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Women’s entrepreneurship in rural and island areas and outermost regions

TA-10-2026-0158 · P10_TA(2026)0158 · PE775.387

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✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 4 Sept 2026

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Parliament's resolution on women's entrepreneurship in rural, island, mountainous and outermost regions calls for targeted support in funding, training, infrastructure, and social protection, and for gender mainstreaming across EU policies.

Key points

  1. Calls for improved access to funding, including innovation funding, for women entrepreneurs in rural, island and outermost regions, and for a cross-cutting approach to outermost regions.
  2. Urges Member States to invest in childcare and early childhood education, and to strengthen support mechanisms for women's entrepreneurship, including access to credit.
  3. Calls for education and training in digitalisation, finance and business administration, and for mentorship networks and peer-learning platforms.
  4. Encourages programmes supporting women-led enterprises, including training, networks, and access to export markets.
  5. Welcomes the 'women in farming' platform and calls for annual reports to Parliament on its activities.
  6. Calls for awareness campaigns and financial literacy measures targeting women, and for promoting modern images of women in agriculture.
  7. Calls for gender-disaggregated data collection and analysis, and for annual scorecards to monitor progress.
  8. Calls for a 'female founders fund' and measures to address gender bias in access to finance.
  9. Calls for targeted investments in digital infrastructure and skills, and for gender equality in digital policies.
  10. Calls for measures to improve women's access to land, finance, and training, and for gender representation benchmarks in agricultural cooperatives.
  11. Calls for a 'fast track' for access to finance and public procurement for women-led micro and small enterprises.
  12. Calls for adequate funding under the post-2027 MFF and for a comprehensive EU strategy for women's entrepreneurship.

Who is affected

  • Women entrepreneurs in rural, island, mountainous and outermost regions.
  • Women farmers and those in agriculture, including assisting spouses.
  • Women in precarious situations, including migrant workers, women with disabilities, and older women.
  • Women in eastern border regions affected by the war in Ukraine.
  • Women in outermost regions, with specific measures under Article 349 TFEU.

Figures and deadlines

  • 30 % of entrepreneurs in the EU are women, but they receive only 2 % of non-bank financing.
  • Women make up 52 % of the European population and 34.4 % of the self-employed.
  • Only 30 % of farms in the EU are managed by women.
  • In 2020, only 31.6 % of farm owners in the EU were women, managing on average only 12 % of utilised agricultural area.
  • Women in the EU currently receive only 1-2 % of venture capital funding.
  • Men scored 18 percentage points higher than women in a financial knowledge survey.
  • One family place per 10 000 head of population is the Istanbul Convention's standard for women's shelters.

Legal basis: Articles 8 and 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union