EU funds for gender equality

The European Parliament adopted by 437 votes to 166, with 80 abstentions, a resolution on the EU funds for gender equality.

Members noted that gender issues are usually more often addressed in “soft” policy areas, such as human resources development, rather than in “hard” ones, such as infrastructure and ICT, which receive higher financial support.

The resolution called for European funding to be used more proactively in order to achieve gender equality goals.

European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds): in order to enhance female participation in the labour market and women's economic independence, Parliament called for the use of appropriate tools and incentives, including the European Funds such as ESF, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), ensuring the necessary social infrastructure funding for the provision of quality, affordable and accessible care services for children and other dependent persons, including elderly dependents and family members with disabilities.

In general, use should be made of the potential of cross‑cutting financing opportunities under ESI funds to support projects aimed at promoting gender equality.

Rights, Equality and Citizenship 2014-2020 programme (REC): Members regretted that the Daphne programme for combating violence against women has no separate budget line, given that it is currently one of the specific objectives of the REC programme. Deploring the decrease in the funds available for the Daphne specific objective (EUR 20 million in 2011 compared to EUR 14 million foreseen for 2016), Parliament called for Daphne to be provided with sufficient financial support and for its visibility and highly successful profile to be maintained.

The resolution called for priority to be given to organisations dealing with the prevention of violence and supporting victims of all forms of violence. The Commission should increase support for European networks on gender equality themes as well as for gender equality initiatives such as the European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life.

Horizon 2020 programme (research and innovation): Parliament recalled the three mainstreaming objectives under the Horizon 2020 programme, namely: (i) to foster equal opportunities and gender balance in project teams; (ii) to ensure gender balance in decision-making; and (iii) to integrate a gender dimension into research content.

They called for:

• gender mainstreaming to be further strengthened within this programme, and for the development of gender equality targets in strategies, programmes and projects at all stages of the research cycle;
• the maintenance of an independent line of funding for gender-specific structural change projects as well as of other gender equality topics in research and innovation.

As regards other instruments, Parliament called:

• for the introduction of a requirement for a gender-sensitive analysis into the EU Solidarity Fund when evaluating the impact on populations following natural disasters and in particular on the impact on women:
• for the allocation of EU development funds for voluntary, modern family planning and reproductive health services;
• for gender mainstreaming to be included among the founding principles of the recent Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF).

Strategic recommendations: Parliament regretted the Commission’s decision not to address the issue of implementing gender mainstreaming in its mid-term review of the multi-annual financial framework.

It recommended in particular:

• integrating and implementing strong and effective gender budgeting and gender mainstreaming in the post-2020 generation of EU funding programmes, with a view to increasing EU funding for measures to combat gender discrimination;
• for gender-specific indicators to be applied in the project selection, monitoring and evaluation phases of all actions that receive funding from the EU budget;
• for the close monitoring of the effectiveness of national complaints bodies and procedures in the implementation of gender equality directives.