Monitoring the EU Accession Process [antikvár]

Introduction The Program on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in the European Accession Process (EOWM) is a joint initiative of the Open Society Foundation Romania and the Network Women's Program of the Open Society Institute. Its conception stems from the Open Society Institute project to monitor the progress of candidate countries as they prepare themselves for integration into the European Union and ensure that they meet the Copenhagen political criteria, particularly in relation to the independence of the judiciary, minorities' rights, and anti-corruption. Given the acquis communautaire in the field of equal opportunities for women and men, which the countries in accession are required to adopt and comply with, an independent programme to evaluate the status of accession countries from this perspective was developed. An assessment of the status of equal opportunities, de jure and de facto, was carried out in seven of the candidate countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Romania, and the EU Directives on equal opportunities provided the framework for monitoring and analysing the corresponding legislation, institutions and practices. The Directives related to the principle of equal pay for work of equal value; equal treatment as regards employment, protection of pregnant, breastfeeding women and women who recently gave birth, the burden of proof in cases of sex-based discrimination and non-discrimination against part-time workers were analysed in 2001; while the remaining Directives on self-employed workers, parental leave, and social security schemes were assessed in 2002. The Programme Director, with the assistance of an expert working group comprised of experts from Western and Eastern Europe, devised the methodology based on the content of the EU Directives and EU case laws. The experts were alsó charged with supervising the completion of the Monitoring Reports by the national experts. Questions related to each specific Directive were issued, addressing key aspects from a legal, conceptual and factual point of view. The research was carried out in each candidate country by teams of local experts from various backgrounds: lawyers, sociologists, scholars, women's rights advocates from local NGOs or international agencies or from trade unions. Throughout the project, debates were organised within each country to enable a discussion and critique of the draft reports, sections of which were discussed with different constituencies and presented to the European Commission. Each country report provides concrete recommendations on how to ensure full compliance with all of the Directives and outlines specific areas of concern. The full