WUNRN
European Women's Lobby - EWL
EU PROGRAMME ON GENDER EQUALITY
REQUIRES SPECIFIC, PREDICTABLE FUNDING - EWL
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Read the EWL’s statement on the
proposed funding programmes in the field of Justice here.
The European Commission on 15
November proposed that, from 2014 to 2020, EU activities to promote equality
between women and men and fight violence against women will be financed through
a programme called ‘Rights and Citizenship’, one of the two new funding programmes
in the field of Justice. The programme will merge three current programmes: the
gender equality and anti-discrimination sections of the Progress programme, the
DAPHNE III programme to combat violence against women, children and young
people, and the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship programme.
The EWL welcomes the fact that
activities to promote gender equality and combat violence against women will
after 2014 be funded through the same EU programme and that the proposal
acknowledges the need to support European NGO networks. However, the EWL is
concerned that the proposal as it stands may weaken the EU’s ability to promote
equality between women and men and combat violence against women with specific,
predictable funding and thus undermine its long-standing commitment to this
goal.
According to the EWL’s analysis,
the proposal has several weaknesses:
The Commission’s proposal will
now be discussed by the European Parliament and the
The EWL calls on the Members of
the European Parliament and the Council to amend the proposal for the Rigths
and Citizenship Programme. Equality between women and men and combating
violence agaist women must be made an independent policy objective of the
programme and this objective must receive a specific, sustainable funding.