Gender in the EU’s foreign policies: expectations for the next European Commission

Description

This event is part of a series addressing the most urgent challenges and opportunities for promoting gender equality, diversity, and feminist-inspired policies, co-hosted by ODI Europe and UN Women in Brussels throughout 2024.

As a new European Commission starts, this event will focus on key priorities and challenges related to Europe’s global leadership in advancing gender equality, as well as safeguarding and promoting feminist-inspired foreign policies at national, EU, and global levels.

Europe has increasingly established itself as a global leader in advancing gender equality and shaping gender norms, particularly through the promotion of shared values such as democracy, inclusion, non-discrimination, and universal human rights – both within the Union and beyond. Gender equality and women’s empowerment have been core objectives of EU external action, as outlined in the Gender Action Plan 2020–2025 (GAP III), and several EU member states have adopted a Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) in the past decade (e.g., Sweden, Germany, Spain, France), although some of them decided to drop FFP following a change of government.

Europe has recently faced numerous challenges and crises, turning its focus towards building security, economic resilience, and global competitiveness, among other priorities. The global context has also been marked by a rising backlash against gender equality and democracy, making Europe’s role in defending human rights and leading by example more urgent and important than ever.

It is crucial to keep gender equality on the agenda, adopting a coherent approach across all policy areas. Not only are gender equality and women’s empowerment core objectives of EU external action, but they are also vital means of achieving durable peace, prosperity, and security, strengthening democracy, and consolidating the EU’s leadership in a world increasingly shaped by difficult geopolitical dynamics.

Bringing in best practices from the EU and globally, while examining successes and challenges from the previous term, this event aims to provide a space to assess how the EU can remain a key actor in protecting and advancing gender equality and women’s rights. It will be essential to evaluate how emerging challenges can be integrated into existing frameworks and action plans in order to future-proof and safeguard the gender equality acquis beyond 2025, both internally and externally.

Gathering representatives from EU institutions, governments, international organisations, field experts, think tanks, and civil society, the event will serve as a forward-looking exercise to reflect on the present and future of feminist-inspired external action, outlining a set of priorities for advancing the agreed gender equality commitments.

Speakers

Carlien Scheele
Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)

Chiara Adamo
Head of the Human Rights, Gender and Democratic Governance unit, DG INTPA, European Commission

Dr Caroline Harper
Director, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion at ODI Global

Florence Raes, moderator
Director of UN Women Brussels

H.E. Rogelio Granguillhome Morfin
Ambassador of Mexico to the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Head of Mission of Mexico to the EU

Dora Meredith
Director of ODI Europe