this ratio was 0.47 according to the
Global Gender Gap Report.
Note The
Parliamentary Assembly has just adopted a resolution and a recommendation
on the wage gap between women and men, based on a report by my colleague
Mr Wille from Belgium.
Note
20. Recessions affect women and men differently. Particularly
in lower income households, the loss of women’s income may have
greater long-term negative implications than a similar loss in men’s
income. Because of the austerity measures which affect the quality
and availability of public services, women and girls assume greater
care responsibilities.
Note
21. In some member states of the Council of Europe, remittances
in 2009 dropped by up to 43% from 2008. Generally, micro-enterprises
commonly rely on remittances, micro-finance institutions and informal
lenders. While micro-finance institutions have proven to be an effective
way of reaching the smallest businesses, many of them owned by women,
it is crucial to maintain their liquidity so that they can continue
to lend to micro-enterprises.
Note That is why the
fall in remittances is one of the reasons why women are much more
affected by the crisis than men.
22. Even the non-commercial sector of micro-credit is hit: while
micro-credit has made huge inroads in the last decade in allowing
the poorest women in developing countries to access loans, funds
for such programmes are likely to be a low priority for states and
wealthy business trying to weather the crisis “at home” as a priority. Indeed,
the state response to the economic and financial crisis (bail-out
programmes for banks and insurance companies considered “too big
to fail”), coupled with investments in particular in “shovel-ready”
infrastructure projects and the automotive industry (all of which
benefit male-dominated sectors), risk further exacerbating the negative
impact of the crisis itself on women, as badly needed investments,
for example, in the care and education sectors are shelved, not
to mention projects aimed at empowering women.
3.3 Impacts on women in developing
countries
23. The initial effect in the developing world is on
women, mainly young women, working in export-oriented industries.
For example, in South-East Asia, garment, footwear, textile, electronic,
tourism and seafood-processing occupies an important place in economic
activities and unskilled female workers are over-represented in
these sectors: approximately 75%. They are at the lowest levels
of casual, temporary, low paying, insecure employment with minimal
or no social insurance support. When global demand for the products
they produced decreased, they became the first to be laid off. In
Thailand, despite the significant progress in women’s participation
in the productive economy, women remain structurally discriminated
against in terms of occupational segregation and prejudice, leading
to lower positions and wages (the ability of women to rise to enterprise
leadership was 5.46% in 2008 – decreasing to 5.32% in 2009 – and
estimated earned income was US$6 695 for women and US$10 732 for
men in 2008, but in 2009 this number decreased to US$5 860 for women
and US$9 443 for men in Thailand).
Note Apart
from the wage freezes, women also faced reductions in working hours
or were pressured into less secure contracts, as companies have
taken advantage of the crisis. As a consequence, the ratio of women
working in the informal economy increased.
Note
4 Recovering from the crisis:
involving women
4.1 Rescue and recovery packages
and their effects
24. In Turkey, after the beginning of the financial crisis,
in 2008, an important measure was taken to decrease the unemployment
rate among women: a temporary amendment was added to the Law 4447
on Unemployment Insurance which covers the period between 15 May
2008 and 15 May 2010. According to this amendment, the social security
insurance fees of women who work at private companies will be covered
by the unemployment fund of the state. The state covers the social
security fees of each woman employed within determined ratios: 100%
for the first year, 80% for the second year, 60% for the third year,
40% for the fourth year and 20% for the fifth year. As of November
2009, 30 251 women have been employed with the help of this amendment.
25. The National Assembly of France passed a female quota bill
on 20 January 2010 according to which large companies must have
40% of women on their boards. The companies would have three years
to make 20% of their boards women and six years to reach the 40%
quota. This bill now awaits debate in France’s Senate before it
can become law. Norway passed a law in 2002 and became the vanguard
for supporting the existence of women in economic decision-making
bodies by law.
26. There are some campaigns like Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards
which aims to support and encourage women entrepreneurs who are
the most vulnerable category of entrepreneurs in their most vulnerable
phase. This project started in 2006 and since its inception, it
has accompanied 27 promising female business-owners and recognised
10 laureates among them: five in 2007 and five in 2008. Similarly,
Goldman Sachs is sponsoring an international project called “10,000
women”, which aims to train 10 000 women worldwide in five years
to foster shared economic growth through business and management
education for women. This kind of project helps the more vulnerable
actors of the economy, women, get more involved in business at the
time of the financial crisis which makes their status more vulnerable
than ever.
27. One of the main conclusions the ILO has reached in responding
to the crisis is that a holistic approach is required if sustainable
gains are to be achieved. The gender perspective must be taken into
account in all policies, to increase the number of women in decision-making
bodies, to support work-life balance, to close the gender pay gap,
to stimulate entrepreneurship and to develop professional household
support services. This inclusive human rights and economic efficiency
approach is crucial in the face of the diverse impact that the crisis
is having on women and men.
Note
28. The ILO June 2009 “Global Jobs Pact” recognised that crises
should not be used as excuses to create even greater inequalities
nor undermine women’s acquired rights. On the contrary, they are
an opportunity to shape new gender equality policy responses. Recovery
packages during economic crises need to take into account the impact
on women and men and integrate gender concerns in all measures.
In addition, in all discussions on recovery packages, both regarding
their design and assessing their success, women must have an equal
voice to that of men.
Note
29. Unfortunately, the reality is such that few, if any, recovery
packages adopted so far have taken these recommendations into account.
There is thus a risk that not only a great window of opportunity
for empowering women and reaching more gender equality in the world
of work will be missed, but that the economy will recover before
any of the lessons that needed to be learned from the crisis have
been learned, setting the world up for the next crisis, which then
promises to be even bigger. In addition, the current crisis risks
eradicating women’s slow gains in the past two decades, making them
even more vulnerable when the next crisis hits.
4.2 Existence and role of women
in decision-making bodies
Women in boardrooms
30. According to OECD surveys about the existence of
women on boards, over 46% of large firms in OECD countries have
no women on their boards, while only 23% have more than one woman.
Women still represent less than 13% of the board members in the
United States and 11% in Canada.
Note
31. European Commission statistics indicate that all the governors
of the central banks in the European Union are men, and women make
up only 17% of the key decision-making bodies of those organisations.
Note Only
one of the six members of the executive board of the governing council
of the European Central Bank is a woman.
32. In the United States, where women make up 75% of the employees
in the financial services industry, women held 12.6% of the executive
positions in the top 50 United States commercial banks, with one
bank having a female chief executive officer and seven banks having
female chief financial officers. There were only eight women among
the chief executive officers of the 100 largest credit unions. Women
make up 8.6% of venture capital decision makers in the United States.
Note
33. Furthermore, according to the statistics of Catalyst, in which
the share of women in boards of Fortune 500 companies was analysed,
women held 15.2% of board seats in 2009 but women’s share amongst
board chairs was limited to 2%. At the nominating/governance committee
chair level, women held 16.8% of leadership positions. In 2009,
almost 90% of companies had at least one woman director, but less
than 20% had three or more women serving together.
Note
34. A report by Ernst and Young argued that struggling economies
need to encourage efforts of women as leaders, entrepreneurs and
employees. “What is good for women is good for men, business and
the global economy”.
Note And also, aside from the intrinsic benefits,
this offers gender equity; there is some suggestion that women’s
assessment of risks may take more factors into account than men’s.
This may not make women more risk averse, but it may allow for more
informed decision making, perhaps lowering the likelihood of negative outcomes
such as those recently witnessed in the high-stakes, male-dominated
world of international finance.
Note
35. In France, CERAM Business School management professor Michel
Ferrary found in a study that companies in the CAC 40 that had high
numbers of women in the senior ranks performed better than those that
did not. In 2008, Hermès was the only large firm whose stock price
increased, by 16.8%, and it had the “second largest feminised management,”
at 55%, and thus has a good representation of executives with a
mind for what its customers want. Other firms with high ranks of
women managers (Sanofi, at 44.8%; Sodexo, at 43.39%; and Danone,
at 38%) all performed better than the CAC 40 average. Meanwhile,
at large French banks, Ferrary reports, BNP-Paribas has held up
best, with a stock decline of 39%, and 38.7% of its managers female.
Competitors Credit Agricole, where 16% of managers are women, fell
62.2%, while Dexia, whose senior ranks are 28% women, dropped 83%.
36. Another analysis, also by Michel Ferrary, points out that
when women are more than a few people in an organisation, they do
not feel marginalised and can impose their values on the organisation.
Thus women help the organisation increase economic performance,
productivity, employment and economic growth. Again in this research,
Mr Ferrary points out that women behave more prudently than men
and men prefer to take high risks while managing.
Note The
prudent attitude of women can balance the brave attitude of men
and prevent the next crisis. That is why gender awareness must be
taken into account. Governments must support the existence of women
in managerial positions by legislating (like in Norway and France)
and conducting campaigns for ensuring gender awareness.
37. Furthermore, according to a study of Fortune 500 companies,
companies with more women board directors had significantly higher
financial returns, including 53% higher returns on equity, 42% higher
returns on sales and 67% higher returns on invested capital.
38. The advantage of gender diversity within companies can also
be seen in the examples given below, concerning French car makers
Renault and Peugeot. Renault with 23% of women in management has
shown better economic performances than Peugeot with 18.6% women
on the board. The same applies for banks BNP Paribas (with 41.4%
of women in management) and Société Générale (38%). Similarly, the
companies Danone, Hermes and Sodexho, which have more than 40% female
managers, are doing better than their competitors.
Note
39. According to the CEO of Avon, when a woman gains money, she
will spend it on the education, health care and basic needs of her
children. Thus it becomes a long-term benefit for society and the
impact of women in economics is considered to be very important.
That is why Avon prefers to employ women not only at lower posts:
five of 11 board members of Avon are women and also six out of 13
top-level senior leaders are women.
Note
40. The CEO of the Coca-Cola Company, Mr Muhtar Kent, from Turkey,
pointed out the importance of the existence of women in boardrooms
during his speech in Davos. Three years ago, when he became the
CEO of Coca-Cola, there were only 44 women in top management (which
consisted of 440 people). The ratio of women was only 11%. At this
point he underlined that 80% of the food shopping is done by women.
That is why the existence of women in the top management of the
food sector is very important. Because of that, Mr Muhtar Kent doubled
the number of women in top management from 11% to 28% in three years
and he aims to reach 50% of women in the top management of Coca-Cola.
Note
Women in political decision-making
bodies
41. The Assembly has noted similarly low levels of women
in political decision-making bodies, including at parliamentary
level. Women still hold less than 20% of parliamentary seats and
ministerial portfolios worldwide, and less than 5% of heads of state
are women.
Note The country which
has the highest ratio of women in its parliament is post-conflict
Rwanda with 56.3% of women at lower or single house election seats.
The second place belongs to Sweden with 46.4%, the third one is
South Africa with 44.5%. The number of women ministers in the 27
member states of the European Union who hold portfolios relating
to socio-cultural issues (36.7%) such as social affairs, health,
children, family, youth, older people, education, science, culture
and sports is much higher than portfolios relating to the economy,
finance, trade, industry and agriculture (17.7%), according to the
report of the European Commission published in 2008.
Note
5 Conclusions and recommendations
42. The financial and economic crisis – which was literally
“man-made” – has had and continues to have a specific, nefarious
impact on women, both in Europe, and in the whole world. This impact
is often overlooked: in particular in the media, but also by politicians.
Women have little political and economic influence and are thus
becoming the main victims of a crisis they had little (if any) responsibility
for, and whose further course they have little power to influence.
If we take a holistic, gender-mainstreamed approach to this crisis,
it could be an opportunity to empower women to be actors of change
and thus to avoid the next crisis.
43. Although some measures have been taken to counter the impacts
of the financial crisis on women in some countries, the current
economic crisis jeopardises the progress that has been made on girls’
education and goals for gender equality. A recent study by the World
Bank and the OECD notes that for the Millennium Development Goal
of gender equality to be achieved by 2015, an investment of about
US$13 billion a year is needed. As governments and institutions
look to cut budgets, this kind of spending may well be vulnerable.
The Netherlands, Finland and the United Kingdom are among those
countries where some measures for gender equality have been delayed
or cancelled and no new measure has been taken except support to
new jobs in the care sector, according to the draft report from
the European Commission to the European Council.
44. Women are becoming more involved in the field of economics.
Ms Elinor Ostom became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in
economic sciences in 2009. The role of women in economics is no
longer limited to working at home or women entrepreneurship. Projects
to make women participate in the business world in an era of financial
crisis have also contributed to the formation of this perception.
When women start to work, the income of the family increases and
this will ensure the augmentation of consumption, which in turn
can help activate the economy and defeat the crisis.
45. I thus consider that the Assembly should recommend that member
states gender mainstream their rescue and recovery packages, while
giving women an equal voice in their design and assessing their
success. A holistic approach is needed, which includes such measures
as facilitating women’s access to decision-making positions in finance,
the economy, and in politics, and uses tools such as sex-disaggregated
statistics and gender budgeting in evaluating the impact of the
crisis and of different measures to counter the crisis on women.
This crisis, and our duty to do everything in our power to avert
the next one, demands that the gender equality agenda – from sharing
household and care responsibilities, to closing the gender wage
gap, to eradicating discrimination against women and sexist stereotypes
– becomes a priority for all Council of Europe member states.
* * * * *
Reporting committee: Committee on Equal Opportunities for
Women and Men
Reference to committee: Doc.
11891, Reference 3561 of 29 May 2009
Draft resolution and draft recommendation unanimously adopted
by the Committee on 26 March 2010
Members of the committee:
Mr José Mendes Bota (Chairperson),
Ms Gisèle Gautier (1st Vice-President), Ms Mirjana Ferić-Vac (2nd Vice-Chairperson),
Ms Doris Stump (3rd Vice-Chairperson), Ms Sonja Ablinger, Mr Francis
Agius, Mr Florin Serghei Anghel (alternate: Ms Maria Stavrositu), Ms Magdalina Anikashvili, Mr John
Austin (alternate: Baroness Anita Gale),
Mr Lokman Ayva, Ms Deborah
Bergamini (alternate: Mr Renato Farina),
Ms Oksana Bilozir, Ms Rosa Delia Blanco Terán (alternate: Ms Luz
Elena Sanín Naranjo), Ms
Olena Bondarenko, Mr Han Ten Broeke, Ms Sylvia Canel, Ms Anna Maria
Carloni, Ms Ingrīda Circene, Mr James Clappison, Ms Anna Čurdová, Mr Andrzej Cwierz, Mr Kirtcho Dimitrov, Ms Mesila Doda, Ms Lydie Err, Ms Pernille Frahm, Ms Doris
Frommelt, Ms Alena Gajdůšková,
Mr Giuseppe Galati, Ms Sophia Giannaka, Mr Neven Gosović, Ms Claude
Greff, Mr Attila Gruber, Ms Ana Guţu, Ms Carina Hägg, Mr Håkon Haugli, Ms Francine John-Calame, Ms Nataša Jovanoviċ,
Ms Charoula Kefalidou, Ms Birgen Keleş,
Ms Krista Kiuru, Ms Elvira Kovács, Ms Athina Kyriakidou, Ms Sophie
Lavagna, Mr Terry Leyden, Ms Mirjana Malić, Ms Assunta Meloni, Ms
Nursuna Memecan, Ms Danguté Mikutiené, Ms Hermine Naghdalyan, Ms
Yuliya Novikova, Mr Mark Oaten, Mr Kent Olsson (alternate: Ms Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin), Ms Steinunn
Valdís Óskarsdóttir, Ms Carmen Quintanilla
Barba, Mr Stanislaw Rakoczy, Mr Frédéric Reiss, Ms Mailis
Reps, Ms Maria Pilar Riba Font, Ms Andreja Rihter, Mr Nicolae Robu,
Mr Johannes Röring, Ms Karin Roth, Ms Klára Sándor, Mr Manuel Sarrazin,
Ms Albertina Soliani, Ms Tineke Strik, Mr Michał Stuligrosz, Ms Elke Tindemans,
Mr Mihai Tudose, Ms Tatiana Volozhinskaya, Mr Paul Wille, Ms Betty
Williams (alternate: Ms Christine McCafferty),
Ms Gisela Wurm, Mr Andrej Zernovski, Mr Vladimir Zhidkikh
NB: The names of the members who took part in the meeting
are printed in bold
Secretariat of the committee: Ms Kleinsorge, Ms Affholder,
Ms Devaux
