[Brussels, 29 February 2012] In the past week, the European Parliament hosted an interparliamentary meeting which brought together representatives from the European Commission as well as national and European Parliamentarians for a two day debate on strategies for the European economy – the so called European Semester for Economic Policy Coordination.
The high profile introductions by the president of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and president of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso stressed the need to strengthen dialogue between key actors involved in Europe’s economic policy making.
Unfortunate then, that not a single representative from partners in civil society had been invited to the panels. This circumstance was symbolic of the great economic interdependence between European countries no the one hand and on the other hand the great lack of accountability and democratic legitimacy between the different European levels of decision making.
The gender aspect was missing from discussions of the core issue of growth and employment with one notable exception: the MEP (Greens) Marije Cornelissen Corneliusen. “Think holistic” she said, elaborating that cutting care will cut the women out of the labour market.
