[Brussels, 4 November 2013] New indicators for monitoring the EU2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth were announced in a
press release from the Eurostat office on 29 October 2013.
Their flagship publication entitled
Smarter, greener, more inclusive? – Indicators to support the Europe 2020 strategy serves to compliment policy monitoring efforts by providing statistical data relevant to each area of the EU2020 strategy, namely employment, research & development, climate change & energy, education and poverty and social exclusion.
The EWL welcomes the publication and is encouraged to see gender sensitivity throughout the publication.
Our reports,
Ticking Clocks- Alternative 2012 Country Specific Recommendations to Strengthen women’s rights and gender equality in the Europe 2020 strategy and
The Price of Austerity- The impact on women’s rights and gender equality in Europe work hand in hand to identify areas to be improved on the macro-economic level that have a very real impact on the day to day lives of women across Europe under the new EU2020 strategy and the effects of austerity measures. The new indicators will be a useful tool to illustrate our main concerns regarding gender equality and a much needed step towards improved evaluation and monitoring that the EWL continues to call for.
Areas for improvement in the EU2020 process concern gender budgeting and mainstreaming into key processes in the European Semester that will affect National level budgets and reforms. For more information about this, see our recent
article on bringing a gendered dimension into the Annual Growth Survey.
While some of the recommendations that Member states received addressed such issues as childcare and affordable care services, only one country, Austria, has been explicitly asked to address the gendered pay and pension gap. Given that the gendered pay gap (16.2 % across the EU) and gendered pensions gap (almost 40%) exists to varying degrees in all EU countries, the EWL insists that all countries should be asked to address this.
Furthermore, the Lobby maintains that equality between women and men goes beyond addressing a ‘component of a well-functioning labour market’ – and rather is to be pursued actively as paving a path for full citizenship and engagement in a structural manner that includes the voices of half of Europe’s population in the planning, implementation and evaluation processes of the EU2020 strategy.
To find out more about the EU2020 strategy, please see EWL Frequently Asked Questions in
English and
French.
Attached documents
