European Union equality policy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The equality policy of the European Union includes regulations, directives , as well as support and promotion measures of the EU, which have the goal of gender equality .

In terms of gender equality policy, the EU pursues a holistic approach, in which equality is to be implemented and anchored institutionally as a cross-sectional objective in all policy fields at all levels (political, social and economic).

History of EU equality policy

1957–1970: the Rome Treaties and the ECJ as the main actors

Treaty of Rome, signed by Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands on March 25th and entered into force on January 1st, 1958. These include the founding treaty of the European Economic Community, which marks the beginning of an equality policy in the EU.

In the EEC Treaty , the principle of equal pay for equal work was laid down for the first time in Article 119 (now Article 157 in the Lisbon Treaty ). The interest in equality was primarily due to economic reasons, as France in particular feared distortion of competition due to low-paid female workers. France is the only country in the EEC at the time with provisions for equal pay for men and women. So right from the start the question of equality in the European Economic Community turned into an economic question.

The implementation should take place by December 31, 1961, but failed, which in 1962 led to a warning from the European Parliament. The date of implementation was postponed to the end of 1964.

In 1968 the first case of gender discrimination in the workplace was brought before the European Court of Justice . The ECJ was the main actor at the time, shaping gender equality laws and developing the concept of direct and indirect discrimination.

1970–1980: The guidelines for equality policy

As early as 1973 began the ten-year elaboration of directives on equality policy, which were based on Article 119 of the EEC Treaty. These directives turned out to be the backbone of gender equality in the EU, as member states were forced to implement entire sets of laws that guarantee equal treatment in the labor market.

In 1976, the “Directorate-General for Employment and Labor Market” (today: “Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities”) set up an equal opportunities unit. The focus of his tasks was to improve the position of women in professional life.

As before, individual members of the commission and women's organizations at national and European level, with the ECJ behind them, put pressure on the implementation of the guidelines.

1980–1990: civil rights organizations and the first action programs

More and more women were involved in the decision-making process of European politics. In 1980 the Commission set positive targets in its own employee policy and the number of female members in the European Parliament increased.

In 1981 the European Commission set up an advisory committee on equal opportunities for women and men to finance research and to establish European networks of gender experts. In the same year the European Parliament set up its own women's rights committee as a supervisory body that collects and collects data on the living conditions of women across Europe.

Civil rights organizations formed and changed and feminist researchers organized themselves internationally with financial support from the Commission in groups such as CREW (Center of Research on European Women), WISE (Women in Science Europe), AIOFE (Association of Institutions for Feminist Education), and ATHENA (Advanced Thematic Network in European Women's Studies) (today: ArtGender).

In 1982 the first medium-term action program to promote equal opportunities for women was adopted, which was set up until 1985 and whose main task was to monitor the implementation of the guidelines in the member states. New legislative proposals on gender equality should also be prepared. The first action program focused for the first time at European level not only on the pay gap between women and men, but also on the various causes of inequality and on the promotion of women in politics.

In 1984 the Committee on Women's Rights was established in Parliament and has been an important body ever since.

In the second medium-term action program (1986–1990), networks of experts were founded that explicitly dealt with equality in the workplace and the guidelines for equality policy. It became clear that the causes of the unequal treatment of women in the workplace are related to many other areas and so in the second action program additional fields of expertise such as banking, business, technology, broadcasting, child care, family life etc. also emerged from the action program the largest umbrella organizations of national women's organizations: the European Women's Lobby (EWL), in German: European Women's Lobby (EFL).

1990–2005: Gender Mainstreaming and the Amsterdam Treaty

The third action program (1991–1995) set itself the goal of promoting equal opportunities not only in business, but also in social life. In addition, the Commission created the transnational program “New Opportunities for Women” (NOW), which made gender equality policy more visible, but also attracted criticism because it was limited to women in the labor market and thus the progress made in expanding gender equality policy to others Areas undermined.

In the nineties, feminist theories received increasing public attention and the concept of gender and, above all, gender mainstreaming also gained in importance at the European level.

In 1994 the Council of Europe set up a Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men (CDEG), which for the first time takes up gender mainstreaming as a concept at the level of the Council of Europe . Gender mainstreaming was also presented as a new political strategy at the fourth UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.

In 1996 the European Commission committed itself to the strategy of gender mainstreaming in the communication “Integrating equal opportunities into all policies and measures of the Community”.

Gender mainstreaming also became a central theme in the fourth medium-term action program (1996–2000). Equal opportunities were thus understood as a cross-sectional task and the scope and influence of gender mainstreaming was expanded to national, regional and local levels.

On May 1, 1999, the Amsterdam Treaty came into force. It was passed in 1997 and made the gender mainstreaming strategy legally binding at EU level. In addition, articles 2, 3 and 13 enshrine equality in law and prohibit discrimination outside of the labor market. The Amsterdam Treaty is widely seen as a milestone in gender equality policy because it opened up new opportunities for the European Commission.

The fifth action program was adopted in 2001, lasted until 2005 and no longer consisted only of the usual operational action program, but also of a “framework strategy for equality between women and men for the period 2001-2005”, in which, in addition to positive measures, the Changing structures and effectively promoting gender equality inside and outside the Commission is named as an objective.

2005 to date: The Lisbon Treaty and controversial action programs

In 2006, the Council and the European Parliament agreed on the establishment of the European Institute for Gender Equality (ger .: "European Institute for Gender Equality", in short EIGE), which in 2010 began its work and is responsible for the coordination of European gender equality policy.

The action program “Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men” ran from 2006 to 2010.

In 2009 the Lisbon Treaty came into force and ensured the legally binding nature of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, but deleted the term “equal opportunities” from the names of all Commission offices. From 2010 to 2015 the sequel was adopted: "Strategy for equality between women and men."

Critics see both action programs and their names (“equality between women and men” instead of “gender equality”) and the fact that the term “equal opportunities” has been deleted as signs of a decline in gender equality. In December 2015, however, the word “gender” was used again in the “Binding Strategy for Gender Equality 2016–219” (English: “Strategic engagement for gender equality 2016-2019”).

The five main goals:

  • To increase the proportion of women in the labor market and to achieve equal economic independence for women
  • To reduce the gender pay, earnings and pensions gap and thus to fight poverty among women
  • Promote equality between the sexes in participatory decision-making
  • Combat gender-based violence; Protect and support victims
  • Promote gender equality and women's rights around the world.

Roadmap for equality between women and men 2006-2010

The Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men 2006-2010 took up existing areas of action and proposed new areas of action. A total of six key areas of action are planned in the timetable:

  1. equal economic independence for women and men,
  2. Work-life balance,
  3. balanced representation in decision-making processes,
  4. Elimination of all forms of gender-based violence,
  5. Elimination of gender stereotypes,
  6. Promotion of equality in foreign and development policy.

Among other things, it was proposed to support the establishment of a new European Institute for Gender Equality with a budget of 50 million euros .

The EU Commission adopted the Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men 2006–2010 in March 2006 and committed itself to “reviewing the existing EU legislation on equality, which was not revised in 2005, in order to update it if necessary modernize and revise ”. In this context, there are efforts to revise the Parental Leave Directive and the proposal to reform the Maternity Protection Directive .

The roadmap builds on the previous framework strategy for equality between women and men for the period 2001-2005 .

EU equality policy and gender mainstreaming

With the inclusion of the principle of reviewing all political activities of the EU with a view to eliminating inequalities and promoting equality between men and women in Art. 3 (2) of the EC Treaty through the Treaty of Amsterdam , the EU played a pioneering role in the implementation of the gender mainstreaming concept .

The Council of Europe on Gender Mainstreaming:

"Gender mainstreaming is the (re) organization, improvement, development and evaluation of policy processes, so that a gender equality perspective is incorporated in all policies at all levels and at all stages, by the actors normally involved in policy-making."

According to the European Commission, gender mainstreaming means “that the gender perspective is taken into account in all phases of the political process - planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The aim is to promote equality between women and men. According to the gender mainstreaming concept, political measures must always be examined to determine how they affect the living conditions of women and men and, if necessary, reconsidered. Only in this way can gender equality become a reality in the lives of women and men. All people - within organizations and communities - must be given the opportunity to make their contribution to the development of a common vision of sustainable human development and to the realization of this vision. "

Gender equality policy and EU enlargement

During the first enlargement in 1973 there were no criteria for admission to the EEC and Denmark, Ireland and Great Britain could join without major problems, Greece (accession in 1981), Spain and Portugal (accession in 1986) already had to meet requirements. They were obliged to implement the acquis communautaire, which consists of the EU treaty and regulations and directives. The actual implementation took place only partially.

In 1993 the European Council decided on the Copenhagen criteria, which the candidate countries must meet. They consist of the political criterion, the economic criterion and the acquis criterion and must be fulfilled at the latest when the negotiations are concluded, i.e. before actual accession. Gender equality policy falls under the political criterion that includes “institutional stability, democratic and constitutional order, respect for human rights and respect for and protection of minorities”.

For the EU, the accession of Sweden and Finland in 1995 meant that feminist politicians took up key positions in the EU institutions and that the proportion of women in the European Parliament increased.

In 1997 it was decided in Luxembourg that all candidate states are obliged to inform the European Commission of all developments in the areas identified by the EU. Before joining, they have to meet a considerable amount of directives. On the one hand, this means that national law must be aligned. On the other hand, it means that it must also be practiced and accepted.

Example Turkey

For Turkey, which applied for membership in 1987, joining the EU is becoming increasingly difficult. The EU has signaled that the only decisive factor in the accession negotiations is the political criterion that has not yet been sufficiently fulfilled. Under pressure from individual parliamentarians, academics and women's rights organizations, changes have already been made, e.g. B. in divorce law, in labor law (parental leave) and in criminal law (honor killings, rape). Even the constitution has been amended and expanded.

However, from the EU's point of view there are still enough shortcomings in terms of torture, government control over the military, the imprisonment of activists, scientists and journalists and the overriding of decisions by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Also, taking virginity tests is still legal by court order.

Using Turkey as an example, it can be shown how EU policy can positively change domestic policy and legislation in a country, but how the Commission also assumes a great deal of responsibility and interferes when it comes to decisions about the policy and legal system of other countries.

While Greece was promised membership in 1981 on the grounds that this would consolidate democratic practice and anchor the country in the Western alliance, Turkey was not allowed to join. Critical voices suspect hidden prejudices against Turkey and accuse the European Commission of undermining the sovereignty of the state.

Case law of the European Court of Justice

The European Court of Justice has started from the contractual and secondary legislation early to develop a comprehensive law on gender equality. One of the outstanding examples of the influence of the ECJ case law is the "Kreil" case (Case C-285/98): With its judgment of January 11, 2000, the Court of Justice declared the provision in Art. 12a GG to be compatible with the EU Quite incompatible, according to which women in the Bundeswehr were under no circumstances allowed to serve with weapons. This is a prohibited unequal treatment. The disputed provision has since been deleted from the Basic Law; Since then, women have generally had access to all functions in the Bundeswehr.

See also

literature

  • Ilona Ostner , Jane Lewis: Gender politics between European and national regulation . In: Stephan Leibfried, Paul Pierson (Ed.): Location Europe. Social policy between the nation state and European integration . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 1998, p. 196-239 (Original 1995, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution).
  • Ahrends, Petra (2014): The Sound of Silence - Institutionalizing Gender Equality Policy in the European Union. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, pp. 33–44.
  • Galligan, Yvonne and Sara Clavero (2012), Gendering Enlargment of the EU, in: Abels, Gabriele / Mushaben, Joyce M. (eds.) Gendering the European Union. New Ap-proaches to Old Democratic Deficits. Houndsmill, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 104-122.
  • Hoskyns, Catherine (2004): Gender Perspectives. In: Wiener, Antje and Diez, Thomas (eds.), European Integration Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 217–236.
  • Locher, Birgit (2012): Gendering the EU Policy Process and Constructing the Gender Aquis. In: Abels, Gabriele / Mushaben, Joyce M. (eds.) Gendering the European Union. New Approaches to Old Democratic Deficits. Houndsmill, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 63-84.
  • Lombardo, Emanuela and Petra Meier (2006): Gender Mainstreaming in the EU. Incorporating a Feminist Reading? European Journal of Women's Studies Vol.13 (2): pp. 151–166.
  • Marshall-Aldikacti, Gül (2008), Preparing for EU Membership: Gender Policies in Turkey, in: Silke Roth (ed.), Gender Politics in the Expanding European Union. Mobilization, inclusion, exclusion. New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 195-210.
  • Pimminger, Irene (2014): The journey is not the goal: What does equality mean? in: Agency for Equality in the ESF (ed.), Gender Mainstreaming in the European Social Fund. Goals, methods, perspectives. Magdeburg: docupoint, pp. 26–45.
  • van der Vleuten, Anna (2012): Gendering the Institutions and Actors of the EU. In: Abels, Gabriele / Mushaben, Joyce M. (eds.) Gendering the European Union. New Approaches to Old Democratic Deficits. Houndsmill, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 41-62.
  • Woodward, Alison E. (2004): Velvet Triangles: Gender and Informal Governance. In: Thomas Christiansen and Simona Piattoni (eds.) Informal Governance and the European Union. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 76-93.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Text of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community in the first version dated March 25, 1957. Accessed on October 1, 2018 (English).
  2. Irene Pimminger: The journey is not the goal: What does equality mean? In: Agency for Equality in the ESF (Ed.): Gender Mainstreaming in the European Social Fund. Goals, methods, perspectives. docupoint, Magdeburg 2014, p. 26-45 .
  3. Ulrike Jäger: The gender equality policy in the European Union. In: ifo Schnelldienst 19/2008 - 61st year. 2008, accessed October 1, 2018 .
  4. Incorporation of equal opportunities for women and men into the political concepts of the community. Retrieved October 1, 2018 .
  5. ^ Commission of the European Communities: Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Towards a Community Framework Strategy on Gender Equality (2001–2005). June 7, 2000, accessed October 1, 2018 .
  6. Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men (2006-2010). In: EUR-Lex - Access to European Union Law. Retrieved October 1, 2018 .
  7. ^ European Commission: Strategy for Equality between Women and Men 2010-2015. European Commission, accessed October 1, 2018 .
  8. A Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men 2006–2010 {SEC (2006) 275}. (PDF) In: Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Commission of the European Communities, March 1, 2006, accessed December 13, 2008 .
  9. Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 92/85 / EEC… COM (2008) 637 final; Council doc. 13983/08 (PDF), accessed on May 2, 2009 , p. 2.
  10. ^ Council of Europe: Gender Meinstreaming - Conceptual framework, methodology and presentation of good practices. In: http://www.gendermainstreaming-planungstool.at . Coucil of Europe, 1998, accessed October 1, 2018 .
  11. GenderKompetenzZentrum: The story (s) of gender mainstreaming. In: GenderKompetenzZentrum. Retrieved October 1, 2018 .
  12. ^ Yvonne Galligan, Sara Clavero: Gendering Enlargment of the EU . In: Gabriele Abels, Joyce M. Mushaben (Ed.): Gendering the European Union. New Ap-proaches to Old Democratic Deficits . Palgrave Macmilla, New York 2012, pp. 113 .
  13. ^ Catherine Hoskyns: Integrating Gender: Women, Law and Politics in the European Union . 1996.
  14. ^ Gül Marshall-Aldikacti: Preparing for EU Membership: Gender Policies in Turkey . In: Silke Roth (Ed.): Gender Politics in the Expanding European Union. Mobilization, inclusion, exclusion . Berghahn Books, New York 2008, pp. 209 .