Stresses, in this regard, the need to measure, certify and reward the practice of corporate social responsibility on the basis that the requirements must absolutely include gender equality; maintains that this should be achieved through the adoption of flexible organisational models based on target-oriented work and not linked to physical presence, and enabling all workers, whether men or women, to develop themselves professionally and evolve in career and salary terms, in line with their abilities and skills and taking account of the social imperatives arising from the need to care for children and relatives, in a context of family-fri ...[+++]endly services and work organisation;

3. Notes that the use of condoms reduces the risk of spreading HIV infection through sexual relations but that several studies show that clients in the sex trade prefer to buy sex without condoms; stresses, therefore, that all prostitution entails a higher risk of infection; considers that the legalisation of prostitution results in a general increase in both the legal and illegal sex trade, from which a greater risk of infection ensues; considers that the legalisation of prostitution does not result in safer sex either since it has proved very difficult in practice to control the use of condoms even in legal brothels; points out, mo ...[+++]reover, that regulated health checks cover only those who sell sex, not the clients;

B. whereas the sex industry has an adverse impact on equality; whereas, because it is based on the pursuit of profit by focusing on buyers as a target group (generally men), it constructs an image of unequal relations between men and women (and increasingly frequently also children), in which women are presented as objects for consumption, dominated and exploitation; whereas, because this industry normalises sexual violence, it undermines all the efforts which the EU and its Member States have made to give women and men fundamental ...[+++]human rights; whereas the sex industry is protected by freedom of expression but promotes and helps to create and maintain men's aggression and women's commercialisation,

34. Considers it necessary for Member States to cooperate across borders to combat the cross-border problems relating to the sex industry, such as trafficking in women and children who are imported into Europe with the aim of exploiting them in the sex industry; considers it important jointly to find effective solutions to prevent marketing and sale of illegal sexual services and products on the Internet;

- manufacture, distribute, sell and advertise newspapers, magazines, books, and films in which ideas and images which may promote the sex trade directly abound, such as pimps, sex club owners, hotel and restaurant owners, newspaper publishers, contact club owners, transporters, slave traders, alcohol and drug dealers and the sex industry.

In 2002, some progress was made in the area of health and safety at work, as new legislation was adopted on the protection of workers against risks arising from exposure to biological agents in the workplace, display screen equipment, exposure to asbestos, exposure to noise, temporary or mobile construction sites, work equipment, the health and safety of workers in surface and underground mineral-extracting industries and medical assistance on board vessels.