Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has made advancing women’s rights one of his government’s major domestic policy aims. He presides over a ministerial team in which more than half his ministers are women.

This zeal has been fully reflected in Spain’s priorities for its EU presidency, which include getting agreement on legislation to increase paid maternity leave and to set up an EU-wide support line for women with abusive partners.

The Zapatero government has adopted laws against gender-based violence and discrimination against women in the workplace. The European Commission has praised the anti-discrimination legislation as among the most effective in Europe.

The Spanish government earlier this year presented draft legislation to liberalise the country’s abortion law (currently one of the most restrictive in the EU). The abortion reform has proved highly controversial and its adoption is being fiercely resisted by opposition parties and the Catholic Church.

Maternity leave

Draft EU legislation on maternity leave has been stuck in limbo since May, when the European Parliament postponed giving its opinion. The Parliament’s political groups were split over the proposal from Edite Estrela, the lead MEP on the dossier, that minimum paid leave in the EU should be extended from 14 to 20 weeks. The European Commission had proposed an extension to 18 weeks. The Parliament now plans to vote on its opinion in March. Bibiana Aído Almagro, Spain’s equality minister, wants to secure an agreement before then between the Council of Ministers and MEPs, so that the law can be adopted at first reading.

Aído will also be responsible for negotiating a deal with the European Parliament on a separate piece of legislation that would increase maternity leave rights for self-employed workers. It would also extend certain social-security benefits to people who work for their spouses on an ad hoc basis.

The Council of Ministers adopted its position on the legislation (known popularly as the farmers’ wives’ directive) on 30 November, but MEPs share co-legislative powers. Aído’s task of negotiating a deal with the Parliament will be complicated by the fragility of support for the law in the Council of Ministers. Several member states, including the UK and Germany, abstained in the 30 November vote.

Spain also wants to make progress on agreeing a piece of controversial anti-discrimination legislation that has become bogged down in the Council of Ministers because of German opposition. The directive would not directly address gender issues, but would extend legal protection against discrimination on the basis of age, disability, religion and sexual orientation. The draft directive was presented by the Commission last year. Germany’s ruling parties have, however, stated jointly that the legislation is unnecessary.

The Spanish presidency coincides with the 15th anniversary of the United Nations’ agenda for female empowerment (known as the ‘Beijing platform for action’). Spain wants EU governments to agree on a joint report that would be submitted to a review conference in March. The presidency will hold a meeting of the European Women’s Forum in Cádiz on 4 February to help prepare the report.

Gender perspective

Officials said that the presidency would seek a strong “gender perspective” in the EU’s new multi-annual competitiveness programme (the EU2020 strategy) that will be agreed by EU leaders in March. It will hold a ministerial conference in Valencia on 25-26 March on the theme “women in a time of economic crisis and the new strategy EU2020”.

The Spanish government wants ministers to agree to set up an EU-wide toll-free number that women could call for advice or protection if their partner is violent.

It will also seek agreement from ministers on the creation of an EU observatory on gender-based violence, which would gather data to support policymaking. It has not decided on what kind of legal structure the observatory should have, including whether it should form part of the EU institute for gender equality, based in Vilnius.

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