On her return from the summer break, MEP Chrysoula Zacharopoulou (Renew Europe, France) will present to the European Parliament’s Committees on Development (DEVE) and Gender Equality (FEMM) a draft report on the ‘Action Plan 2021-2025 for Gender Equality in the EU’s External Relations’ (GAP III—see EUROPE 12609/20).
In her draft report, tabled on 21 July, the MEP, who is also a gynaecologist and surgeon, focuses on women’s access to sexual and reproductive health care—which she describes as “a public health issue and not a religious, political, or ideological debate”.
Universal access to such care “reduces teenage pregnancies, maternal and child mortality, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, and easily removable cancers such as cervical cancer”, she says.
She therefore calls for more emphasis on these rights in the GAP III and for “adequate funding to be dedicated to them” in the 2021-2027 EU budget and, more specifically, through the EU Neighbourhood and Global Budget Instrument (€110.6 billion at 2018 prices).
The MEP also insists on the need to use GAP III to ensure universal access to treatment for women’s diseases and to fight against girls’ absenteeism from school during their menstruation, “by strengthening menstrual hygiene facilities in schools and combatting stigmatisation”, among others.
Finally, she stresses that a rise in conservative discourse and organised groups threatening respect for sexual and reproductive rights is now taking place, both outside and inside the EU (see EUROPE 12745/7).
Feminist diplomacy
The draft report, which gives a very positive overall welcome to the action plan, covers a range of broader areas, from combating gender-based violence to economic and social equality.
For example, it advocates funding for programmes to encourage women’s participation in politics, calls for measures to ensure the presence of girls and women in scientific and technical professions, and advocates for greater involvement of women in the development of artificial intelligence. This is to combat the perpetuation of gender stereotypes.
“The European Union must carry this feminist diplomacy, but to be credible in the world, it must also respect the rights and dignity of women within its borders”, concluded Ms Zacharopoulou, who also “deplores” the fact that the EU-27 were unable to adopt a unanimous position on the action plan.
Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria, bothered by the use of the word “gender”, had refused to support the draft conclusions (see EUROPE 12624/33).
For the draft report by Ms Zacharopoulou (in French): https://bit.ly/3j2U48a (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)