Zapatero hopes to reach employment figures of 70 percent for women in the EU by the year 2020

The President of the Spanish Government and current rotational President of the European Union, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, affirmed this Sunday that during his presidency of the EU, Spain will continue to support the inclusion of the "complete affirmation of equality between men and women" within the new economic strategy, with the aim of increasing the level of female employment to "a level of  70 percent by 2020” and the reduction of the salary gap by as much as possible.

Rodríguez Zapatero, who closed the V Meeting of Spanish and African 
Women for a Better World in Valencia, which was attended by more than five hundred people, said that during the Spanish Presidency of the EU he would continue to promote new ways to support, at a European level, the struggle against gender violence. 

In his speech, the President of the Spanish Government stressed that Europe is not only the most important reference for Spain, but also an important international player which other regions of the planet look to and are inspired by.

For this reason, he supported the fact that equality should be a "homogenous reality throughout Europe", in rural areas and in cities; in professional and in family environments.

The start of equality begins with the end of gender violence.
“When we encourage equality throughout the world, we are building a fairer future, and when we cut back on discrimination, we are gaining ground for the dignity of everyone”, added Zapatero, for whom gender equality begins with the eradication both of direct violence against women and structural violence which perpetuates “customs which threaten their dignity”.

This equality “continues”, said the President of the Spanish Government, with health rights, to fight against the fact 58 percent of African women are at risk of suffering from AIDS; for the right to education, because “it is also intolerable that out of a total of 920 million illiterate people, 600 million of them are women” and will be completed when women are able to enjoy effective equal opportunities when applying for posts and positions in public, professional and social areas.

After congratulating the participants of this meeting, held under the Spanish Presidency of the EU, Zapatero insisted that Spain's commitment to equality "continues to be completely real, strong, immune to complacent attitudes and with a growing vocation” to project itself in actions abroad and in Spanish cooperation.

Before the closing, the Director of the Education and Culture Department of the Spanish Cabinet, María Fe Santiago, read the Declaration of Valencia, a text agreed on by the more than 500 women attending, who were mostly African, but with representatives from Europe, the USA, Asia and Latin America.

Among them, the former president of Chile, Michele Bachellet who, in her first public appearance outside her country since the February 27 earthquake,  supported a "global" and "transversal" perspective of gender for all of a country's public policies, as the only efficient way of working for women's rights.