The strategy – a key demand of the PES in its 2019 election manifesto – was unveiled this morning by progressive European Commissioner Helena Dalli, who will oversee its implementation during this mandate.
PES Women President Zita Gurmai said:
“PES Women and other progressives across Europe are strongly welcoming the strategy. We have campaigned hard to get to this stage, where we have a plan at European level to achieve gender equality. Now it is time to deliver and to see real commitment from member states.
“The strategy is ambitious and contains many policies that PES Women has been calling for to combat gender-based violence, push the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, tackle the gender pay and pension gaps, and empower women in all their diversity throughout many different policy areas.
“The EU Gender Equality Strategy is a great start, and we look forward to its implementation and how it will bear the fruits for equality between women and men in Europe. 2020 must be the start of real action for gender equality and PES Women will continue putting pressure on political leaders and institutions to fight for women’s rights and equal societies.
PES President Sergei Stanishev said:
“The Gender Equality Strategy was a key demand of our political family during the European elections last year and we are very pleased that today that demand has been realised. Millions of people across Europe have marched for equality for women in recent years and now we have a chance to achieve it. Under Helena Dalli’s guidance, this strategy will make Europe a more equal, fair and just place for all women.”
The strategy is being published twenty-five years after the Beijing Declaration – the 1995 UN agenda for women’s empowerment which highlighted key global women’s rights issues such as equality, economic and political participation and gender-based violence. The EU Gender Equality Strategy today can be just as influential, with adequate financing, concrete and binding policy and sustained effort from the European Commission.
PES Women is the women’s organisation of the Party of European Socialists (PES) promoting gender equality and women’s rights both inside and outside the party. It is made up of representatives from all 33 PES member parties and has its own political structure and resources with an executive bureau, which is made up of its members, the President and four Vice-Presidents, each representing a different region in Europe.
