Women played an important role in securing the Belfast Agreement but they were still not involved in key decision-making in Northern Ireland, a six-member delegation from the Women's Rights Committee of the European Parliament, which spent the past three days in the North, has found.
The delegation, which included the Irish MEPs Ms Mary Banotti and Ms Patricia McKenna, visited a number of EU-funded projects and met women's groups.
At the end of their trip yesterday, Ms Jessica Larive, a Dutch MEP, said the situation of women in Northern Ireland was similar to that in the 1960s in her country. She criticised the British government for not implementing fully all EU equality directives.
"Women are doing very good work on the ground, but they need now to go into decision-making, and men in the new Assembly must remember that more than half of the people who elect them are women." Ms McKenna said she believed the position of women in the North was worse than in the South. "They have been very active on the ground but they have been excluded completely from decision-making and from the most important areas. It is changing but they have a huge way to go."