INTERVIEW WITH MEP MIKAEL GUSTAFSSON (GUE-NGL, SWEDEN) : "THERE IS STILL SO MUCH WORK AHEAD".

• Position: Interview

For the Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM), Mikael Gustafsson (Radical Left, Sweden), Europe "talks" a lot about gender equality but is still very "patriarchal".

Has women's cause advanced during your committee's mandate or regressed?

Both, in fact. On the one hand, gender equality is getting a lot more attention, people talk about it. But on the other, women have been hit harder by the economic crisis in Europe. They more often work part-time, take care of the household responsibilities and have less freedom of choice. The problem is not so much one of will as of putting things into practice and allocating financial resources.

But certain key EU proposals on maternity leave and quotas for women on boards are at a complete standstill

Exactly, we talk a lot, but in practice there is still so much work ahead. According to the index created by the European Institute for Gender Equality, the EU has an average of 54%...