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Economic Crisis, Austerity and Gender Equality

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Economic Crisis, Austerity and Gender Equality ISSN: 2212-5914 EUROPEAN NETWORK OF LEGAL EXPERTS IN THE FIELD OF GENDER EQUALITY European Gender Equality Law Review No. 2 / 2012 IN THIS ISSUE Francesca Bettio Women, Men and the Financial Crisis. Seven Lessons from Europe Hazel Conley Economic Crisis, Austerity and Gender Equality – The UK Case María Amparo Ballester-Pastor Legal Effects of the Economic Crisis on Gender Equality in Spain: Effects on the Right to Reconciliate Work and Family after the 2012 Labour Law Reform EUROPEAN NETWORK OF LEGAL EXPERTS IN THE FIELD OF GENDER EQUALITY European Gender Equality Law Review 2012 - 2 This report was financed by and prepared for the use of the European Commission. It does not necessarily represent the Commission’s official position. This publication was commissioned by the European Commission under the framework programme PROGRESS (Decision 1672/2006/EC of the European Parliament and the Council, OJ L 315/1 of 15.11.2006). For more information on PROGRESS see: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=327&langId=en Manuscript completed in November 2012. The information contained in this report reflects, as far as possible, the state of affairs on 10 September 2012. Editorial Board Susanne Burri Hanneke van Eijken Hélène Masse-Dessen Christopher McCrudden Linda Senden Production Susanne Burri Hanneke van Eijken Klaartje Hoeberechts Alison Morley Simone van der Post © European Union, 2012 European Commission Directorate-General for Justice Unit JUST/D1 Equal Treatment Legislation Table of Contents Members of the European Network of Legal Experts in the Field of Gender Equality iii Editorial Gender Equality in Times of Economic Crisis: a Poor Relation or a Ray of Light in Dark Times? 1 Simone van der Post Women, Men and the Financial Crisis. Seven Lessons from Europe 4 Francesca Bettio Economic Crisis, Austerity and Gender Equality – The UK Case 14 Hazel Conley Legal Effects of the Economic Crisis on Gender Equality in Spain: 20 Effects on the Right to Reconciliate Work and Family after the 2012 Labour Law Reform 20 María Amparo Ballester-Pastor EU Policy and Legislative Process Update 30 Hanneke van Eijken Court of Justice of the European Union Case Law Update 33 Hanneke van Eijken European Court of Human Rights Case Law Update 37 Hanneke van Eijken News from the Member States, EEA Countries, Croatia, FYR of Macedonia and Turkey AUSTRIA Neda Bei 43 BELGIUM Jean Jacqmain 46 BULGARIA Genoveva Tisheva 49 CROATIA Nada Bodiroga-Vukobrat 52 CYPRUS Lia Efstratiou-Georgiades 55 CZECH REPUBLIC Kristina Koldinská 58 DENMARK Ruth Nielsen 59 ESTONIA Anu Laas 60 FINLAND Kevät Nousiainen 65 FRANCE Sylvaine Laulom 69 GERMANY Ulrike Lembke 73 GREECE Sophia Koukoulis-Spiliotopoulos 79 HUNGARY Beáta Nacsa 85 ICELAND Herdís Thorgeirsdóttir 90 IRELAND Frances Meenan 92 ITALY Simonetta Renga 95 LATVIA Kristine Dupate 98 LIECHTENSTEIN Nicole Mathé 101 LITHUANIA Tomas Davulis 103 LUXEMBOURG Anik Raskin 105 FYR of MACEDONIA Mirjana Najcevska 107 European Gender Equality Law Review – No. 2/2012 i MALTA Peter G. Xuereb 112 THE NETHERLANDS Rikki Holtmaat 117 NORWAY Helga Aune 121 POLAND Eleonora Zielińska 123 PORTUGAL Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho 130 ROMANIA Roxana Teşiu 131 SLOVAKIA Zuzana Magurová 134 SLOVENIA Tanja Koderman Sever 137 SPAIN Berta Valdés de la Vega 139 SWEDEN Ann Numhauser-Henning 141 TURKEY Nurhan Süral 142 UNITED KINGOM Aileen McColgan 144 ii European Gender Equality Law Review – No. 2/2012 Members of the European Network of Legal Experts in the Field of Gender Equality Co-ordinator: Susanne Burri, Utrecht University, the Netherlands Assistant co-ordinator Hanneke van Eijken, Utrecht University, the Netherlands Executive Committee: Hélène Masse-Dessen, Barrister at the Conseil d’Etat and Cour de Cassation, France Christopher McCrudden, Queen’s University Belfast, the United Kingdom Linda Senden, Utrecht University, the Netherlands Susanne Burri, Utrecht University, the Netherlands National experts: Neda Bei (Austria), Legal expert in the Vienna Chamber of Labour, Management of Social Affairs Jean Jacqmain (Belgium), Free University of Brussels, Faculty of Law Genoveva Tisheva (Bulgaria), Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation Nada Bodiroga-Vukobrat (Croatia), Professor, Head of Jean Monnet Department of European Public Law / University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law Evangelia Lia Efstratiou-Georgiades (Cyprus), Advocate Kristina Koldinská (Czech Republic), Charles University, Faculty of Law Ruth Nielsen (Denmark), Copenhagen Business School, Law Department Anu Laas (Estonia), Institute of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Tartu Kevät Nousiainen (Finland) Helsinki University, Faculty of Law Sylvaine Laulom (France), University Jean Monnet, Saint-Etienne, Faculty of Law Mirjana Najcevska (FYR of Macedonia), Professor of Human Rights, American College – Skopje and University ‘Ss. Cyril and Methodius’, Institute for Sociological, Political and Juridical Research Ulrike Lembke (Germany), University of Hamburg, Faculty of Law Sophia Koukoulis-Spiliotopoulos (Greece), Attorney at Law Beáta Nacsa (Hungary), Eötvös Loránd University, Department of Labour and Social Law Herdís Thorgeirsdóttir (Iceland), Bifrost University, Faculty of Law Frances Meenan (Ireland), Barrister, Four Courts, Law Library, Dublin Simonetta Renga (Italy), Ferrara University, Faculty of Economics Kristīne Dupate (Latvia), University of Latvia, Faculty of Law Nicole Mathé (Liechtenstein), University of Vienna, Faculty of Law Tomas Davulis (Lithuania), Vilnius University, Faculty of Law Anik Raskin (Luxembourg), National Women’s Council of Luxembourg Peter G. Xuereb (Malta), University of Malta, Faculty of Law Rikki Holtmaat (the Netherlands), Independent Legal Consultant Expert Helga Aune (Norway), University of Oslo, Faculty of Law Eleonora Zielinska (Poland), University of Warsaw, Faculty of Law and Administration Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho (Portugal), University of Lisbon, Faculty of Law Roxana Teşiu (Romania), Independent Legal Advisor Zuzana Magurová (Slovakia), Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of State and Law Tanja Koderman Sever (Slovenia), Independent Legal Advisor Berta Valdés (Spain) University Castilla-La Mancha, Faculty of Law Ann Numhauser-Henning (Sweden), Lund University, Faculty of Law Nurhan Süral (Turkey), Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Aileen McColgan (the United Kingdom), King’s College London European Gender Equality Law Review – No. 2/2012 iii Editorial Gender Equality in Times of Economic Crisis: a Poor Relation or a Ray of Light in Dark Times? Simone van der Post* During the past four years the European Union has been struggling to fight the economic and financial crisis that started in 2008 with the fall of the Lehman Brothers Bank and evolved into the Euro crisis, with the near bankruptcy of Greece and large problems in many other countries (in particular Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal).1 This has led to widespread austerity measures, in the Euro zone and outside it.2 Not all European citizens agree with these measures; the streets of (mostly) southern European states were ablaze with protests and strikes against the tough austerity measures.3 These circumstances generally do not leave much room for a discussion on gender equality. As mentioned in Francesca Bettio’s article in this Review, the European Economic Recovery Plan does not mention ‘gender’, ‘women’, or ‘equality’. This, however, does not mean that the economic crisis does not have an impact on gender equality issues. In this thematic edition of the European Gender Equality Law Review, specific attention is paid to the impact of the economic crisis on gender equality issues. The three articles in this edition deal with different aspects of the economic crisis seen from a gender perspective. Also, the reports from the Member States, EEA Countries, Croatia, FYR of Macedonia and Turkey pay special attention to the legal effects of the economic crisis on gender equality issues in the respective countries. In Francesca Bettio’s article, the actual effects of the economic and financial crisis on gender equality issues in Europe are analysed through seven lessons. Objectively, it seems that men are hit harder by the economic crisis, but in the end women are not better off. First of all, women are still at a disadvantage compared with men, economically and in labour situations, so every step back is not helping to realise gender equality goals. Also, the austerity measures implemented in order to finance the financial injection in the European banks and the European Stability Mechanism will now have greater effect on the public sector, in which women are over-represented. Hazel Conley’s article gives an impression of the effects of the British austerity measures on the social position of women in the United Kingdom. She argues that the measures taken by the British Government have a greater impact on women than on men. Most of the cutbacks are in the public sector, entailing that more women will lose their jobs and that * Junior lecturer in European Law at Utrecht University and project assistant of the European Network of Legal Experts in the Field of Gender Equality. 1 For a pictographic overview of the evolution of the Euro crisis, see ‘It’s all Connected: A Spectator’s Guide to the Euro Crisis’ in the New York Times, 22 October 2011, available at: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/10/22/opinion/20111023_DATAPOINTS.html?ref=sunday-review, accessed 16 November 2012. 2 See for example ‘Spain budget imposes further
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