BRUSSELS — As part of a continent-wide effort to reduce a persistently high gender pay gap and the trafficking of women as sex workers, the European Commission announced Friday that it will announce a new strategy for tackling these issues later this year.

The announcement came as Luxembourger Viviane Reding was appointed Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship. Reding has been a European Commissioner since 1999. At a press conference in the [private_supervisor]Berlaymont Friday, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and Reding said that while dealing with the economic crisis was important, it should not derail efforts on gender equality and that the EU’s Women’s Charter would reflect that.

“I would like to say that the charter will be this Commission’s calling card on gender equality for the next five years,” Barroso said. “We are putting gender equality at the heart of our Europe 2020 strategy. A growth potential will not be achieved unless it is inclusive growth. Getting women into work will help us get out of the crisis.”

While the economic crisis is making headlines, the Barroso and Reding said it was no excuse not the address women’s pay differences, pointing out that achieving equal pay would boost the EU’s gross domestic product by as much as 20 percent.

“It’s clear that if we Europeans don’t stand for our women and children, we don’t stand for much,” Reding said. “The crisis is not an excuse not to act on gender pay gap, as if it’s some luxury.”

Estonia, Lithuania have large pay gap

Estonia has the largest gender pay gap in the EU, according to Eurostat figures, with women earning an average of 30 percent less than men. Lithuania is not far behind at 20 percent, while Latvia is on the bottom end of the scale with 15 percent. The EU average is 17.6 percent.

Mark Smith, an assistant professor at the Grenoble School of Management and a member of the European Expert Group on Gender and Employment, told Baltic Reports that although a large number of women are in the workforce in Estonia, the job sectors are very segregated by sex.

“Estonia is one of the champions of segregation,” Smith said. “In Estonia you have a relatively high level of employment, that means there’s may women in work and their concentrated in low-pay jobs.”

Even though Estonia is at the top of the list, it is near the bottom in awareness of gender pay issues, with less than 45 percent of the population aware that women typically earn less than men, according to the EU’s figures.

In terms of concrete action to address the pay gap, Reding said a mixture of legal requirements, including financial sanctions for governments, will be implemented while the Commission will launch an awareness campaign tailored to the varying conditions of each member states.

“The charter is a starting point, it will be translated in to concrete action. I will come back in the course of this year in order to present concrete actions,” Reding said, although she noted that sanctions could only be given for unequal pay for the same work, which is not as much a problem as the pay differences between job sectors and parenting responsibilities.

“We had our general European campaign in the past, and because we see that there are so many differences between the member states,” Reding told Baltic Reports. “A general campaign is not the best way to proceed, you have to adapt them to the individual attitude.”

Combating sex slavery

In addition to pay, Reding said the Commission planned to address human trafficking of women, who are lured by false job promises into becoming sex workers. This has been a recurring problem in the Baltic states, with women in search of jobs ending up in German or British brothels.

“We are going to have a very clear look into this … Europe needs to fight this,” Reding told Baltic Reports.

Reding said that the Commission would not question the legitimacy of legal prostitution in member states, though.

“I do not want to intervene into national decision making on how to treat prostitution. That has a lot to do with culture. The trafficking in human beings, trafficking of minors is a crime. If it leads to prostitution, it is a crime,” Reding said.

Given the effect the financial crisis has had on the Baltic states’ unemployment figures and government finances, there are fears that human trafficking could increase. Women’s advocacy organizations such as Marta in Latvia have criticized the government for putting too little financial resources into addressing the issue. The Baltic states are used by human traffickers both as a transit point from the CIS and Asia into the EU, as well as for recruiting, which often involves women from rural areas.

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