Verbatim report of proceedings

Tuesday, 8 March 2022 - Strasbourg

EU Gender Action Plan III (debate)

  Alexandra Geese, rapporteur for the opinion of the Committee on Budgets. – Mr President, on International Women’s Day, many people seem to know what women really need, but the answer is very easy. They need equal access to power, but also to money. And the good news is that the EU Gender Action Plan for external action is a very good step in the right direction.

Eighty-five per cent of all new actions need to incorporate gender as a significant or principal objective. Twenty per cent of ODA must be allocated to gender equality. We have gender-disaggregated data collection, gender budgeting, a system for tracking, monitoring and evaluating EU expenditure, gender impact assessment, gender parity in management positions. This is what we do in external action because we know that it works, because there’s ample evidence to prove that the economic, social and ecological outcome is better when women take the decisions.

But what works for countries outside the EU would also work in Europe. So why can’t we have the same high standards also in the EU? It is high time.