Croatia: ‘Who will represent women’s interests in the EU?’
(Zagreb, 16 May 2013) The Centre for Women’s Studies, member of Women’s Network Croatia, and the EWL Coordination in Croatia organized a one-day conference on the 9th of April entitled ‘Who will represent women’s interests in the EU?’. The aim of the conference was to gather the representatives of political parties, civil society and academia in order to present their views on gender equality policies in Croatian society in the framework of joining the EU. The speakers were Nadežda ?a?inovi? (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences), Snježana Vasiljevi? (Faculty of Law), Tajana Broz (CESI), Renata Jambreši? Kirin (Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research), Rada Bori? and Marina Oreši? (Centre for Women’s Studies). The conference panelists included Toni Vidan, a candidate on the Green Action political party list, and Melita Muli?, a candidate on the SDP-HNS-HSU political list for the European elections.
During the meeting the broad context of the upcoming election was debated. Toni Vidan commented on the influence of the crisis on the elections in 2013, Nadežda ?a?inovi? and Melita Muli? spoke about electoral lists and the voting system including the problem of men’s inclusion in the general discussion on gender issues. Finally, Snježana Vasiljevi? pointed out the difficulties in the process of implementing European law to the Croatian National code.
Rada Bori?, the Centre’s executive director and vice president of the European Women’s Lobby presented the EWL’s structure and work and the Lobby’s work on different position papers whose aim is to influence different areas of political and social life in Europe. She also announced that this year’s annual conference will take place in Zagreb, from May 31 to June 2. Tajana Broz presented very interesting results of the work of the election advocacy network Women’s Platform 2011.
In the discussion that followed, Violeta Staniši?, Head of the European Parliament Information Office in Croatia, pointed out that gender equality is one of the European Parliament’s key values. Still, there are only 23% of women in leadership positions despite the fact that women make up 70% of parliament employees.
The conference was part of the final activities of the Ad Acte project - Anti-Discrimination Actions Towards Actions of Women and Men supported by European Union.
To learn more about the conference, please read the report below:
- conference who will represent
