Skip to content
Adopted text

The need for a dedicated Council configuration on gender equality

TA-9-2020-0379 · P9_TA(2020)0379 · PE661.532

Official HTML ↗ PDF DOCX
✦ In shortFull text
✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 25 Sept 2026

Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.

Parliament calls for a dedicated Council configuration on gender equality, where ministers and secretaries of state in charge of gender equality would meet regularly. It says this forum would strengthen gender mainstreaming, dialogue and cooperation between member states, and help unblock stalled files on the Istanbul Convention, the Women on Boards Directive and the Anti-Discrimination Directive. It asks the European Council to act by qualified majority and amend the list of Council configurations under Article 236 TFEU.

Key points

  1. Parliament regrets that ministers and secretaries of state in charge of gender equality have no dedicated institutional forum to meet, discuss, legislate and exchange best practices.
  2. It stresses that gathering them in one dedicated, formal forum would deliver common measures and legislation and ensure gender equality is discussed at the highest political level.
  3. It says such a configuration would strengthen gender mainstreaming in EU legislation, dialogue and cooperation between member states, and an intersectional approach.
  4. It underlines that the configuration would help unblock negotiations on ratifying the Istanbul Convention, the Women on Boards Directive and the Anti-Discrimination Directive.
  5. It also names adding gender-based violence to the list of Eurocrimes and adopting a future directive on gender-based violence as issues to address.
  6. Parliament calls on the Council and the European Council to establish a Council configuration on gender equality to facilitate gender mainstreaming across all EU policies and legislation.
  7. It calls on the European Council to act by qualified majority and amend the list of Council configurations, in line with Article 236 TFEU and Article 2(1) of the Council's Rules of Procedure.

Who is affected

  • Ministers and secretaries of state in charge of gender equality would gain a dedicated formal forum to meet and decide.
  • The Council and the European Council are asked to create the new configuration and amend the list of Council configurations.
  • Member states would exchange best practices and coordinate gender equality policies through the new forum.

Figures and deadlines

  • One in three women have experienced physical or sexual violence since the age of 15, per a 2014 FRA survey.
  • 55 % of women have faced one or more forms of sexual harassment.
  • On average, one woman dies every two and a half days as a result of domestic violence.
  • Approximately 3 500 femicides in the EU every year are linked to domestic violence.
  • The EU gender gap in hourly pay is 16 %, rising to 40 % when employment rates and labour market participation are taken into account.
  • Women's pensions are worth about 37 % less than men's.
  • In 2018 the employment rate was 79 % for men and 67,4 % for women; 31,3 % of employed women aged 20-64 worked part-time, against 8,7 % of men.
  • In the care sector, 80 % of services are provided by informal carers, mostly women (75 %).

Legal basis: Articles 2 and 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union and Articles 8, 10, 19, 153(1)(i), 157 and 236 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.