EUobserver takes a deep dive into the workings and new chairs of every single European Parliament committee for the new 2024-2029 session, in a series of articles first published in our print magazine of October 2024
As gender equality continues to face a growing backlash, particularly from far-right groups which now have a far greater number of MEPs in the 2024-2029 parliament, the EU must continue to tackle the democratic deficit when it comes to women’s rights, the chair committee on women's rights and gender equality Lina Gálvez Muñoz (S&D, Spain) told EUobserver.
“The far-right places anti-feminism, anti-gender politics, and opposition to LGTBQ+ rights at the core of its agenda, [and] they now hold a larger presence and influence in the European Parliament. [But] failing to prioritise gender equality is a mistake we simply cannot afford,” the social democrat said.
Gálvez Muñoz added that more work needs to be done when it comes to sexual and reproductive health rights in the EU — which is still “a deeply sensitive topic” in many countries. “As with gender equality, these rights are heavily attacked by the far-right,” she said, referring to abortion rights and the opportunity for women to choose their preferred methods of family planning and contraception.
“More equal societies will bring stronger democracies,” she also said, arguing that gender mainstreaming must be integrated into all policies, programmes, and funding mechanisms to achieve true gender equality. “We are still far from this goal”.
In 2020, the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) projected that it would take over 60 years to achieve full gender equality across the EU — highlighting the slow pace of progress, despite decades of legal advances and policy initiatives aimed at closing the gender gap.
The EU pay transparency directive, which aims to ensure equal pay for equal work, is to be implemented by EU member states in mid-2026. But with the ongoing green and digital transitions reshaping the labour market, Gálvez Muñoz argues that ensuring women aren’t left behind is also now a top concern.
“Evaluating these transitions and implementing targeted measures will be essential to closing the gender gap and ensuring that all available talent is on board,” she said.
In addition, Gálvez Muñoz argued that this next legislative term will focus it will be crucial to ensure the proper enforcement of EU laws on combating violence against women, where there are still pending tasks: guaranteeing that non-consensual sex is recognised as rape across the EU and making sure gender-based violence is classified as an offence across all EU member states.
The plan to classify all non-consensual sex as rape across the EU became tremendously controversial last year when member states rejected the proposal, claiming that the European Commission had overstepped its mandate. This decision not only reflected deep divisions among EU countries (since some, such as Belgium or Spain, already have national laws in place covering this issue) but also raised serious questions about the commitment of certain countries to effectively address sexual violence.
Meanwhile, advancing gender budgeting, gender-sensitive policy, and gender equality in terms of political representation will also be some of the priorities for Gálvez Muñoz’s committee.
“We need more disaggregated and gender-sensitive data to enable effective gender mainstreaming across all policy areas,” the 55-year-old Spanish politician said, adding this requires strengthening EIGE and establishing a gender-equality taskforce in all EU institutions’ departments.
In late summer, the likely composition of the new commission raised eyebrows, since there was initially a male-dominated list of commissioner-designates. This prompted EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, the first woman to hold the post, to push several countries to change their nominations.
“While the new commission has achieved near parity, the previous von der Leyen Commission had more women in key positions. Although efforts have been made to compensate for this by appointing women to powerful roles, the trend reflects a broader democratic deficit that we must not tolerate,” said Gálvez Muñoz — while pointing out that the current 2024-29 parliament itself has a slightly lower proportion of women than the previous one.
The coordinators are: Eleonora Meleti (EPP, Greece), Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus (S&D, Poland), Margarita de la Pisa Carrión (PfE, Spain), Laurence Trochu (ECR, France), Abir Al-Sahlani (Renew, Sweden), Melissa Camara (Greens, France), Irene Montero (Left, Spain), and Christine Anderson (ESN, Germany).
Elena is EUobserver's Managing Editor. She is from Spain and has studied journalism and new media in Spanish and Belgian universities. Previously she worked on European affairs at VoteWatch Europe and the Spanish news agency EFE.
Elena is EUobserver's Managing Editor. She is from Spain and has studied journalism and new media in Spanish and Belgian universities. Previously she worked on European affairs at VoteWatch Europe and the Spanish news agency EFE.