Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee: Election of the new Chair and Vice-Chairs
On Tuesday, Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) elected Robert Biedroń (S&D, PL) as Chair for the second half of the legislature.
Robert Biedroń (S&D, PL) was elected as Chair by acclamation during the first meeting of 2022, held on Tuesday. MEPs elected Eugenia Rodríguez Palop (The Left, ES), Sylwia Spurek (Greens/EFA, PL), Elissavet Vozemberg-Vrionidi (EPP, EL) and Radka Maxová (S&D, CZ) as Vice-Chairs.
Robert Biedroń was elected MEP in 2019. For the past two and a half years, he was Vice-Chair of the FEMM Committee. The previous Chair, Evelyn Regner (S&D, AT), was elected as Vice-President of the Parliament on 18 January 2022.
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After his election, Robert Biedroń said: ‘‘First of all, I want to thank Evelyn for being a great Chair and an inspiration for me and many of us. A Chair who showed us how to be a leader. I want to assure you that I want to continue the great work done by Evelyn and keep this committee as a great space of dialogue and cooperation between different political groups. My main priorities will be to tackle the issue of violence against women, to help close the gender pay gap, to have the Istanbul Convention ratified and to work on the unblocking of the Women on Boards Directive. I would like to conclude by reminding what former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said: ‘There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women’. I would add this: there is also a special place in hell for men who don’t support this fight!’’
Background
The Chair presides over committee and coordinators’ meetings, represents the committee both within and outside the European Parliament and presides legislative negotiations led by the committee. Furthermore, the Chair has authority over voting procedures and rules on the admissibility of amendments.
Committee Chair and Vice-Chairs form the Bureau, which is responsible for their respective committee’s functioning. The committee Bureau holds office for two and a half years (half of the legislature).