The European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) has adopted, by 25 votes to 8, a draft recommendation to the EU Council tabled by FEMM chair Lina Gálvez (S&D, Spanish) concerning the EU’s priorities for the 69th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Scheduled for March 2025 in New York, this session will mark the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the international framework for gender equality.
In this text, the MEPs call for a stronger European commitment in the face of a series of persistent challenges. In particular, they denounce the growing influence of anti-rights movements and call for greater vigilance against any attempt to reduce existing gender equality protections.
The recommendation calls for the systematic integration of the gender dimension into all European policies, including the budget.
The fight against poverty among women, particularly in rural areas, access to healthcare, especially in terms of sexual and reproductive rights, and the promotion of education and economic opportunities are also supported.
All the compromise amendments were adopted, introducing a number of significant changes. For example, compromise 10 highlights the participation of women in high-impact sectors such as STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), where they remain under-represented. Compromise 19 reinforces the economic dimension by referring to support for female entrepreneurship, women-led businesses and job creation in high-growth sectors.
Greater attention is paid to the systemic causes of female poverty, particularly in rural areas.
On the health front, compromise 22 addresses access to safe and legal abortion, a recurring and often controversial issue in this context.
The recommendation calls for the systematic integration of the gender dimension into all European policies, including the budget. Compromise 12 insists on the need for specific gender equality objectives for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (2027).
Compromise 14 reiterates the importance of collecting gender-disaggregated data to guide better-informed policies.
Despite the broad support, the only dissenting voice at the end of the vote, Margarita de La Pisa Carrión (PfE), denounced on behalf of her group what she saw as a “fragmentation” against the spirit of the Beijing Declaration. She said the recommendation yielded to “the ideological framework” through the promotion of sexual and reproductive education.
The recommendation will be put to a plenary vote at the December session. This stage could see the introduction of additional amendments on sensitive issues, notably sexual and reproductive rights.
The draft recommendation: https://aeur.eu/f/ena
The amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/eo9
The compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/eoa (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)