Job sharing, multiple skilling and the combination of self-employed activities with activities that are subject to compulsory insurance.

This proposal should have removed the obstacles to women's access to self-employment, by providing for measures or specific advantages designed to make it easier to engage in self-employed activities.

However, when we are talking about self-employed activities, we must not overlook those who are involved in gainful employment in handicrafts, trades, SMEs and the liberal professions.

Women should have equal chances to engage in self-employed activities and establish companies; maternity-leave systems should ensure that self-employed women can benefit from them in the same way as employed workers.

In compliance with the principles of proportionality and subsidiarity, the directive, in the amended form proposed by Parliament, provides the necessary framework which is conducive to narrowing the disparities between women and men involved in self-employed activities.

I welcome the adoption of this directive that establishes a framework for the application in the Member States of the principle of equal treatment between men and women engaged in a self-employed activity, or who contribute to carrying out such an activity.

However, I believe that the microfinance facility should be focused more on people who have lost their jobs and are at a disadvantage in terms of access to the traditional credit market, and who want to set up or continue to develop their own micro-enterprise, including as a self-employed activity.

Member of the Commission. - Madam President, I am pleased to be here for Parliament's debate on the draft recommendation put forward by Ms Lulling on the Commission's proposal concerning application of the principle of equal treatment between men and women in self-employed activities.

Being listed in the visa-free list will sometimes but not always exempt the listed nationality or class from the requirement to obtain a work permit if they wish to take up employment or self-employed activity during their stay; business trips are not normally considered employment in this sense.

The next steps will be the presentation of a draft directive on the status of long-term residents and a proposal on the admission of third-country nationals for the purpose of employment and self-employed activities and for the purpose of study on the territory of the Member States.

Moreover, an important achievement of the rapporteur and the European Parliament is that, compared with the original Council recommendation, the scope of application is no longer confined solely to gainful self-employed activities in the agricultural sector, since this target group also works in small and medium-sized enterprises, for example, or in retail, where they constitute a majority.