The European Women’s Lobby questions the defence of women’s rights and their representation in the new European Parliament.
The European Parliament elected in June is the first to see the representation of women decreaseThe question is whether this reduction has an impact on the distribution of the presidencies and vice-presidencies of the various committees.
The European Women’s Lobby points out that these seats are mainly occupied by men.
“The portfolios that count, what we call strong portfolios, where we have money, where we have power, like Foreign Affairs for example, the Budget, the Economy are generally entrusted to men, who head the committees.“, says Jéromine Andolfatto of the European Women’s Lobby.
“So unfortunately this is still a reality with regard to the presence of women in the presidency, vice-presidency, etc.”
According to Jéromine Andolfatto, this imbalance of representation is not linked to the progress of the extreme right during the election. She also questions the commitment of the newly elected populist ranks to defend women’s rights.
“What is a bit worrying is that the far-right parties or groups in the European Parliament have quite a significant representation of women in some of them. But these groups are not known for supporting women’s rights. They are rather hostile to women’s rights.” she assures.
“So this is a new challenge for us in the sense that we will have to identify who will support us, who will defend women’s rights.“.
This issue of gender equality also concerns the European Commission. The president of the institution, Ursula von der Leyen, hopes to achieve parity within her team and is urging the member states to do so.