On Thursday 15 January, Lucia Yar (Renew Europe, Slovakian) gave a presentation to the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets (BUDG), of which she is Vice-Chair, on the progress of the action plan for integrating gender equality into its work, adopted by the coordinators in December 2024.
As rapporteur on gender mainstreaming, the MEP recalled that the aim of the plan is to systematically take account of equality between women and men in all activities falling within the competence of Parliament’s Committee on Budgets, in accordance with Article 8 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Parliament’s internal rules and the recommendations of the gender mainstreaming network.
Lucia Yar assessed the implementation of the plan as “fairly positive”, despite a number of shortcomings. And with good reason: the BUDG Committee is one of the least feminised in Parliament, with around 22.5% of its members being women, compared with almost 39% across the whole Chamber.
However, progress has been made within the Committee’s bureau, which now respects parity, as well as in the appointment of rapporteurs for major dossiers, in particular those relating to the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and own resources.
In addition, progress has been made with regard to parity among external speakers at hearings and workshops, with a balance between men and women being respected at all events.
Nevertheless, the MEP noted that the vast majority of committee missions and delegation trips were still made by men, a point on which members are called upon to improve.
While gender mainstreaming has been improved in a number of areas, including the budget negotiations for 2026, and in particular the funding of the European Institute for Gender Equality and the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (‘CERV’) programme, Lucia Yar pointed out that topics relating to the integration of gender equality into budgetary policies still attract too little interest from MEPs, especially as they are frequently placed on the agenda at times when participation is low.
The Slovak MEP therefore called for greater political visibility of these issues within the BUDG Committee. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)