European Parliament Alerts from the Women's Rights and Gender Equality committee

Highlights - The digital gender gap: causes and potential solutions – New Study - Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality 28-03-2018 04:45 PM CEST The study on "The underlying causes of the digital gender gap and possible solutions for enhanced digital inclusion of women and girls" attempts to reveal the links between the different factors (access, skills, socio-economic and cultural), which prevent women from having equal access to digital technology. It then suggests ways of dealing with online and offline inequalities to the effect of closing the digital gender gap and improving women's and girls' digital inclusion and future technology-related career paths. Further information Link to the study Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP Highlights - Visit of Commissioner Věra Jourová- Exchange of views- 27.3.2018 - Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality 28-03-2018 04:41 PM CEST FEMM hosted an exchange of views with Commissioner Jourová. The event brought FEMM MEPs the opportunity to discuss with the Commissioner on Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality about the main topics related to women's rights under the Commissioner's portfolio. The New Action Plan on Tackling the Gender Pay Gap was one of the main subjects of the exchange of views as well as the situation of the Work-Life Balance Package. Both topics, along with the elimination of violence against women (especially the state of play of the EU accession to the Istanbul Convention) and the promotion of women in decision-making roles, are the cornerstones of a comprehensive women's empowerment agenda. Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP Highlights - Union Civil Protection Mechanism – Vote – 27.3.2018 - Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality 28-03-2018 04:31 PM CEST The Commission has the intention to redeploy funding from the existing programmes including the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) programme in 2019 and 2020 to the benefit of the extension of the Civil Protection mechanism. The programmes on gender equality and violence against women (Daphne) come from the REC programme. In fact last years' implementation rate of the REC is more than 99% and FEMM has repeatedly called for an increase in those funds. For all these reasons, the opinion, whose rapporteur is Ms Angelika MLINAR (ALDE, Austria), is strongly against the deployment at expense of REC programme. It also introduces amendments to mainstream gender in the Civil Protection Mechanism. 15 amendments were adopted. Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP Highlights - Work-life balance for parents and carers - Consideration of draft opinion – 27.3.2018 - Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality 28-03-2018 04:30 PM CEST The rapporteur, Ms Agnieszka Kozłowska-Rajewicz (EPP, Poland ) focuses on the objective of the Directive to increase women's employment and to well reflect its legal basis. Two crucial pillars of the proposal which the rapporteur considers fundamental for achieving these objectives are: non-transferability of parental leave and sick pay level of compensation during leaves. The rapporteur introduces several modifications with the intention of making the proposal responsive to the demands of the EU economies. Several amendments aim to reflect the concern for the functioning of micro, small and medium-sized companies. Better clarity and the need for clear notice periods as well as qualifying periods for the leaves and for flexible working arrangements are requested by the rapporteur. Further information Link to the Commission's proposal Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP Highlights - Modernisation of Education in the EU – Vote – 27.03.2018 - Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality 28-03-2018 03:02 PM CEST The opinion to the CULT draft report, whose rapporteur is Ms Michaela Šojdrová (EPP, Czech Republic), focuses on the gender aspect of the education reform, pointing out the gap between female graduates of sciences and technologies and their presence in the labour market, and points to the importance of the balanced representation of women and men on boards of schools, universities and research institutes. The draft CULT report responds to the Commission initiatives addressing schools, higher education and graduate tracking, which are part of the ''New Skills Agenda for Europe" (see links below). The opinion was adopted by 24 votes in favour to 2 votes against with 3 abstentions. Further information Link to the Proposal for a Council Recommendation on tracking graduates Link to the Communication on a renewed EU agenda for higher education Link to the Communication on School development and excellent teaching for a great start in life Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP Latest news - Next FEMM Committee meetings - Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality 28-03-2018 02:41 PM CEST The next Committee meeting will be held on: Thursday 12 April March 2018 from 9.00 to 11.30 in room ASP 5G-3, Brussels All the meetings are broadcast live and recorded unless otherwise indicated. Further information Calendar 2018 FEMM latest press releases Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP QUESTIONS? 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