Sir, - May I respond to Breda O'Brien's article of the 21st and to the vote in Strasbourg on the budget for the European Women's Lobby? I have had many e-mails on this subject from many women and men around the country and from SPUC UK and I would like to make it clear to all of them that any women's organisation can apply for funding under programme budget lines (B-lines), which in 2001 will include Social Inclusion, Anti-discrimination, and the Framework Programme for Equal Opportunities, among others.
The tenor of many e-mails I received was to the effect that the EWL was an extreme feminist organisation, while it is in fact an umbrella group to which any women's group can affiliate. I believe that the European Women's Lobby is an inclusive body, which includes the National Women's Council of Ireland, and I was happy to support it in the vote in Strasbourg. Funding can only be given under the appropriate budget lines as outlined above, but from the mail I received people obviously believed this funding could be used for other purposes other than those specified, particularly for antiabortion groups.
I find Breda O'Brien's comments about Dana and her amendments very strange. She said that Dana signed but did not table an amendment. This is disingenuous. Either she stands over her amendment or she dissociates herself from it. I hope she will dissociate herself from attempts made by the EPP group, to which she belongs, in the European Parliament Budget Committee to freeze or eliminate funding for measures against violence against women and children. I do not believe she has yet done so. - Yours, etc.,
Nuala Ahern MEP, Green Party, Brussels.