European Parliament
Dybkjær (ELDR ).
(DA)
Mr President-in-Office of the Council, you face major challenges over the next six months, partly in connection with the constitutional Treaty. I have high hopes of you and would make a special proposal to which I believe that many European women, and not a few men, will attach importance.
Shortly before the Intergovernmental Conference, the Italian Presidency came up with a proposal to add – and I quote – ‘the principle of equality between men and women’ to Article 2 of the constitutional Treaty. Equality between men and women is not merely a principle. It is, and must continue to be, a fundamental value in the EU, just as the other values – human dignity, democracy etc – are not merely principles but fundamental values.
At the extraordinary meeting for previous Convention members, the Italian Foreign Ministers promised to take the following proposal further: after ‘equality’ in the first clause are to be added the words ‘including equality between men and women’. I shall produce the proposal for you, in writing and in English.

