The European Parliament celebrates every year the International Women's Day with an event which gathers together European and national parliamentarians from the Committees for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men. In 2012 the event focused on the theme "Equal pay for work of equal value" and took place on Thursday, 8 March 2012 from 9.00 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. in the hemicycle of the European Parliament in Brussels.

The debate was preceded by a welcome speech by EP President Martin Schulz. During the event three discussion panels were foreseen, focusing on the following topics: "Segregation of the labour market as a factor of inequality" (first panel); "Closing the gender pay gap - Experiences and best practices from national Parliaments" (second panel) and "How can the EU support Member States in tackling the gender pay gap?" (third panel). This interparliamentary meeting provided the opportunity for European and national parliamentarians to share their experiences and best practices on the effectiveness of current measures to reduce the gender pay gap and on possible new initiatives to tackle its causes.

Related to this event, on Wednesday, 7 March 2012 from 19.00 the screening of the movie: "MADE IN DAGENHAM" followed by a debate took place in the European Parliament, Room JAN 4Q2, József Antall Building.