[Brussels 24 + 25 June ] A unique gathering of European citizens and NGO representatives from all major civil society sectors discussing how to create a fairer, more socially-focused and sustainable future for Europe came together in Brussels on the 24th and 25th of June. Organised by the Civil Society Contact Group (CSCG), of which the EWL is a member, and DEEEP, this assembly brought together the ultimate stakeholders in decision making, the citizens, just days before the European Council of Heads of State and Government met in Brussels.
citizens counter summitThe EWL was proud to attend and contribute to the first European Citizens’ Summit, help in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday of this week. The citizens summit fills a democratic gap in European decision-making by adding a participatory, inclusive debate long neglected by European Summits. Citizens are becoming increasingly disillusioned – unhappy with politics and decision-makers. Yet, and as the Summit’s 400 attendees showcases, given the opportunity, people want to be involved in the processes that shape their lives. This weeks Economist cover points to this trend. Alternatives to the current status quo are essential, vital and utterly necessary!
economist march of protest
Today only 33% of EU citizens trust the European institutions (2). This is a crisis in the very legitimacy of the European project and a failure. It is time for European leaders to wake up to what matters to real people, and to ensure that their hopes, fears and priorities are put above Big Business and the language of unaccountable and faceless markets.
“We are dreamers, but we know whats going on on the ground and we have a common vision based on equality, solidarity, and well being for all” said EWL Secretary General Cecile Greboval. The economy shouldn’t be the driver of all decisions, the well-being of all of the women and men living in Europe must be the driving force behind the decisions you are making”
“All across Europe our environment, our health, our social protection, our gains in gender equality and human rights, our education and healthcare systems, our culture and our role as global citizens are being eroded in the name of economic crisis and austerity. We believe this is a false dichotomy and urge our political leaders to stop it and listen. Re-connecting to citizens is about first listening to them, and acting to take on their priorities and defending their interests,“ said Monika Kosi?ska, spokesperson for the EU Civil Society Contact Group.
“This initiative is unique because it brings together organisations active in a variety of sectors such as social, environmental, developmental, gender, public health, education, human rights and culture. There is an urgent need to re-connect citizens with the European project. Brussels’ credibility does not only lie on its ability to address economic and financial challenges,” pointed out Paul Dujardin, Director of the Bozar Center for Fine Arts.
The counter Summit examined where the boundaries of the free market should lie. It reminded that one of the driving aspirations of the EU is to generate the type of economic prosperity capable of delivering well-being, social cohesion, and quality employment – within and beyond Europe’s borders – in a way that reduces poverty and advances environmental protection. “The EU is bound to look back at the peace-building project that brought it together right after the Second World War and start thinking of Europeans as 500 million citizens, not as 500 million consumers,” concluded Saskia Sassen, Professor of Sociology from the University of Columbia (US).
This Citizens’ Summit has, for the first time in the 60 years since the creation of the EU, managed to channel Europeans’ voices and concerns into concrete, urgent demands directed to EU leaders: minimum income; political and economic transparency; adequate public care; reduced inequalities and enhanced integration; real and lasting gender equality; higher levels of environmental protection; a fair and human-faced global trade; and the full respect of the citizen’s right to participate in the cultural life.
Business as usual is not an option. Europe is heading down a dead-end street and citizen engagement is necessary for a much needed U-turn in the right direction. It is high time for Brussels to reconnect with people by reinforcing active citizenship, democracy and participation in decision-making.
The European Citizens’ Summit sent a video message back to European Council.
– If you didn’t have time to follow #EUCS2013, the event’s Tweet hashtag? The DEEEP project has compiled the Twitter conversation around it for you right here.
This mode enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode
Improves website's visuals
This mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode
Helps to focus on specific content
This mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
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This mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
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This mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
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Accessibility Statement
womenlobby.org
24 April 2025
Compliance status
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience,
regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level.
These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible
to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific
disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML,
adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Screen-reader and keyboard navigation
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with
screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive
a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements,
alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website.
In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels;
descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups),
and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag
for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology.
To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on
as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
Disability profiles supported in our website
Epilepsy Safe Mode: this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode: this mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode: this mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments
Font adjustments – users, can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over seven different coloring options.
Animations – person with epilepsy can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.
Browser and assistive technology compatibility
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).
Notes, comments, and feedback
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to