The European Parliament Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities organised a Public Hearing on 10 September entitled "Is Enlargement Also For Women". The Hearing was opened by Anna Karamanou MEP, chairperson of the Committee, and Lone Dybkjaer MEP who is currently responsible for drafting the Committees' Opinion on the state of the enlargement negotiations.

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      ERGANI Centre in Thessaloniki has since 1991 played an important role in integrating women in the socio-economic life of the region either by updrading their ability to meet employment demands or increasing their skills to become or be better entrepreneurs. Ergani centre has during 11 years fulfilled the need of 4000 women of the Thessaloniki greater area: 1000 unemployed have entered or re-entered the labour market 200 have created their own businesses and 2

    The European Parliaments Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities       will arrange a .

 Speaking to Finnish ambassadors based in the EU member and applicant countries on Mon-day, January 14 in Helsinki Minister for Foreign Trade Jari Vilén underlined that     In Finland´s view, it is important to emphasize the objective criteria when completing the accession negotiations.    Apart from the negotiations themselves, the follow up of the fullfilment of commitments made by applicant countries is central, as well as the continuation of their reform policies.

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