Following the European Commission's decision not to have a strategy for gender equality in 2016, MEPs from the European Parliament's FEMM Committee will question Commissioner Jourova in an exchange of views to be held in Strasbourg this evening.

In the years 2010 to 2015, the European Commission had a ‘Strategy for Equality between Women and Men’, and from 2006 to 2010, a ‘roadmap’. Both were clear, public documents of intent, endorsed by all EU institutions. Yet in the Commission's work programme for 2016, which was published in November, the European Commission made no mention of drawing up a new gender equality strategy to cover the years after 2015.

Instead, Commissioner Jourova told a press conference last week that the gender equality strategy will be covered by a ‘staff working document’.

As a result, the FEMM Committee will have an exchange of views with Věra Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality on the Commission's policy priorities in the area of gender equality for the year of 2016.

GUE/NGL Coordinator on the FEMM Committee, Malin Björk, expressed serious concern over the Commission's decision: "How could the Commission ignore the urgent needs of half of the population?"

"When one in three women have been victims of domestic violence and women are earning over 16 per cent less than men per hour in the EU, it is very clear that a real strategy for gender equality is required."

"By downgrading from a strategy that is developed through democratic processes at the highest political level, to a mere internal document that is not even accessible to the public, the Commission is sending a strong signal that it considers neither women's rights nor democracy to be important. And this comes at a time when what we actually need is the opposite: a strategy elaborated in collaboration with civil society and endorsed widely by both the institutions and the member states”.   

"We call on the European Commission to live up to its Treaty obligations and promote equality between women and men. We call on the Commission to work with the other EU institutions to develop a strategy for real improvements in the living and working conditions of women across the EU," Björk concluded.

The exchange of views between members of the FEMM Committee and Commissioner Jourova will be held this evening,Monday December 14, from 20.00 to 22.00 in the Winston Churchill room in the European Parliament in Strasbourg (WIC 100).

GUE/NGL Press Contact:

Nikki Sullings  +32 22 83 27 60 / +32 483 03 55 75

Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20

European United Left / Nordic Green Left

European Parliamentary Group

www.guengl.eu