Maternity leave is regulated in the European Union, but not in the European Parliament. Four pregnant MEPs can no longer put up with that.
“Two years ago I said here: I think it did not occur to our European forefathers that a member of parliament could also be a young woman. Or a young man who wants to be with a newborn child,” Lara Wolters (PvdA) said late Monday evening at the meeting. “It is now two years later, I am expecting my second child, and the European Parliament still has no leave arrangement. We are at least ten letters, resolutions and speeches further. Four members are now pregnant at the same time and the time has come to say: now it has taken long enough.”
It is also strange, she says, that the European Parliament is committed to paternity leave at companies and organizations, but has not arranged anything in-house. A parliamentarian who gives birth is simply ‘absent’. The problem is less private than it may seem. Voters who voted for an MP who is temporarily out are not represented for a few weeks. Because voting by proxy is not possible, neither is remote voting, and there is no provision for replacing a colleague in the weeks around the birth.
‘Parliament no place for young women’
Furthermore, the European elections are approaching and this Parliament still radiates that it is not a place for young women, says Wolters. “The fact that we all go on the road from Brussels to Strasbourg one week a month is an idea that only a man could come up with!”
The four handed over a manifesto on Tuesday to chairman Roberta Metsola, herself a mother of four, who also signed it immediately. But, she said, there is still a long way to go. Digital voting for only pregnant women does not compare well with the secrecy of the vote, for example. Politicians are also bound by rules from their own country, and maternity leave is not regulated in all EU countries. So whether it will have improved for Lara Wolters with a possible third child?
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