European Union
The UK actively engages with the European Union and related EU
initiatives on gender equality, including through its membership on
the European Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for women
and men. It engages with various EU institutions, including the
European Commission and the Council of the European Union to
contribute to the development of common standards and regulations,
and attempts to ensure that UK interests and best practices related
to gender equality are reflected. The EU/International Team works
to promote the implementation of the European Commission’s Roadmap
for Equality between Women and Men (2006-2010) within the UK and
provides input into negotiations on gender-related Directives and
Treaties through the Social Questions Working Group and the related
Council on Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs
(EPSCO). The EU/International team also supports the UK Minister
for Women’s participation in periodic meetings of Gender and
Equality Ministers where gender and equality priorities are
discussed, and contributes to the EU High-level Group on Gender
Mainstreaming.
Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men
2006-2010
The European Commission’s Roadmap for
Equality between Women and Men (2006-2010) aims to promote
gender equality throughout the EU. The Roadmap identifies six
priority areas for EU action on gender equality sets objectives and
key actions for each:
- equal economic independence for women and men
- reconciliation of private and professional life
- equal representation in decision-making
- eradication of all forms of gender-based violence
- elimination of gender stereotypes, and
- promotion of gender equality in external and development
policies.
The EU/International Team works towards the UK
commitments to implement the Roadmap and coordinates
cross-governmental reporting on the UK’s progress.
The EU High-level Group on Gender
Mainstreaming
The EU High-level Group on Gender
Mainstreaming is comprised of senior officials from EU Member
States with responsibility for gender mainstreaming. The High-level
group meets twice a year and provides an important informal forum
for discussion and for the exchange of information on best practice
and experience in order to support and improve the synergy among
national policies on gender equality and strategies for gender
mainstreaming at national level. The EU/International Team
supports the UK’s engagement in this group and leads on
coordinating follow up to the priorities identified.
The European Institute for Gender
Equality
The newly established European Institute for
Gender Equality aims to support the integration of gender equality
into all Community policies and resulting national policies and to
raise EU citizens' awareness of gender equality by providing
technical assistance to the Community institutions, in particular
the European Commission and the authorities of the Member States,
for the collection, analysis and dissemination of objective,
reliable and comparable information and data on equality between
men and women.
The Gender Equality Institute management board
is composed of 10 representatives of EU member states and
membership of the board is on a rotating basis lasting for three
years. The EU/International Gender and Diversity
Team will be directly involved in finding a suitable
candidate to represent the UK on the management board in 2010. We
will also further establish links between the institute and GEO’s
research team with the objective of providing high value
data.
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