What changed

OPINION

The Committee on Women's RightsCulture and Gender EqualityEducation calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:

A. whereas Article 8 TFEU states that the Union shall aim to eliminate inequalities and to promote gender equality in all its activities, thereby establishing the principle of gender mainstreaming; whereas gender equality must be incorporated into all EU policies and activities, including via gender budgeting at all levels of the budgetary process; whereas equality is a fundamental right under the Treaty of Lisbon and a priority for the Union and achieving gender equality is crucial to upholding these rights; whereas the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) has a central role in supporting Union institutions and Member States in achieving that aim; whereas it is EIGE's objective to contribute to and strengthen the promotion of gender equality, including gender mainstreaming in all EU policies, a task in which it has proven to be vital and effective; whereas it is therefore underlined that EIGE needs to be provided with sufficient and stable financial and human resources to fulfil its tasks;

Discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union

B. whereas EIGE was established in order to contribute to and strengthen the promotion of gender equality in the Union, including gender mainstreaming in all Union policies and the resulting national policies, the fight against discrimination based on gender, and raising Union citizens’ awareness of gender equality;

1. Notes the efforts of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (‘the Centre’) to enable and promote multilingualism in the Union, for example as regards communications of the Union agencies and the development of terminology in specialised subject areas to improve the quality of translations;

C. whereas EIGE’s core mission focuses on achieving gender equality in the EU by providing research, collecting and communicating data, and developing methods to improve statistics and data collection, measuring the state of gender equality at both EU and Member State levels, developing methodological tools and providing technical support for gender mainstreaming, and cooperating with EU institutions, it’s Member States, EU agencies, international organisations, academia, civil society and other stakeholders;

2. Welcomes the setting up of a working group on artificial intelligence (AI) in June 2023 and the decision to take the work of that group further in a new advisory group on AI;

D. whereas the Gender Equality Index 2023 for the European Union (EU) surpassed 70 points for the first time, showing a modest growth of 1.6 points since 2022; whereas the increase in the overall EU score is the highest year-on-year rise since the first edition of the Index in 2013; whereas some domains showing signs of regression, in particular in economic and income metrics;

3. Is pleased with the Centre’s multi-engine machine translation strategy, which allows for clients’ documents to be translated on site in combination with the intervention of human translators, which is essential for delivering high-quality translations; encourages the Centre to continue its efforts in that area;

E. whereas in 2023 EIGE’s work focused on two thematic priorities: the European Green Deal and gender-based violence; whereas crises exacerbate women’s vulnerability and exposure to violence, intensifying existing structural inequalities and aggravating all types of gender-based violence, including physical, sexual and psychological; whereas following the principle of gender mainstreaming, incorporating gender sensitive perspective, and researching the effect of all policies on women are crucial aspects of achieving gender equality; whereas women are underrepresented in leading roles in climate policy, as men still fill 67 % of climate-related decision making roles; whereas EIGE pointed out as well that women are underrepresented in the creation and development of clean innovation; whereas this has added value for European policymaking;

4. Welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors, in its annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2023, confirms the legality and regularity of the revenue and payments underlying the Centre’s accounts;

F. whereas gender equality in the Union has been particularly impacted by the consequences of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the cost of living crisis, which women are disproportionately affected by, and the backlashes against gender equality and women’s rights; whereas this further deepens inequalities; whereas EIGE's work focused also on gender-based violence (GBV), by working on a EU wide survey on GBV to close the 10 year data gap on the prevalence of violence against women in the EU; whereas EIGE works towards the provision of evidence on GBV that can support the EU and Member States (and beyond) in their efforts to eradicate all forms of violence;

5. Observes with concern the Court’s findings with regard to various public procurement procedures, which led to irregular payments; encourages the Centre to continue its efforts in improving its monitoring of contracts and its procurement procedures;

G. whereas EU agencies, such as EIGE, contribute to the implementation of EU policies and strive for the development of a more sustainable, inclusive and competitive Europe for the benefit of all EU citizens; whereas these agencies are decentralised and thereby independent in the development of their work programmes;

6. Notes that women are underrepresented in senior and middle management positions and the management board; urges the Centre to work towards gender balance at all levels of staff;

1. Stresses that in the last decade economic, social, labour and gender inequalities within and between Member States have become more acute; recalls the important role played by EIGE understanding and addressing the extent and causes of gender inequality in the EU; notes EIGE’s continuous high level of budget execution, despite the persistent understaffing of the agency, with commitment appropriations of up to 98 % in 2023 and a payment appropriations rate of 83 %; congratulates EIGE for achieving 92.76 % of its work programme objectives; notes that the 2023 Gender Equality Index focused on how gender gaps impact and are impacted by green transition efforts, especially in sectors like energy, green technology innovation and transport and welcomes EIGE's initiatives shed light on this phenomenon;

7. Welcomes the fact that the Centre approved its 2023-2024 internal control and anti-fraud action plan, with a focus on raising awareness among staff with regard to identifying and registering exemptions and non-compliance events, on the prevention of fraud and on ethics;

2. Notes that EIGE was established as EU’s knowledge centre on gender equality to produce independent research and share best practises to eliminate discrimination based on gender, combine research, data and tools to help EU and it’s Member States to design inclusive and gender-transformative policies and to mainstream gender equality into all their policies; highlights the urgency for the Union to advance on gender equality, in the light of ongoing crisis, such as climate crisis, wars, backlashes on gender equality and anti-democratic movements and widespread gender based violence; emphasizes that addressing backlashes and gender-based violence cannot be decoupled from tackling economic and social inequalities; calls on EIGE to prioritize research and recommendations that focus on reducing the gender pay gap, increasing women’s access to quality jobs, and ensuring their economic independence as a fundamental part of its mission; notes in that regard that gender pay gap in the EU is 13 % and pension gender pension gap is 29 %, effecting women’s societal wellbeing; notes that women in the EU also experience threats to their fundamental rights and bodily autonomy, as attacks against SRHR, including abortion rights persist; reiterates that women are also disproportionately affected by climate crisis and wars and conflicts;

8. Notes the fact that the Centre has contracted a specialist consultancy to design and implement an EMAS-compliant environment management system; strongly encourages the Centre to pursue its efforts to obtain an EMAS certificate.

3. Recognizes the high success rates of EIGE in developing actions and communication campaigns on gender equality, emphasizing its importance in creating awareness;

4. Highlights the importance of resuming actions related to the gender mainstreaming that did not achieve a 100 % success rate, particularly those due to procedural reasons;

5. Highlights the important research by EIGE which presents how violence is a result of inequalities that affect all women, but that indeed some groups of women are more vulnerable to experiencing violence such as women with disabilities; calls on EIGE to further develop its future work on this pressing topic;

6. Notes that EIGE already considers violence against women as being one of the most severe human rights violations within societies;

7. Agrees with EIGE in its research that women and girls with disabilities are often at a higher risk of transport poverty due to limited transport affordability, availability, and accessibility;

8. Welcomes EIGE’s gender equality highlights which presented Croatia and Greece as having the highest share of women among research and innovation personnel in business enterprises in the electricity and gas and water supply sectors; notes that such information has added value to the cause of gender equality in the energy market;

9. Notes that the 8,5 % increase in EIGE’s staff costs can be attributed to the continued high inflation rate as well as a 2,7 % indexation of salaries, and that the average number of staff remained at 45; notes that two contract agents were engaged and funded by the IPA contribution agreement with the Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations; notes that Regulation (EC) No 1922/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on establishing a European Institute for Gender Equality, states in article 6 that EIGE should function independently in the public interest; recalls that EIGE’s task is to collect, analyse, and disseminate information as regards gender equality and to develop, analyse, evaluate and disseminate methodological tools in order to support the integration of gender equality into Union policies and the resulting national policies; acknowledges the persisting understaffing of EIGE, as evidenced in the findings of the second external evaluation; stresses its calls for EIGE to be granted the necessary budget and staff allocations to enable it to fulfill its tasks, including in response to the increasing urgent demands, technical assistance, and requests for its services;

10. Recalls that EIGE was set up to help the European institutions and the Member States to mainstream gender equality in all their policies and combat gender-based discrimination by supplying up-to-date studies, and thus makes an important contribution to efforts to achieve genuine gender equality;

11. Welcomes the ongoing cooperation between EIGE and the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM), in particular the Institute’s contribution to the ongoing efforts of the Committee concerning gender-based violence, work-life balance, the gender pay and pension gap, impact of crises on women, gender mainstreaming and budgeting; strongly supports the work of the Institute, which enables the Committee to properly do its work; notes the importance of availability of reliable gender-disaggregated data in order to allow for evidence-based policy making; notes the valuable contribution EIGE can make to all the European Parliament's Committees and other EU agencies in order to better integrate gender mainstreaming across EU policies and actions; calls on EIGE to adopt an intersectional framework in its research and policymaking to address the compounded social and economic disadvantages faced by women from marginalized groups, including women of color, migrants, persons with disabilities, and LGBTIQA+ individuals; stresses the importance of collecting disaggregated data to develop targeted solutions for these groups;

12. Is of the opinion, on the basis of the data currently available, that discharge can be granted to the Director of EIGE in respect of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2023.

ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT

The Chair in her capacity as rapporteur for the opinion declares under her exclusive responsibility that she did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION BY COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

Date adopted

18.2.2025

Result of final vote

+:

–:

0:

27

10

1

Members present for the final vote

Abir Al-Sahlani, Mireia Borrás Pabón, Irmhild Boßdorf, Mélissa Camara, Margarita de la Pisa Carrión, Valérie Devaux, Elisabeth Dieringer, Rosa Estaràs Ferragut, Heléne Fritzon, Lina Gálvez, Alexandra Geese, Chiara Gemma, Assita Kanko, Arba Kokalari, Ewa Kopacz, Elena Kountoura, Sebastian Kruis, Judita Laššáková, Eleonora Meleti, Irene Montero, Carolina Morace, Maria Noichl, Mirosława Nykiel, Sirpa Pietikäinen, Giusi Princi, Emma Rafowicz, Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, Benedetta Scuderi, Laurence Trochu, Marko Vešligaj, Maria Walsh, Lucia Yar

Substitutes present for the final vote

Elena Donazzan, Loucas Fourlas, Elisabeth Grossmann, Jana Toom

Members under Rule 216(7) present for the final vote

Gabriella Gerzsenyi, Nikos Papandreou

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

Key to symbols: