M. Mikko MEP at the CEE Network, Budapest, 25. Februar 2006.

Dear Friends,

I am very glad to be here.

During the next 15 minutes, I will try to give you an overview of challenges facing female members of the European Parliament. Also, I will share a few thoughts about the changes that the accession to the EU has brought to Estonia.
To a large extent, female MEP's experience of the European Parliament is not different from the experience of her male colleagues. European Parliament is a place where a large number of intelligent and driven people work hard to make the European dream come true.
There are no special rules for women as far as legislative work as such is concerned. We sit long hours in the meeting, read dozens of reports and thousands of amendments. Exactly the same way men do it.
However, politics is more than just hard legislative work. It is also a struggle to achieve power and influence to make your views heard. This is something you cannot do alone, no matter how smart you are or how hard you work. You need people to stand behind you, supporting your initiatives.

The worlds of men and women are very different here. In simple terms: men stick together and women don't know how to deal with this.
Men's rituals are ancient, they are based on common view of the world, on common jokes. Male politicians have been making deals in their clubs, shrouded in clouds of cigar smoke, for much more than a century. The invasion of women makes the old boys feel insecure.
Part of the insecurity comes from the fact that political women are far less homogeneous than the men. Some women try to beat men in their own game by their own rules. Some almost manage to join the old boys club. Almost, but not quite 100 per cent. This shows that this submissive behaviour cannot really be the way ahead.
Some women take a hard confrontational approach, attacking men no matter what the latter try to do or say. These hardliners among women build their own clubs and networks. However, due to their aggressive stance, the hardliners are disconnected from the general political discourse. They are small in numbers and remain insignificant in terms of political influence. Another fruitless strategy.

Both submissive and aggressive schools I just described actually copy the masculine approach. At times women are even more aggressive, more macho than the men themselves. This keeps men and women divided in separate worlds.
And there are women who are looking for a third way, for a new paradigm, which would unite men and women on new terms. The feminine approach, with its more cooperative mindset, has much to contribute to make the world a more pleasant place. However, by nature the third way is hard to define, to explain and, as a result, hard to sell. There is no simple tactic, just persistence and hard work. But this is what we have to do.
As long as women are not easy to understand, the men prefer to be on the safe side, to avoid dealing with women entirely. And as long as women do not constitute a sizable proportion of the political body, the men can avoid dealing with women.
In the European Parliament, as elsewhere, too many deals are made just among men. Sometimes, therefore, female MEPs hear of political compromises and new decisions in the very last moment. This way we don't have enough time to make up our own minds.
But we have to vote, and we have to vote in the best interests of our countries and our political parties. Under these circumstances we have to vote blindly. This condescending treatment insults our intelligence.

We can mostly trust our male colleagues on substantial issues. Regretfully, men sometimes play power games for the games' own sake, to fight for the position of the "alpha male". This, of course, is not constructive.
I hope that the "third way" female politicians are soon able to shape a coherent view on how the European Parliament works best. I think that the women from the new member states have a special responsibility there. We have more experience in being a part of the workforce than West European women.
In Estonia, women have fared quite well after the restoration of freedom. About 40 per cent of middle management positions are occupied by women. Many of these jobs cannot be called "soft" by any measure. In Hansabank, one of the most efficient banks in the world, almost 60% of the managers are women.

However, it must be said that despite their strength in middle management, the women are still not well represented in the top management. You can still see, that men prefer too decide important matters without us. But I am sure we will get there.
Joining the European Union has been very helpful in this sense. No one can deny that our highest-ranking officials in the European Commission are female. Maive Rute is in charge of the SME policy of the European Union and Signe Ratso will soon take up her responsibilities at the same level. They achieved their positions official competitions, where everyone was treated equally.

The commissioners are of course politically appointed. Right now, our commissioner is a man. But I believe that our chances are improving continuously. Let's look at more numbers. Of 6 Estonian MEPs, one third are women. And we do good work. Men are gradually getting used to seeing us in charge. The EU institutions are very valuable as the possibility to demonstrate female competence and will to succeed.
Women's outlook in Estonia has already taken a significant step ahead compared to pre-accession situation. A few minutes ago, I criticized the treatment of female MEPs by their male colleagues. But make no mistake, the EP is a progressive place. Having a separate committee on women's rights has certainly educated us. The reports discussed in FEMM, as it is called, are often based on solid data. They give us arguments to use at home. We can prove our points using numbers.

I think that the introduction of the post of the gender equality ombudsman in Estonia owes a lot to the work done in the EP and the EU in general. It might be a coincidence that during our membership in the EU, the woman has ceased to be an object of the political discourse in Estonia. Now we are subjects, we are setting the agenda as we have never done before. As an example, I would bring the campaign to outlaw prostitution in Estonia.
This topic has been raised before and it has always been hushed up. There have even been proposals to fully legalise this modern slavery and collect the taxes on sexual mistreatment of women. This is a ridiculous idea. No real patriot will want his or her country to act as a pimp!
This time, the Social Democrats are finally going to submit a legislative proposal to the Parliament in Tallinn. And the media, which used to be dismissive of such "radicalism" is on our side this time. Not unanimously, but still on our side. To an extent, we have to thank our Finnish and Swedish neighbours for mainstreaming this subject. But not only them.

The EU is a force to be reckoned with in Estonia. According to some calculations, one-seventh of our budget might come from the EU sources over coming seven years. And the EU is clearly against slavery, against exploitation, against the crime of selling women’s bodies.
I want to mention another positive aspect of our accession to the EU. The EU has given Estonia a louder voice. The EU has given me personally a louder voice.
Estonia is not a very big nation. A million people is not a big number on the world scale. But we have been on our land for a five thousand years. Our will to demand our freedom has given us a a voice in the world affairs. We have a seat and a vote in the United Nations. But before our accession to the EU our voice was not very loud.

This has changed. I will bring some examples from my experience. I am the chair of the delegation to the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee. Helping Moldova is a task very dear to my heart. As a concerned journalist, even as a MP in Estonia, I could not have achieved such attention to this subject as I can now. Recently I wrote a letter to protest against Gazprom cutting off gas deliveries to Moldova. It received wide attention and certainly helped to restart the gas deliveries about ten days later.
The partners in Moldova and Europe see me as the representative of the parliamentarians from 25 member states. I have the EP behind me. This is a very good example of how Estonia is much stronger as a member of the EU.
Dear friends, I see our future in the EU as very promising. We have to firmly seize this opportunity and be persistent in using it.

Thank you.