On 26 September, World Maritime Day, WWF published a policy brief calling for gender equality to be embedded in all development and conservation policies, and was glad to hear the new Environment and Oceans Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius take note of the report and its findings during his hearing at the European Parliament on 3 October:
“Regarding gender balance, unfortunately, I’ve seen the recent WWF report which struck me and we have to do a lot more to improve conditions. I think the first problem is that it’s focused mainly on the catching sector where, of course, most of the jobs are done by males; but let’s not forget who is running businesses, who is making those calls, who are the ones waiting and getting the first signal if something happens, who is dealing with the government and with the regulation – it’s women. They have to be paid, they have to be equally respected. … of course, we have to go even deeper and discuss [the issue] with the sector and the stakeholders – from the small to the large.”
He closed his hearing by stating that “This Commissioner mandate will be the greenest that Europe has ever seen – it will also be very blue.” WWF welcomes the new Environment and Oceans Commissioner to his role and looks forward to seeing these words translated into action over the next five years.
photo: © European Union, 2019
