European Parliament Resolution on New EU Strategy for Gender Equality

By Luisa Antolin

The European Parliament has approved a Resolution passed on 17 June on ´Assessment of the results of the 2006­2010 Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men and forward-looking recommendations (2009/2242 (INI))´.

WIDE made a contribution to the draft, emphasizing the need of the EU Gender Strategy to be stronger in actions related to EU external policies such as development, trade and peace and security and promoting policy coherence among them and with EU internal policies.WIDE also demanded that the EU commitments to gender equality and women´s rights in the Gender Strategy must be applied to migrant women living in Europe. Some of WIDE´s points are present in the final Resolution.

WIDE has been working since 2009 to influence the new EU Gender Strategy through participation in the Consultation opened by the European Commission, and also in the advocacy work done on the occasion of Beijing +15, also in alliance with the European Women´s Lobby.

The new EU Gender Strategy, a follow-up to the EU Roadmap on Equal Opportunities, is expected to be approved in October under the Belgian presidency. WIDE expects it to have a stronger section on EU external policies.

Luisa Antolin is an Advocacy Officer at WIDE Brussels. For more information, please do not hesitate to contact her at: luisa[at]wide-network.org.