At their plenary session in Strasbourg on Thursday 9 October, MEPs held a vote by show of hands to approve the “Declaration of Principles for a Gender-Equal Society”, which is linked to the roadmap presented by the European Commission last March (see EUROPE 13595/1).
The text confirms the guidelines set out in the communication and calls on the European Commission to take account of the European Parliament’s position in the future post-2025 strategy for equality between women and men.
Marko Vešligaj (S&D, Croatian), who represented the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and gender Equality (FEMM), welcomed the “historic progress”, but pointed out the “increasingly frequent attacks on women’s rights”.
He spoke in particular about sexual and reproductive health and rights – which the Commission had approached with some caution – and defended “their right to always choose”.
He also reiterated that “a feminist foreign policy is not a threat, contrary to what some would have us believe”, making this position one of the priorities that the European Parliament would like to see incorporated into the 2026–2030 strategy.
Jessika Roswall, who represented the European Commission in her capacity as European Commissioner for the Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, recalled the Commission’s commitment to the roadmap and its declaration of principles; “the (EU’s) compass for placing women’s rights and gender perspective at the heart of EU policies and actions”.
The Commissioner also stated that a wide-ranging consultation process was underway and that, while the priority remained the implementation of existing texts, new legislative initiatives would not be ruled out.
Abir Al-Sahlani (Renew Europe, Swedish) denounced “a global backlash against gender equality and an anti-gender movement (...) that occupies seats in this democratic Assembly”.
Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus (S&D, Polish) urged the European Commission to prove that women’s rights are “not just an empty declaration”.
Heléne Fritzon (S&D, Swedish) called for the right to legal and safe abortion to be enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, as well as a law on consent.
Margarita de la Pisa Carrión (PfE, Spanish) and Antonella Sberna (ECR, Italian) called for support for families.
Read the adopted text: https://aeur.eu/f/iv3 (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)