European Union

The procurement of human plasma as a potential therapy for Covid-19 is one of the latest examples of bioethics nationalism, defined by Jonathan Moreno in this blog as “distinct bioethics standards [which] are formally proclaimed as a matter of right by a sovereign state.”  The race for a Covid cure pushes at the weak seams in the international liberal order in much the same way that Covid appears to be pushing at health care systems.

Data shows that a record 548,000 people were tested for COVID in Italy on Tuesday, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. The spike in tests is linked to the fact that the Covid health pass has been...

The countries around the Baltic Sea have agreed to gear up measures to improve the dire state of one of the most polluted maritime areas in the world. The target set by the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) and the...

Officials gathered on Thursday to mark the centenary of the 1921 partition of Ireland and the formation of Northern Ireland. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney and Chief Whip Jack Chambers joined political and religious leaders at St Patrick’s Church of Ireland...

The Welsh lamb industry could become “economically unviable” as post–Brexit trade deals liberalise farming markets and the “floodgates for imports from across the world” are opened, said the Welsh National Farmers’ Union President, John Davies, on Thursday (22 October). UK...

A law that allows the government to limit margins in the marketing of fuels, published on Thursday, will come into force on Friday (22 October). The law amends several decrees that establish the general principles related to the organisation and functioning...

Around 50 homes have been evacuated Thursday as a dense river of lava approaches the municipalities of Llanos de Aridane and Tazacorte on the Spanish island of La Palma, where a volcanic eruption shows no signs of abating after more...

Bulgarian companies will receive compensation of €55/MWh due to the high cost of electricity from the middle of next month, the Bulgarian caretaker government has announced. The money will come from the profits of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, which...

The European Parliament has adopted a tough resolution on the Polish rule of law following Poland’s PM speech in Strasbourg and amid the ongoing crisis. The resolution considers the Polish Constitutional Tribunal as an “illegal” chamber, which adopted a verdict...

Greece’s former Prime Minister George Papandreou announced on Thursday that he will run for the leadership of the “Movement for Change” – the successor of the social-democratic Pasok party and a member of the Socialist and Democrat group in the...

MPs in the National Assembly have adopted the so-called “health vigilance” bill, whose article 2 allows for the possibility of extending the health pass until 31 July 2022. French lawmakers were split over the issue, narrowly passing it by 74...

The United States would come to Taiwan's defense and has a commitment to defend the island, US President Joe Biden said, though the White House said later there was no change in policy towards the island.

EU leaders failed to offer a way forward on Poland's challenge on European legal order in a "serene" discussion that barely lasted two hours on Thursday (21 October), a relatively short meeting by EU summit standards.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

EU and African officials are still at loggerheads over whether to waive intellectual property protection for COVID vaccines ahead of a meeting between EU and African Union foreign ministers meet in Rwanda next week.

On Global Encryption Day (21 October), Edward Snowden, the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations, defined encryption as a matter of life and death. A day earlier, a coalition of EU lawmakers voiced concerns that an upcoming legislative proposal could open the door to mass surveillance.

Written by Rosamund Shreeves.

The European Union has adopted gender mainstreaming as its official approach to gender equality, alongside targeted action to eliminate discrimination and advance women’s empowerment. From 25 to 28 October 2021, the European Parliament’s committees and delegations are holding a series of events aimed at highlighting the importance of gender equality and gender mainstreaming across different policy domains.

The concept and implementation of gender mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming is not a policy goal in itself but a tool to advance gender equality by ensuring that all legislation, policies and funding programmes make a positive contribution to equality, and consider impacts on women and men that may inadvertently cause or perpetuate inequality. A gender dimension may be more immediately evident in some areas than others, but no intervention can be assumed to be gender neutral. Consequently, a range of methods including gender statistics, analysis, impact assessment, budgeting, evaluation and audits have been developed to put gender mainstreaming into practice. This should result in better legislation and policy, and more gender-equal organisations.

The EU’s approach to gender mainstreaming

As defined by the European Commission in 1996, gender mainstreaming means ‘not restricting efforts to promote equality to the implementation of specific measures to help women, but mobilising all general policies and measures specifically for the purpose of achieving equality’. It was adopted as the official policy approach in the European Union and its Member States in the Amsterdam Treaty (1997), and the legal basis was strengthened in Article 8 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which commits both to eliminate inequalities and to promote the principle of equality between women and men in all their actions. The specific priorities in the current EU gender-equality strategy 2020-2025 include: taking account of the gender dimension in major climate change and digitalisation initiatives and in specific sectors such as transport, energy and agriculture; introducing an intersectional approach across EU policies; and ensuring dedicated funding for a gender equal future. The European Parliament’s own gender-mainstreaming policy, formally launched in 2003, has evolved considerably over time. The new gender action plan adopted in July 2020, and the roadmap for its implementation adopted in April 2021, include a range of measures aimed at ensuring that Parliament becomes fully gender sensitive, with regard to its legislative activity, gender balance and culture. One specific objective is to strengthen the Gender Mainstreaming Network, which helps to bring a gender dimension into the work of committees and delegations.

Gender Equality Week in the European Parliament

Parliament’s Gender Equality Week is a relatively new initiative, first held in 2020. Spearheaded by the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM), it complements the longstanding stocktaking held around International Women’s Day on 8 March, by giving all committees and delegations a further opportunity to explore issues relevant to gender equality in their particular areas of competence. This year’s programme spans a broad spectrum of policy areas and sectors. As in 2020, the gendered impacts of the coronavirus pandemic will be a key focus, exploring how recovery measures, including EU funding and national recovery plans, can promote gender equality and prevent the widening of existing gender gaps. When it comes to long-term challenges, there will also be discussions around how to ensure that both women and men benefit from investment in the digital and green transitions and on the potential benefits of EU action for carers and the care sector. Gender issues in specific sectors including fisheries, agriculture, research, energy, culture, education, and tourism will be another focus, as will humanitarian action, foreign and security policy and the situation of women in several countries outside the EU, including Turkey and Afghanistan. Violence against women will also be addressed. The week will offer an opportunity to review progress on equality legislation and present the latest results of the EIGE Gender Equality Index, the EU’s main tool for measuring advances in gender equality in the EU over time.

Read this ‘at a glance’ on ‘Exploring gender equality across policy areas‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

For more background information and analysis, see our topical digest on gender equality, prepared for European Gender Equality Week.

You can follow the events via webstreaming and Twitter: #EPGenderEqualityWeek.

Read also:’Women in fisheries’, blogpost by Frederik Scholaert; EPRS video and Topical digest on women in fisheries

Facebook and the French publishers' lobby known as Alliance de la Presse d'Information Générale (APIG) have reached an agreement on the remuneration of journalistic content posted on the US giant's platform, the two announced on Thursday. EURACTIV France reports.

MEPs agreed to close the EU Border and Coast Guard Agency’s accounts for 2019, but asked for part of next year’s budget to be frozen.
Committee on Budgetary Control

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP