[Brussels, 01 June 2011] The European Parliament’s position on the EU’s long-term budget frame acknowledges the importance of gender responsive budgeting as a good governance tool and calls adequate financing for gender equality.
Members of the European Parliament’s Policy Challenges committee voted on 25 May on a report that outlines Parliament’s views on the EU’s next multi-annual financial framework (MFF) that will set the EU’s policy priorities and spending ceilings for several years after 2014.
The adopted text lacks an integrated gender equality perspective, but it makes several small important references to the financing of gender equality policies and to gender mainstreaming in the next budgetary period.
MEPs call for adequate funding for gender equality as means to reach the Europe 2020 targets, and advocate that the European Social Fund should be used in a more strategic manner to promote equality between women and men.
MEPs also underline the importance of gender budgeting as a good governance tool that can improve efficiency and fairness of the EU’s future spending programmes, and insist that gender mainstreaming should be maintained as one of the principles of the EU’s cohesion policy in the future MFF.
The Parliament emphasises that fundamental rights and equality must be seen as an independent policy priority under the EU’s citizenship policies, and that adequate targeted funding for activities in this field must be guaranteed.
The Commission will publish its proposal for the EU’s next long term budget frame on 29 June. This proposal will be followed by difficult debates between the EU Member States.
The European Women’s Lobby is calling on European and national policy-makers to integrate a women’s rights and gender equality perspective in the forthcoming decisions about the scope, priorities, and financing of the post-2013 EU MFF.
