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European Women's Lobby

EWL

The European Women's Lobby is the largest alliance of women's NGOs in the EU, representing over 2000 organisations across 30+ countries working for gender equality and women's rights.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Sirpa Pietikäinen (Member of the European Parliament)

15 Jan 2026 · Gender equality

Meeting with Sirpa Pietikäinen (Member of the European Parliament)

5 Nov 2025 · Gender equality

Meeting with Marc Botenga (Member of the European Parliament)

5 Sept 2025 · Situation of the Women and Children in Gaza

European Women's Lobby Demands Stronger Civil Society Protections

27 Aug 2025
Topic — This consultation seeks to develop a strategy supporting and protecting EU civil society.
Message — They request a long-term strategy to institutionalize dialogue and protect civic space. The lobby advocates for strategic partnerships rather than simple symbolic consultations.12
Why — Stable core funding would ensure financial resilience and prevent losing specialized expertise.3
Impact — Authoritarian governments would lose the power to suppress advocates without financial penalties.4
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Response to Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030

29 Jul 2025

The European Womens Lobby (EWL) welcomes the Commissions Roadmap for Womens Rights, which lays the groundwork for the 20262030 Gender Equality Strategy. At a time of growing backlash against womens rights, the Roadmaps strong political commitment is vital. The EWL applauds its focus on ending violence against women; ensuring health, care, worklife balance and equal pay; advancing education; fostering political participation; and creating institutional mechanisms to enforce rights. Yet, transformational change demands more. A holistic, intersectional approach is needed. The Strategy must legally define intersectionality and mainstream gender across every policy area. Key gaps in the Roadmap must be addressed: recommitting to the Beijing Platform for Action; assessing Artificial Intelligences impacts on women; protecting women in cultural and artistic sectors; tackling womens poverty and homelessness within antipoverty measures; linking upcoming nondiscrimination strategies (antiracism, LGBTIQ, disability, Roma) to ensure cohesion; and advancing the Horizontal Equal Treatment Directive, among other things. The systematic collection of sexdisaggregated and intersectional data across health, employment, poverty, trade, external actions and climate is essential to expose hidden inequalities and act on them. Only with these measures can the EU truly secure equal rights for all women.
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Response to Anti-racism Strategy

8 Jul 2025

To strengthen the fight against racism and racial discrimination in the EU, a bold, coherent, and long-term vision is urgently needed. We recommend that the EU embed anti-racism efforts across all policies, with particular attention to the situation of women. In the context of the ongoing and growing backlash against womens rights, racialised women are disproportionately affected by racism and violence. The EU must ensure they are meaningfully protected and have access to adequate support and safeguards. The European Womens Lobby (EWL) calls for a consistent and coordinated approach to developing non-discrimination strategies. The European Commission must ensure that all frameworks are interoperable, effective, and grounded in an intersectional perspective. We support civil society proposals to develop a comprehensive 10-year EU anti-racism strategy, with a strong emphasis on gender, consolidated through a Council Recommendation to ensure stronger accountability and binding commitments from Member States. This strategy must adopt an intersectional and restorative approach, rooted in the lived experiences of those most affected. The EU must move away from fragmented and punitive policy frameworks toward holistic strategies that prevent harm, repair historical injustices, and invest in community-driven solutions. Acknowledging that racism is embedded in Europes past and present, reparative justice and recognition of historical harms must be integral to any meaningful anti-racism strategy. Stronger coordination between EU, national, and local levels is essential, as is the meaningful participation of racialised communities and civil society organisations. The strategy should also lay the groundwork for a unified legal framework to address structural racism in every EU policy areas, supported by targeted measures and adequate resources to avoid policy fragmentation. Finally, this is a pivotal moment to resist the rising tide of securitisation and exclusion. The EU must reinforce rights-based safeguardsparticularly in migration governanceand confront systems that dehumanise racialised people, especially women at Europes borders, where fundamental rights and the Rule of Law are increasingly under threat.
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Meeting with Marko Vešligaj (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network and

5 Mar 2025 · Gender Equality Strategy 2025-2029

Meeting with Valérie Devaux (Member of the European Parliament)

14 Jan 2025 · Droits des femmes

Meeting with Chloé Ridel (Member of the European Parliament)

6 Nov 2024 · Women's rights - Meeting with French network member

Meeting with Inês Melo Sampaio (Cabinet of Commissioner Elisa Ferreira)

24 Oct 2024 · Meeting with Portuguese Platform for Women’s Rights (PpDM) representatives to present the work being developed, the “Women in Power @ the EU” project, and their future activities

Meeting with Saskia Bricmont (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

22 Oct 2024 · Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation

Meeting with Gordan Bosanac (Member of the European Parliament)

18 Oct 2024 · EU legal obligations for gender equality

Meeting with Catarina Martins (Member of the European Parliament)

17 Oct 2024 · sexual and reproductive rights

Meeting with Karlo Ressler (Member of the European Parliament)

17 Oct 2024 · Gender Balanced Budgeting

Meeting with Victor Negrescu (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

17 Oct 2024 · EU Budget 2025

Meeting with Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus (Member of the European Parliament) and Women Against Violence Europe Network

16 Oct 2024 · Commissioners-designate hearings and priorities in the FEMM Committee

Meeting with Evin Incir (Member of the European Parliament)

1 Oct 2024 · Gender based violence

Meeting with Marc Angel (Member of the European Parliament)

25 Sept 2024 · women's rights

Meeting with Carolina Morace (Member of the European Parliament) and EDGE Foundation

25 Sept 2024 · Introductory Meeting

Meeting with Maria Noichl (Member of the European Parliament)

25 Sept 2024 · State of Gender Equality EU

Meeting with Lina Gálvez (Member of the European Parliament, Committee chair)

23 Sept 2024 · European Womens Rights and Gender Equality

Meeting with Helena Dalli (Commissioner) and

11 Sept 2024 · Meeting to discuss women's rights and gender equality.

Meeting with Dan Barna (Member of the European Parliament)

11 Sept 2024 · Gender Equality Priorities in the European Union

Response to Options for support for R&D of dual-use technologies

30 Apr 2024

In the context of this consultation, the European Womens Lobby (EWL) wishes to express its concern on the tendency of the EU to move towards a military/security approach. The EWL highlights that UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security will mark its 25th anniversary in 2025. This Resolution acknowledges that women are agents of peace and reconciliation. Yet, women are sidelined from engaging in peaceful resolutions and are absent from decision-making. In a growing shrinking space for womens civil society, the Horizon programme has the potential to provide opportunities for women to be in the driving seat, to provide funds to strengthen their capacity and foster initiatives to improve the development of womens civil society towards sustainable peace. We urge the European Commission to include this aspect in the White Paper and to ensure that the Horizon Europe and the European Defence Fund are kept separate as part of the dual approach.
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Meeting with Martine Kemp (Member of the European Parliament)

13 Feb 2024 · #HerNetHerRight for the EU (HNHR4EU) training

European Women's Lobby urges gender-sensitive reporting for online platforms

23 Jan 2024
Topic — This initiative sets mandatory transparency reporting templates under the Digital Services Act.
Message — The organization requests gender-sensitive data collection for illegal content. They want reports targeting women linked to the gender-based violence category.12
Why — Granular data would expose the full scale of online violence against women.3
Impact — Poor data collection hides the volume of attacks, leaving women unprotected.4
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Meeting with Evin Incir (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

19 Jan 2024 · Directive violence against woman

Meeting with Frances Fitzgerald (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

9 Dec 2023 · Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence

Meeting with Maria da Graça Carvalho (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

8 Nov 2023 · Rights, support and protection of victims of crime

Meeting with Alice Kuhnke (Member of the European Parliament) and COALITION POUR L'ABOLITION DE LA PROSTITUTION

12 Sept 2023 · Seminar: testimonies from survivors of prostitution

Meeting with Manon Aubry (Member of the European Parliament)

5 Sept 2023 · Feminism

Meeting with Delara Burkhardt (Member of the European Parliament)

5 Sept 2023 · Womens rights

Meeting with Malin Björk (Member of the European Parliament) and European Network of Migrant Women

13 Jul 2023 · Violence against women, trafficking, prostitution

Meeting with Irène Tolleret (Member of the European Parliament)

12 Jul 2023 · Violences faites aux femmes

Meeting with Lina Gálvez (Member of the European Parliament)

12 Jul 2023 · Directive Violence against Women

Meeting with Sylvie Brunet (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur for opinion)

11 Jul 2023 · Violences faites aux femmes et violence domestique

Meeting with Ilana Cicurel (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

6 Jun 2023 · Implementation of the CERV programme - Meeting with the Programme Office and Coordinator of the European Women's Lobby

Meeting with Frances Fitzgerald (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

1 Jun 2023 · Prostitution

Meeting with Maria-Manuel Leitão-Marques (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and Eurochild AISBL

20 Apr 2023 · Cross-border recognition of Parenthood

Meeting with Patricia Reilly (Cabinet of Commissioner Mairead Mcguinness)

29 Mar 2023 · Role of women in securing peace in Northern Ireland, and the 50th anniversary of the National Women’s Council of Ireland

European Women's Lobby demands stricter liability in trafficking directive

20 Mar 2023
Topic — EU directive update on preventing and combating human trafficking and protecting victims.
Message — The organization demands broader criminalization without knowledge requirements, recognition of prostitution's link to trafficking, and stronger provisions against online platforms facilitating exploitation. They advocate for an end-demand approach and the Equality Model.123
Why — This would strengthen prosecution of exploiters who currently escape justice by claiming ignorance.45
Impact — Online platforms and search engines lose immunity for advertising sexual exploitation and trafficking.67
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European Women's Lobby demands surrogacy exclusion in parenthood rules

9 Feb 2023
Topic — This initiative ensures that parenthood established in one Member State is recognised in others.
Message — The lobby demands that surrogacy be excluded and recognized as a form of exploitation. They call for criminalizing profit-seeking third parties involved in surrogacy arrangements.12
Why — This would protect women's bodily integrity and stop the commodification of new-born children.34
Impact — Commercial surrogacy providers would face criminal sanctions and be treated as human traffickers.5
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Meeting with Lesia Radelicki (Cabinet of Commissioner Helena Dalli)

7 Feb 2023 · Meeting on Violence Against Women Directive progress

Meeting with Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

23 Jan 2023 · Violences faites aux femmes

Meeting with Carina Ohlsson (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

17 Jan 2023 · Möte med European Women's Lobby om sexuella trakasserier i EU och utvärdering av MeToo

Meeting with Frances Fitzgerald (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

12 Jan 2023 · Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence

Meeting with Maria Walsh (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

7 Dec 2022 · Pay Transparency

Meeting with Delara Burkhardt (Member of the European Parliament)

9 Nov 2022 · Climate Policy

Meeting with Frances Fitzgerald (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and EUROPEAN TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION and

27 Oct 2022 · Proposal for a Directive on combatting violence against women and domestic violence

Response to Prevention of harmful practices against women and girls

31 May 2022

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) suggests that harmful practices against women and girls should be understood in a broader way and include all kinds of violence against women and girls, whether it is because of the new forms of violence that emerged through the era of digitalisation and that was not necessarily foreseen in the Istanbul Convention - e.g. sharing non-consensual pictures - or whether it is on other forms that existed already such as sexual exploitation, including prostitution, that is a form of violence against women and girls. Similarly, there is a need to broaden the definition of female genital mutilation by warning on the danger of other harmful practices that promote the normalisation of dangerous elective surgeries and the hypersexualisation of women and girls such as aesthetic vaginoplasties (“designer vaginas”) or labiaplasties,“Virginity repair” surgery known as hymenoplasty, vaginal dilations, imposition of hormones etc. Regarding female genital mutilation, particular attention should be dedicated to refugee and migrant women and girls in both information sharing and resourcing for service provision since they are more likely to be exposed to this threat.
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European Women's Lobby urges stronger EU violence against women directive

21 Apr 2022
Topic — EU directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence
Message — The organization wants violence against women added to EU crimes list and all forms of violence covered by legislation. They call for addressing sexual exploitation through the Equality Model.123
Why — This would expand legal protections for women across all EU member states.45
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Meeting with Alice Kuhnke (Member of the European Parliament) and European Digital Rights and

19 Apr 2022 · Roundtable: Gender-based Violence

Meeting with Helena Dalli (Commissioner) and Amnesty International Limited and

6 Apr 2022 · Cabinet Dalli invited Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to discuss concerns equality and non-discrimination CSOs are raising regarding the situation of people fleeing from the Ukraine

Meeting with Lesia Radelicki (Cabinet of Commissioner Helena Dalli)

31 Mar 2022 · Handover pregnancy Ms Fourcans to Ms Vardaramatou

Response to Proposal for a Council Recommendation on long-term care

29 Mar 2022

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) calls for a Care Deal for Europe, to complement the European Green Deal: caring for the planet and caring for each other is part of the same continuum. There needs to be a comprehensive effort to gender mainstream the European Green Deal and ensure that the development of and investments in the care economy is embedded as a sustainable economic model and an integral part of the just and green transition. ICT, green jobs and care, are the three sectors with highest job creation potential. The European Care Strategy is an opportunity to revalue the care economy and develop quality care jobs. Investment in these three sectors should reflect the fact they are equally indispensable to European economies. Care is not an issue of dependency but an essential part of our collective mechanisms of solidarity, a safety net that meets our collective care needs and responsibilities. The EWL therefore welcomes the European Care Strategy as a first step towards a Care Deal for Europe. Care is the backbone of society. Care is a life-cycle issue that requires different policies at different stages. As the COVID-19 pandemic showed, we are all interdependent. Women take their lion share of both unpaid (informal care) and paid care work, as they form the majority of the work force in all sectors related to care (health, education, social care). However, this work is often undervalued and underpaid and carry life-long consequences which impact on women’s economic independence, access to social rights and particularly pensions, as the high gender pension gap attests (40% EU average). The European Care Strategy should develop European standards on care crediting for both women and men to ensure the transition towards an equal-earner-equal-carer model. The European Care Strategy provides an opportunity to ensure that both women and men can become equal earners-equal carers throughout their lives, and share the responsibility for care across the life-cycle. While the lack of adequate care structures for childcare and other dependent persons impact negatively on women’s employment rate, care must not be limited to a narrow focus on women’s labour-market participation but provide a holistic vision based on the share of care between women and men. The focus on childcare and long-term care in the European Care Strategy calls for overarching principles, which include but are not limited to: a human rights framework, a people-centred approach in which human dignity is at the core. The provision of services at different levels from community based to independent living to home care, etc., should be affordability, accessibility and inclusive. The European Care Strategy should propose and develop high-level quality standards relating to both child and long-term care, identifying and building on good practices and peer reviews. Provide public investments to develop the care economy; target and earmark EU funds for this purpose. Who cares? The overwhelming majority of carers are women. The over reliance on women prevents them from participating in all areas of life, due to caring responsibilities. Some groups of women face several acute structural obstacles that exclude them from contributing to all areas of society, which represents a waste of human resources and talent. While sex disaggregated data on the occupational profile of migrant women is patchy, women’s labour migration is concentrated in a few female dominated occupations associated with traditional gender roles, especially in the domestic and household care sector. The European Care Strategy must address intersectionality and anti-discrimination. The European Care Strategy should address the value of the care sector with regards to pay and working conditions. It is therefore crucial that the principle of equal pay for equal work and work of equal value is addressed and ensure coherency with other policies: pay transparency proposal. Recommendations in annex.
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Meeting with Cyrus Engerer (Member of the European Parliament)

9 Dec 2021 · Women's Rights

Meeting with Helena Dalli (Commissioner)

30 Nov 2021 · Commissioner Dalli held a meeting with the new EWL Secretary General Konstantina Vardaramatou who was appointed in October 2021. (https://twitter.com/helenadalli/status/1465781520417886213?s=20)

Meeting with Lesia Radelicki (Cabinet of Commissioner Helena Dalli)

22 Nov 2021 · Meeting with a panel of survivors of prostitution from SPACE International

Meeting with Damian Boeselager (Member of the European Parliament)

17 Nov 2021 · Electoral law reform

Meeting with Lesia Radelicki (Cabinet of Commissioner Helena Dalli)

9 Nov 2021 · Online Istanbul Convention event

Meeting with Monika Ladmanova (Cabinet of Vice-President Věra Jourová)

15 Oct 2021 · Gender equality files

Meeting with Helena Dalli (Commissioner)

13 Oct 2021 · Ms Helena Dalli holds a meeting via videoconference with the European Women’s Lobby

Meeting with Lesia Radelicki (Cabinet of Commissioner Helena Dalli)

5 Oct 2021 · Preparation of meeting with Commissioner priorities for EWL

European Women's Lobby calls for criminalization of sex purchase from trafficking victims

15 Sept 2021
Topic — EU revision of directive on preventing and combating human trafficking.
Message — The organization requests Member States actively criminalize purchasing sexual acts from trafficking victims, removing the requirement that buyers know the victim's status. They call for expanded legislation covering all sexual exploitation through an end-demand approach, and harmonization with the Digital Services Act to end platform immunity for trafficking advertisements.1234
Why — This would strengthen their advocacy for ending sexual exploitation and prostitution demand across Europe.56
Impact — Online platforms and search engines lose immunity for hosting advertisements for sexual exploitation.78
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Meeting with Maria Luisa Cabral (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen)

1 Jun 2021 · The use of the term “gender”

Response to Extension of the list of EU crimes to hate speech and hate crime

19 Apr 2021

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) welcomes the European Commission’s (EC) initiative to strongly address hate speech and hate crime. By updating EU legislative standards to combat these crimes on a common basis and in recognition of their cross border nature, this initiative will prevent significant trauma, re-victimisation and preserve the rights of women and girls. Sexist hate speech and crime is a persistent violation of women’s rights and is a form of violence against women and girls, which typically manifests as the rape, death and torture threats. This is often accompanied by other forms of online violence such as doxxing, cyber stalking and image based sexual abuse. Women and girls are 27 times more likely to experience violence in online spaces, with a additional significant increase due to the COVID19 pandemic (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2020/655135/IPOL_STU%282020%29655135_EN.pdf ). Politically engaged women, such as women human rights defenders, journalists and women politicians, as well as women living with intersecting forms of discrimination are at further risk. Sexist hate speech and crime is, like any form of violence against women and girls (VAWG), part of the continuum of violence, driven by stereotypes and the will to maintain women to their so-called “place”, intimidating them and depriving them of fully enjoying their rights. The recent commitment of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in eradicating all forms of hate speech and hate crime, and the commitment of Commissioner Dalli to introduce a legislative framework to eradicate VAWG are both very welcome commitments. Urgent action is needed to address the prevalence of sexist hate speech and hate crime and other forms of violence against women and girls. As recognised in the EC Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, the Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia and the 2016 Code of Conduct on hate speech both fail to reference hate speech or hate crime on the basis of sex as per the EU treaties. The EWL trusts the EC will immediately rectify this by establishing a comprehensive legal framework that addresses the full continuum of VAWG, including sexist hate speech and crime. The EWL therefore recommends that sexist hate speech and crime is not only addressed within a specific proposal relative to hate speech and crime in general but is also comprehensively addressed within a horizontal directive preventing and combating all forms of VAWG, that aligns with the standards of the Istanbul Convention and recognises the continuum of violence against women and girls. This Directive would act as a cornerstone for the harmonisation of existing and upcoming legislations touching upon forms of violence against women and girls, including the EU Strategy on Victims Rights (2020-2024) and the Digital Services Act proposal. In support of this, we call for the list of EU crimes in Article 83 par. 1 TFEU to be expanded to include VAWG as well as hate speech and hate crime based on all grounds of discrimination listed in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. All activities of the EU must be linked with the legal obligations to promote equality between women and men, as set out under Article 2 TEU and Article 23 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Ending male violence against women and girls is a prerequisite to achieving real equality between women and men. It is time for the EC to take the legislative and political steps necessary to ensure that all women and girls can live their lives free from sexist hate speech, hate crimes and all other forms of male violence.
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European Women's Lobby calls for end-demand approach to sex trafficking

12 Mar 2021
Topic — EU strategy to combat organised crime and trafficking in human beings.
Message — The EWL calls for reintroduction of a standalone Anti-Trafficking Coordinator with specific expertise on the gendered nature of trafficking. They urge legislative action to criminalise the purchase of sex while decriminalising those selling sex, following the Nordic model. They request multiannual funding for civil society organisations providing services to victims.123
Why — This would strengthen their advocacy model linking prostitution and trafficking, and secure sustained funding for member organisations providing frontline services.456
Impact — Women in prostitution lose autonomy as the approach treats sex work as inherently exploitative rather than labour.789
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Meeting with Gosia Pearson (Cabinet of Commissioner Ylva Johansson), Monika Maglione (Cabinet of Commissioner Ylva Johansson)

5 Feb 2021 · Trafficking in human beings

European Women's Lobby urges comprehensive EU directive on violence against women

8 Jan 2021
Topic — EU initiative on preventing and combating gender-based violence and domestic violence.
Message — The organization requests a holistic EU directive covering all forms of violence against women across the four pillars of prevention, prosecution, protection and integrated policies. They want violence against women added to EU crimes in Article 83(1) and legislation to include sexual exploitation and online violence.12
Why — This would establish harmonized protection for all women across the EU.34
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Meeting with Lesia Radelicki (Cabinet of Commissioner Helena Dalli)

2 Oct 2020 · Istanbul Convention discussion

Meeting with Margrethe Vestager (Executive Vice-President) and

21 Sept 2020 · Discussion on gender mainstreaming of all EC policies.

Response to New Pact on Migration and Asylum

27 Aug 2020

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the European Commission’s roadmap on a New Pact on Migration and Asylum. This is a pivotal opportunity for the Commission to move from a crisis-management approach to a rights-based approach that facilitates safe and legal migration and asylum seeking pathways. All initiatives, including the Common European Asylum System reform, must provide a comprehensive migration and asylum framework that guarantees equality between women and men. EWL’s recommendations for the New Pact on Migration and Asylum to guarantee the full rights of migrant and asylum seeking women and girls include: • Gender mainstreaming across all forthcoming migration and asylum initiatives, including the design, objective-setting, implementation and monitoring phases, with temporary special measures set out to specifically address inequalities faced by women. To ensure success, this must be done: i) in consultation with women’s specialists and CSOs; ii) through a streamlined and systematic approach to collecting sex-disaggregated data; iii) with gender impact assessments to adjust measures unintentionally contributing to further inequality between women and men; iv) by implementing gender budgeting to all relevant funding and programmes, including the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027, notably the Asylum and Migration Fund and the European Social Fund Plus. • Compliance of asylum procedures with international human rights standards, in particular UNHCR Guidelines on International Protection; the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and General recommendations No. 26, 32 and35); the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 22); and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Article 11); and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. • Compliance with the Council of Europe Convention on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Istanbul Convention, which guarantees the fundamental rights of every woman to be protected from violence at the individual, institutional and structural level, regardless of her legal status. This must include references to the definition of ‘violence against women’ (Article 3a), and fully deliver in particular on the provisions of Articles 59-61 on residency status, gender-based asylum claims, and the principle of non-refoulement. • Sufficient measures to respond to the sexual exploitation of women and girls, which is recognised as a Eurocrime in Article 83(1) of the TFEU, and in compliance with the EU Anti Trafficking Directive 2011/36/EU and Directive 2012/29/EU Victim’s Rights Directive, and Directive 2011/93/EU on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography. • All women entering the EU, including victims of domestic violence, should be granted independent legal status rather than as dependents of their spouses or male family members, to ensure their safe access to asylum procedures, and mitigate any barriers to seeking international protection, support services and/or access to justice and redress. • Appropriate financial and human resources for the implementation of integration policies, measures and programmes including language and digital competency training, as well as the work of women’s civil society organisations. • Access to current information on their rights, including ensuring universal access to legal, medical, psychosocial, and sexual and reproductive health services that are fully accessible and tailored to women with disabilities, older women, and women and girls from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. • Specialised support services for girls, delivered by specially trained staff capable of supporting their needs both as minors and as girls who have been subjected to violence. • Access to basic education and safe and decent employment, including for those whose applications for international protection are pending.
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Response to European Democracy Action Plan

27 Aug 2020

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) is the biggest umbrella organisation for women’s rights in Europe, gathering more than 2000 NGOs throughout the EU and candidate countries. While we do not specifically work on all the areas targeted by this roadmap, we call on the European Union to demonstrate a clear commitment to the European Treaty obligations (gender mainstreaming and equality between women and men…), by issuing a European Democracy Plan fully inclusive of women’s rights and experiences in Europe. First, we would like to see the European Democracy Plan address the necessity of equal political representation: women represent more than half of the European population and, still, men are massively over-represented among elected representatives at European, national and local level, as well as in governments, heads of state and senior levels in diplomacy and public administrations. To renew and sustain European citizens’ trust towards our political institutions, it is necessary that those who represent us actually reflect the diversity and richness of our lived experiences. We therefore call on the European Union to push for both legislative (quotas…) and non-legislatives actions to target the structural and contextual barriers diverse women face to get into politics. Related to this and to the specific point on strengthening the media and thus protecting journalists, we call on the European Union to take stronger action on online violence against women and girls, which notably affects both women politicians and journalists. The EWL produced a research and training on this issue as well as recommendations (#HerNetHerRights) making it clear that women cannot and should not be erased from the online sphere. Online violence is part of the continuum of violence against women and girls and thus should be addressed comprehensively, to ensure women can use all online tools and media safely and freely. Women and girls need to be safe in online spaces to express their views and to participate in democratic life including as candidates, politicians, elected representatives and voters. We are also joining our Manifesto for a Feminist Europe which details more of our demands and recommendations to both the EU and Member States on this issue.
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European Women’s Lobby urges comprehensive EU law against violence

17 Aug 2020
Topic — Review of EU laws protecting women from domestic and gender-based violence.
Message — The EWL calls for a comprehensive EU Directive to establish common rules and sanctions. They advocate for classifying gender-based violence as a major cross-border crime. The legislation should cover all forms of violence, including sexual exploitation and online abuse.123
Why — These measures would provide consistent, high-level legal protection and justice for women across all Member States.45
Impact — Sex buyers and exploiters would face criminalization under the proposed legal framework for sexual exploitation.6
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Meeting with Helena Dalli (Commissioner)

7 Jul 2020 · Istanbul Convention; combating violence against women/gender based violence.

Meeting with Helena Dalli (Commissioner)

14 May 2020 · EWL’s call to action "Women and Girls must not pay the price of Coronavirus"; gender sensitive responses

Meeting with Lesia Radelicki (Cabinet of Commissioner Helena Dalli)

14 May 2020 · Exchange of views on EWL’s call to action "Women and Girls must not pay the price of Coronavirus"

Response to Gender equality in the EU

11 Feb 2020

Ensuring equality between women and men and integrating the dimension of equality between women and men in all policy and financial frameworks is an obligation of the European Union as per the EU Treaties. To meet this obligation, the European Women's Lobby calls on the EU to take concrete and tangible actions and to adopt an ambitious and actionable strategy specifically focusing on putting an end to inequality between women and men. Women - even though they represent more than half of the European population - are still facing many different types of inequalities as a result of discrimination solely because they are women. Gender stereotypes play a key role in perpetuating unequal power relations between women and men, in keeping women in subordinated positions in the labour market, in decision-making and in the public and private spheres, and in legitimising violence against women. A bold new European political strategy on equality between women and men is a unique opportunity to break barriers and stereotypes faced by all women in Europe throughout their life, including in their families, at school, at work, in the public sphere and in older age. It must adopt an intersectional perspective aiming at tackling different forms of discrimination because the discrimination of women is often combined with other factors (such as race, colour, ethnic or social origin, etc.) which aggravate their negative impact. To achieve real equality, the strategy must be in line with the EU’s dual approach of applying gender mainstreaming and taking positive actions to fight discrimination and promote equality between women and men. The European institutions and the Member States must incorporate a gender equality perspective at all stages of all their policies - when defining, implementing and monitoring policies, and especially when affecting means and resources to them. This should be done by establishing strong institutional mechanisms for equality between women and men and implementing gender mainstreaming in all areas of work. The strategy must also set clear commitments to take positive actions to fight gender stereotypes and sexism, put an end to male violence against women, ensure respect of and access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, ensure all women’s economic independence, promote equality in decision-making and leadership, and ensure resources for women’s rights. The European Women's Lobby is calling on the EU to play a strong leadership role in shaping a better world for women and girls and to include in its strategy the attached recommendations. These recommendations should be endorsed by all EU institutions and strong accountability mechanisms should be put in place to ensure the European Commission and all EU Member States take concrete steps to achieve real equality between women and men in the whole EU.
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Meeting with Helena Dalli (Commissioner)

6 Feb 2020 · Gender Equality; Equality

Meeting with Andrea Almeida Cordero (Cabinet of Commissioner Mariya Gabriel)

24 May 2018 · women in politics

Meeting with Frans Timmermans (First Vice-President) and Friends of Europe and

7 Mar 2018 · Discussion of gender equality and the Future of Europe

Meeting with Monika Ladmanova (Cabinet of Commissioner Věra Jourová)

13 Feb 2018 · Women's rights

Meeting with Helena Braun (Cabinet of First Vice-President Frans Timmermans)

3 Aug 2017 · meeting with EWL on colloquium 2017

Meeting with Günther Oettinger (Commissioner)

28 Feb 2017 · diversity & inclusion

Meeting with Raquel Lucas (Cabinet of Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis)

3 May 2016 · Dialogue with civil society organisations to discuss European Semester matters, including the 2016 CSRs on social policy.

Meeting with Monika Ladmanova (Cabinet of Commissioner Věra Jourová)

18 Apr 2016 · Migrant situation

Meeting with Monika Ladmanova (Cabinet of Commissioner Věra Jourová)

10 Sept 2015 · New initiative on work balance

Meeting with Robert Madelin (Director-General Communications Networks, Content and Technology)

13 Jul 2015 · Women on Panels

Meeting with Neven Mimica (Commissioner) and

29 May 2015 · Commissioner to deliver speech that will focus mainly on gender equality and women empowerment from the development policy perspective.

Meeting with Robert Madelin (Director-General Communications Networks, Content and Technology)

20 May 2015 · Women in Science

Meeting with Věra Jourová (Commissioner) and Amnesty International Limited and

16 Feb 2015 · Equal Treatment Directive

Meeting with Frans Timmermans (First Vice-President) and Human Rights Watch and

15 Jan 2015 · Better regulation and European affairs in general

Meeting with Věra Jourová (Commissioner) and Human Rights Watch and

9 Jan 2015 · Roundtable with NGOs on fundamental rights and non-discrimination

Meeting with Frans Timmermans (First Vice-President) and Amnesty International Limited and

9 Jan 2015 · Roundtable with NGO's on fundamental rights

Meeting with Věra Jourová (Commissioner)

18 Dec 2014 · Gender equality