The President of the Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, participated in an institutional event to celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March that was also attended by the Minister for Equality, Bibiana Aído.

Mr Rodríguez Zapatero stressed that the objectives established by the Spanish Government during its Presidency of the European Union include achieving a European Protection Order for the Victims of and the creation of a European Observatory on Violence against Women. The Government will also work towards a comprehensive response from the twenty-seven Member States in favour of an active, persistent and firm policy to eradicate violence against women.

The President of the Government highlighted how Spain has become a model in terms of equality policies: “When I presented the agenda for the Spanish Presidency of the European Union to the European Parliament, the most highly-recognised policy from the Spain of today, the most highly-valued policy from the Government of which I am President, was unquestionably the policy in favour of equality between men and women, the support to abused women, the fight against domestic violence and the legislative progress in terms of rights that have enabled Spain to be recognised today as an advanced society that is aware of the value of equality”.

Mr Rodríguez Zapatero listed some of the improvements achieved over the last year thanks to the development of the Equality for Men and Women Act, “perhaps the most publicly supported law of all the laws promoted by the Socialist Party since 2004”.

He highlighted the implementation of an Inspection Plan to monitor Effective Equality between Men and Women in Companies and that more than 65% of the collective bargaining agreements currently published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) already contain provisions regarding equality. “We can congratulate ourselves on the fact that there are more women in positions of power, especially in public companies, and that the number of women on the boards of directors of large private companies has tripled”.

However, Mr Rodríguez Zapatero indicated that this is not enough and called for faster compliance with the Equality Act in this regard. He also promised to be more demanding in terms of compliance with the objectives of this legislation.

Another of the achievements mentioned by the President of the Government was the approval of protective regulations within the work environment for pregnant women or breastfeeding mothers, as well as for there to be flexibility regarding Social Security contribution requirements for the right to maternity benefits.

Mr Rodríguez Zapatero stated that, for the first time, a Spanish Government is implementing a comprehensive plan to fight against “that unacceptable blemish on society that is the treatment of human beings for the purposes of sexual exploitation”, which contains more than sixty measures for providing care to the victims, to fight more effectively against the mafia and prostitution rings and to increase awareness in society regarding the implications of abusing women and girls”.

“What we cannot celebrate, no matter how great an objective improvement it is, is that the fatalities from violence against women have decreased by 30% in 2009 compared with the previous year. The anger and sadness stemming from the 55 women whose deaths we were unable to stop leaves no room for any other feeling”, said the President of the Government.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero also highlighted the progress represented by the Senado [Upper House of Parliament] giving the green light to the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Act. “We are on the verge of overcoming a Law that represented progress a quarter of a century ago but that now presents problems in terms of its application that only hypocrisy or attempts to convert certain religious convictions into universal civic rules could ignore”, said the President of the Government.

He went on to add that “no woman will go to jail for interrupting her pregnancy nor be intimidated for doing so. That is the change represented by this Law”.