Political posts WOMEN IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT EN International Women’s Day 8 March 2019 WOMEN IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Unless otherwise stated: women men Data sources: u European Parliament and its bodies: www.europarl.eu as of 4 January 2019, unless otherwise stated. u Photographs: European Parliament DG ITEC, EDIT Directorate | An initiative of the Equality and Diversity Unit - DG Personnel Editorial committee chairs: : Printing Unit : Printing Alberto Rossetti (Head of the Equality and Diversity Unit) Print | Petra Metzmeier-Weiss : IDEA Unit European Parliament, KAD building 2, rue Alcide De Gasperi, L-1615 Luxembourg Tel: +352 4300 24397 email: [email protected] Conception & Design Conception | Intranet: https://epintranet.in.ep.europa.eu/home/browse-as/human-resources/equality-diversity/gender-equality.html Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Parliament. L012453 EN International Women’s Day – 8 March 2019 2 POLITICAL POSTS TABLE OF CONTENTS A word from the President 4 High Level Group on Gender Equality and Diversity, chaired by Vice-President Dimitrios Papadimoulis 6 Members The European Parliament has made significant strides in 7 Representation of women in the achieving gender equality over the course of this mandate. European Parliament and in national To this end, we recently carefully reviewed procedures for reporting psychological and sexual harassment, introducing a parliaments, by Member State rigorous code of conduct that all MEPs must sign and abide by. Our institution draws strength from the fact that more women 8 The Bureau are elected to serve in it than in the vast majority of national assemblies across the EU and we are fully committed to ensuring basic dignity in the workplace, free from any form of harassment Political Groups 9 or discrimination. I am proud that the Simone Veil Award for Equality and Diversity 10 Committees has been renamed in honour of the first woman elected to the presidency of the European Parliament. A special ceremony 11 Interview with the Chair of recognised an initiative that increases the prominence of women in public discourse, helping to deliver visible diversity the Committee on Women’s within our institution. Rights and Gender Equality International Women’s Day is unquestionably an important celebration of the pursuit of equality, even if there is always room for further progress. We must therefore continue to 12 Delegations show commitment to ensure that women have access to the same rights and opportunities in all areas of life across the European Union. At the upcoming European elections, I sincerely hope that our efforts will pave the way towards a further increase in the number of women elected to parliament. The European Parliament must lead the way in delivering concrete results that deliver full recognition of women’s rights. The messages and signals that this house send out enjoy global resonance. It is therefore imperative that we continue to emphasise the importance of gender equality as a core value and reflection of the kind of society that we want to live in. Antonio Tajani Equality and Diversity Unit – Directorate-General for Personnel 3 WOMEN IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT HIGH LEVEL GROUP ON GENDER EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY DIMITRIOS PAPADIMOULIS Chair (GUE/NGL – EL) The High-Level Group on Gender Equality and Diversity (HLG) was established by the Bureau in 2004. It was created primarily to encourage and implement gender mainstreaming within Parliament’s activities, structures and bodies, and to promote the values of equality and non-discrimination in Parliament’s administration. As Vice-President responsible for gender equality and diversity, I chair the HLG and have overseen its mandate of promoting equality, non-discrimination, and diversity in the Secretariat for the legislative term 2014-2019. Such a mandate is important in order to ensure that the Secretariat reflects as closely as possible the European society our House represents. The HLG is a horizontal body that closely cooperates with other parliamentary bodies, in particular the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM Committee) and the Conference of Committee and Conference of Delegation Chairs. Its priorities with respect to gender for 2014-2019 have revolved around promoting full equality between men and women in all aspects of working life, fostering a safe, inclusive, and discrimination-free working environment, and ensuring that appropriate administrative structures are in place for mainstreaming gender into Parliament’s activities. Currently, the HLG’s members comprise: Evelyne GEBHARDT Lívia JÁRÓKA Heidi HAUTALA Catherine BEARDER (S&D – DE) (EPP – HU) (Greens/EFA – FI) (ALDE – UK) Furthermore, the permanently invited members are: Cecilia WIKSTRÖM Rebecca HARMS Vilija BLINKEVIČIŪTĖ Angelika MLINAR (ALDE – SV) (Greens/EFA – DE) (S&D – LT) (ALDE – AT) As we approach the end of the eighth legislative term, we need to reflect on what we have achieved since 2014 and identify areas where there is still progress to be made. Our actions have largely followed structures outlined in two Bureau documents that we have drawn up and implemented. Firstly, the Action Plan for the promotion of gender equality and diversity in the European Parliament’s Secretariat 2014-2019, adopted by the Bureau in 2015, has a specific line of action dedicated to gender that I am pleased to say we have successfully implemented. Measures focussing on gender balance, equal distribution of work responsibilities, and gender-neutral language have all produced pleasing results and are contributing to making Parliament a International Women’s Day – 8 March 2019 4 POLITICAL POSTS better workplace for all. In particular, I would like to highlight the positive actions for women that have been set up in recruitment, which respond to an important point of the Action Plan and create a more egalitarian organisational culture. As the statistics in this brochure show, the domain of women in management has seen some success in recent years. Achieving better representation for women has been facilitated by the 2017 Papadimoulis report on ‘Gender Equality in the European Parliament Secretariat - state of play and the way forward 2017-2019’1 and the step-by-step actions in its accompanying roadmap. This roadmap, a development of the Action Plan and drawn up to implement the report’s recommendations, also tackles the question of gathering statistics and its importance in achieving gender balance. By ensuring that statistical data on gender equality is gathered and published twice yearly, the roadmap’s concrete framework has allowed us to monitor progress and better understand the bigger picture in achieving equality as we move closer to our targets for gender balance. I am confident that our work over the course of 2014-2019 gives us a strong grounding to move forward now and build on the measures already implemented in order to ensure full equality. I believe that significant progress has been made regarding the visibility of women. It was a particular highlight to have been able to personally award Ms María Andrés Marín, Head of the EP Liaison Office in Madrid (DG COMM), the inaugural Simone Veil Award for Equality and Diversity for her initiative to increase the visibility of women in debates and committees, which helps to better reflect the make-up of Europe. One of the HLG’s priorities for 2018, which will continue to have great importance in years to come, has been the assurance of a safe and inclusive working environment for all staff. Eradicating all kinds of harassment within the European Parliament is essential to this aim; it is with this in mind that we have reviewed the current procedure for reporting harassment. In particular, the Rules of Procedure will see a ‘Code of Appropriate Conduct in the Workplace for Members of the European Parliament’ added, and any member who does not sign a declaration of compliance will not be able to assume position as an office- holder for Parliament. In addition, the 2017-2019 roadmap on ‘Preventive and early support measures to deal with conflict and harassment between Members and APAs, Trainees or other staff’ recommends training for MEPs and staff, and establishes a task force of independent, external experts to examine the situation of sexual harassment in the European Parliament and the functioning of its two harassment committees. Furthermore, on the 28th November 2018, the HLG held a hearing with experts alongside the Advisory Committee on Harassment on combatting harassment in the workplace and its psychological impact. In addition, the HLG has striven to promote gender equality in all aspects of the European Parliament, including the implementation of gender-neutral language in its publications and providing language-specific guidance on gender-neutral language in each of the Community’s languages. Looking to 2019, our next tasks are to follow up on the proportion of women in all management positions within the Secretariat. As set out in the Papadimoulis report, we aim towards women occupying 40% of Head of Unit, 35% of Director and 30% of Director General positions, with a minimum requirement of 30% of women in these roles2. In addition to targeted actions, I am also proud to outline the HLG’s commitment to identifying cross cutting measures, which aim to eliminate discrimination based upon disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity and race. All of these characteristics significantly intersect with equality of women and promote a safe, inclusive workplace that benefits the general wellbeing of all staff within the European Parliament’s Secretariat. Significant progress has been made to ensure that the European Parliament’s Secretariat is an egalitarian and safe workplace that is free from discrimination, but we are aware of the work that is yet to be done. International Women’s Day reminds us that gender equality is not a finished project, that we must not become complacent, and that our women colleagues deserve our continued efforts.