What changed between the plenary report and the adopted text

Changed:X.W. whereas almost 30 % of women in the EU work part-time; whereas women in the EU are much more likely to have to give up paid work to take care of children and/or other dependants and the unavailability, prohibitive costs and lack of high-quality childcare infrastructure and services, particularly in the public sphere, continue to be a significant barrier to the equal participation of women in all aspects of life, including work; whereas the International Labour Organization has emphasised the lack of public and private investment in childcare and other formal care services, and it stresses that long-standing unequal attitudes towards care activities at large push the economic and social cost of caregiving predominantly onto women; whereas unpaid care responsibilities keep around 7.77,7 million women in the EU from participating in the labour market and there is a large untapped potential in balancing the care sector for our economies, as highlighted by EIGE estimates that predict that the employment rate could increase to 80 % by 2050 if substantial improvements are made in gender equality80;equality; whereas according to Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey, 42 % of non-working carers are in the lowest income quartile (compared to 24 % of non-carers), 59 % of non-working carers have difficulty making ends meet (compared to 46 % of non-carers) and 80 % of care is provided by informal carers, predominantly women aged 45-75, which contributes to gender inequalities in terms of employment and income; whereas approximately one in four paid care workers is a migrant, many of whom face exploitation due to a lack of adequate regularisation pathways, which is especially relevant considering that about 9 out of 10 paid care workers are women;

Removed:Y. whereas the establishment of a care deal for Europe, minimum wages in the care sector and access to high quality, free public services would contribute to reducing poverty and closing the gender pay gap, pension gap and care gap;

Added:X. whereas in 2024, the CEDAW Committee issued general recommendation No. 40 on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems, and included, in the pillars of the recommendation, 50-50 parity between women and men. in all their diversity. in terms of equal access to and equal power within decision-making systems; whereas the percentage of seats held by women in national parliaments rose from 11,3 % in 1995 to only 27,2 % in 2025; whereas in the EU in 2025 only around a third of parliamentary seats are held by women; whereas, despite many policy and legislative initiatives, women are faced with structural, cultural and institutional barriers and research shows that they are under-represented at all levels of economic and political decision-making worldwide, including at the local and regional levels, and that the achievement of gender parity and representation in political life, as well as in the business sector – particularly within boards of directors – is a distant prospect that requires targeted action at all levels of governance;

Removed:Z. whereas in 2024, the CEDAW Committee issued general recommendation No. 40 on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems, and included, in the pillars of the recommendation, 50-50 parity between women and men. in all their diversity. in terms of equal access to and equal power within decision-making systems; whereas the percentage of seats held by women in national parliaments rose from 11.3 % in 1995 to only 27.2 % in 202581; whereas in the EU in 2025 only around a third of parliamentary seats are held by women82; whereas, despite many policy and legislative initiatives, women are faced with structural, cultural and institutional barriers and research shows that they are under-represented at all levels of economic and political decision-making worldwide, including at the local and regional levels, and that the achievement of gender parity and representation in political life, as well as in the business sector – particularly within boards of directors – is a distant prospect that requires targeted action at all levels of governance;

Added:Y. whereas the climate emergency and gender inequalities are interlinked and the climate crises perpetuates existing inequalities, including access to education and employment opportunities, access to and control over land and natural resources, and participation in decision-making spaces; whereas the harmful effects of climate change and ecosystem degradation are being borne disproportionately by women and girls, notably those in already marginalised situations, including Indigenous and other natural resource-dependent communities;

Removed:AA. whereas the climate emergency and gender inequalities are interlinked and the climate crises perpetuates existing inequalities, including access to education and employment opportunities, access to and control over land and natural resources, and participation in decision-making spaces83; whereas the harmful effects of climate change and ecosystem degradation are being borne disproportionately by women and girls, notably those in already marginalised situations, including Indigenous and other natural resource-dependent communities;

Added:Z. whereas the Union is facing multiple crises, including climate disasters, armed conflicts, pandemics and populism, the effects of which are gendered; whereas armed conflicts disproportionately impact women and girls, including through the rise in the use of GBV as a weapon of war, and have resulted in an overall deterioration of women's rights, with detrimental consequences for the full enjoyment of the human rights of women and girls globally; whereas, despite the WPS agenda being central to contemporary global peace and security challenges, women's participation and leadership in foreign policy, defence, security and peacebuilding is still lacking, to a largely unknown extent due to the shortage of data collection; whereas several projects have been developed with the aim of collecting comprehensive data, such as the #SHEcurity index, that can serve as good practices and examples for data collection at EU level; whereas women are continuously under-represented in peace negotiations and in 2022 they represented only 16 % of negotiators in active peace processes led or co-led by the United Nations; whereas including the gender perspective in the EU's foreign and security policy means acknowledging and combating the specific gender dimensions and impact of global phenomena such as climate change, migration, trade and security, as well as putting a focus on the experiences and needs of women and groups facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and marginalisation at the centre of policymaking; whereas the gender action plan (GAP) is the EU's ambitious strategy for contributing to the SDGs, in particular SDG 5, and accelerating progress on gender equality; whereas women's empowerment is a priority of all EU external policies and actions, having also played an active role in shaping the Agenda 2030; whereas the EU's external policies include a commitment to ensure that 85 % of all new programmes contribute to gender equality and women's empowerment; whereas such a commitment is currently missing from the EU's internal policies, including at Member State level, posing a risk of unequal progress towards gender equality within the EU;

Removed:AB. whereas the Union is facing multiple crises, including climate disasters, armed conflicts, pandemics and populism, the effects of which are gendered; whereas armed conflicts disproportionately impact women and girls, including through the rise in the use of GBV as a weapon of war84, and have resulted in an overall deterioration of women's rights, with detrimental consequences for the full enjoyment of the human rights of women and girls globally; whereas, despite the WPS agenda being central to contemporary global peace and security challenges, women's participation and leadership in foreign policy, defence, security and peacebuilding is still lacking, to a largely unknown extent due to the shortage of data collection; whereas several projects have been developed with the aim of collecting comprehensive data, such as the #SHEcurity index, that can serve as good practices and examples for data collection at EU level; whereas women are continuously under-represented in peace negotiations and in 2022 they represented only 16 % of negotiators in active peace processes led or co-led by the United Nations85; whereas including the gender perspective in the EU's foreign and security policy means acknowledging and combating the specific gender dimensions and impact of global phenomena such as climate change, migration, trade and security, as well as putting a focus on the experiences and needs of women and groups facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and marginalisation at the centre of policymaking; whereas the gender action plan (GAP) is the EU's ambitious strategy for contributing to the SDGs, in particular SDG 5, and accelerating progress on gender equality; whereas women's empowerment is a priority of all EU external policies and actions, having also played an active role in shaping the Agenda 2030; whereas the EU's external policies include a commitment to ensure that 85 % of all new programmes contribute to gender equality and women's empowerment; whereas such a commitment is currently missing from the EU's internal policies, including at Member State level, posing a risk of unequal progress towards gender equality within the EU;

Removed:AC. whereas gender equality, as one of the core values of the EU, needs to be reflected and promoted across all EU programmes, policies and activities, including in the delivery of their objectives; whereas gender equality is one of the four horizontal principles in the multiannual financial framework (MFF) 2021-2027, yet according to the European Court of Auditors, gender equality is the least well integrated horizontal priority in the EU's long-term budget86; whereas the current gender expenditure tracking methodology of the EU budget does not contain a category to capture budgetary interventions with a negative impact on gender equality; whereas EU gender budgeting has been applied primarily as a tracking mechanism, rather than being embedded throughout the entire budget cycle, from planning to evaluation; whereas this limits its transformative potential; whereas the implementation of the new post-2025 Gender Equality Strategy depends on the next MFF 2028-2034, which will therefore become a key vehicle for its execution; whereas there is a need to align the targets between the next MFF and the post-2025 Gender Equality Strategy;

Changed:10. Underlines that marginalised groups face a heightened risk of violence and that intersecting forms of discrimination intensify the effects of GBV and re-victimisation, including due to law enforcement practices;re-victimisation; calls on the Commission, therefore, to develop and, in cooperation with the Member States, implement mandatory, comprehensive training for all legal professionals, including judges and prosecutors, on issues related to GBV, intersectionality and victim support to ensure that legal professionals are adequately equipped to handle cases, both offline and online, in a gender sensitive and intersectional manner and to ensure that victims are not subject to secondary victimisation during legal proceedings;

Changed:36. Urges the Commission to actively promote women’s labour market entry and retention, take measures to reduce the employment gap, gender pay and pension gap and invest in lifelong learning programmes for women and girls; calls on the Commission to set EU-wide targets aimed at increasing women’s participation in the labour market, to be monitored within the framework of the European Semester;market; welcomes the EIGE’s analysis of the main barriers to women’s employment in Europe, including barriers to full-time employment, providing a foundation to Member States to address structural barriers to women’s employment; calls for structural reforms, with gender-responsive public investment and economic redistribution to address systemic gender inequalities; calls on the Commission to encourage the Member States to ensure women’s equal access to work with rights and decent wages, including through collective bargaining; calls on the Commission to encourage the Member States to take firm measures to sanction businesses that discriminate between men and women and fail to comply with labour legislation;

Changed:47. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to effectively address the horizontal and vertical segregation of the labour market as one of the main reasons for a persisting gender pay gap, including by targeting the ESF+ funds to support the combating of gender stereotypes in education and labour counselling, and promoting diversity charters and initiatives in the private and public sectors;

Changed:48. Calls on the Commission to make the upcoming anti-poverty strategy gender-responsive by putting a strong focus on women’s structural poverty; urges the Commission and the Member States to reinforce economic and social measures to tackle female poverty and women’s social exclusion, particularly with regard to access to decent and affordable housing, energy and transport; underlines that decent and affordable housing is a fundamental right to be protected and recognised as a precondition for the enjoyment of other fundamental rights; recalls that inequality in housing drives many women to live in undignified, unsafe situations, at risk of homelessness and violence; calls for the Commission to take this into account in its upcoming EU affordable housing plan and to pay specific attention to the housing needs of victims of GBV and adequate shelter capacities; stresses that access to social security and housing for all should be effectively safeguarded in Member States and calls on the Commission to promote it continuously; urges the Commission to continue the fight against menstrual poverty, which is the lack of adequate access to menstrual hygiene products and facilities, affecting an estimated 10 % of the menstruating population in the Union, and disproportionately affecting marginalised and vulnerable groups, limiting participation in social, educational and professional life; calls on the Commission to ensure access to free and accessible menstrual products and, as a first step, to initiate a review of Directive 2004/113/EC with the aim of removing VAT from menstrual products and eliminating unjustified price differences – often referred to as a ‘pink tax’ – that result in higher costs for healthcare products and services marketed to women;

Removed:59. Calls on the Commission to set specific quantitative targets under the European Care Deal, including a goal of dedicating at least 2 % of EU GDP to care services by 2030, with binding national objectives and regular monitoring to ensure progress towards accessible, affordable and publicly funded, high-quality care services, with specific attention paid to low-income households and single-parent families;

Added:59. Calls on the Commission to urge Member States to ensure the prompt and full transposition of the Work-Life Balance Directive and the measures it includes; further calls on the Commission to establish the robust enforcement, monitoring and annual reporting mechanisms envisaged in the directive and where necessary, to initiate infringement proceedings or other enforcement measures to secure full compliance and to allocate dedicated funding under the next MFF, and to propose a recommendation for EU-level quality standards for long-term care services, including staffing, training and quality assurance; calls on the Commission to review the Work-Life Balance Directive to ensure it is fit for purpose, to strengthen it by further developing and expanding maternity, paternity and shared parental care leave, and improving incentives for the second parent to take parental leave, further protecting parents and facilitating the combination of paid employment and caregiving responsibilities; urges the Commission to extend paid maternity and paternity leave periods across Member States, promote non-transferable parental leave, and adopt measures to redistribute caregiving responsibilities within households and between the state and families;

Removed:60. Calls on the Commission to urge Member States to ensure the prompt and full transposition of the Work-Life Balance Directive and the measures it includes; further calls on the Commission to establish the robust enforcement, monitoring and annual reporting mechanisms envisaged in the directive and where necessary, to initiate infringement proceedings or other enforcement measures to secure full compliance and to allocate dedicated funding under the next MFF, and to propose a recommendation for binding EU-level quality standards for long-term care services, including staffing, training and quality assurance; calls on the Commission to review the Work-Life Balance Directive to ensure it is fit for purpose, to strengthen it by further developing and expanding maternity, paternity and shared parental care leave, and improving incentives for the second parent to take parental leave, further protecting parents and facilitating the combination of paid employment and caregiving responsibilities; urges the Commission to extend paid maternity and paternity leave periods across Member States, promote non-transferable parental leave, and adopt measures to redistribute caregiving responsibilities within households and between the state and families;

Removed:Equal representation and political participation

Removed:64. Stresses that women remain significantly under-represented on all levels of political decision-making; urges the Commission to promote substantive gender equality, including by introducing permanent or temporary special measures to achieve 50:50 gender parity, such as legislative gender quotas and zipping-based lists, as well as monitoring mechanisms, for all elections including on local, regional, national and European level, in line with CEDAW general recommendation No.40 and to address all obstacles to gender equality, equal participation and representation in the political sphere;

Removed:65. Stresses that the European Parliament and College of Commissioners must serve as a role model in this regard and ensure that gender parity mechanisms are in place ahead of the 2029 European elections; urges the Commission to develop guidelines for Member States, the private sector and civil society to help establish gender equality targets and strategies including equal leadership opportunities;

Removed:67. Recalls that a just green transition is necessary to avoid severe future crises and increased poverty; recalls, furthermore, that the green transition will only be socially fair if it includes a gender perspective and guarantees equal opportunities for women and those experiencing intersectional discrimination as well as their meaningful inclusion in the policymaking process; calls, therefore, on the Commission to appoint an EU gender and climate coordinator with sufficient staff and funding, and to introduce gender impact assessments in all EU policies and legislation, in particular in European Green Deal initiatives;

Added:64. Underlines that foreign policy, security and defence should be understood in their broadest sense, through a human-centred approach, including social, educational, environmental and cultural dimensions, social and climate justice, all of which require strong democracies and equality, including gender equality; stresses the need to implement the Women, Peace and Security agenda as a core principal of the EU’s common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and reiterates that all CFSP-related financing must take this into account while acknowledging the broader aspects of security; calls on the Commission to take stock of the progress made in implementing the Women, Peace and Security agenda at EU level and present its conclusions to the Council and the European Parliament; urges the Commission to put forward, based on the stock-taking exercise, a follow-up Action Plan to the Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security 2019-2024, adapting and extending it to the changing nature of conflicts and new threats and presenting actions to achieve gender-balanced and gender-responsive leadership at EU decision-making levels; calls for the advancement of the implementation of UN Resolution 1325 through National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security (NAP 1325-IV) and calls on the Commission and the Member States to reinforce the recruitment, retention and advancement of women in national armed forces and civilian missions, and to integrate gender perspectives into security and defence policymaking, planning and implementation;

Removed:Feminist foreign policy

Removed:68. Calls on the Commission to promote and advance a feminist foreign, security, trade and development policy that gives priority to gender equality and protects women’s rights in line with the three ‘R’s (rights, representation and resources) and entails a gender transformative vision, putting the need to address unequal structures and power relations at its centre; highlights that such a policy must advocate for systemic changes and the dismantlement of systems of oppression, including colonialism, racism and patriarchy; calls on the Commission to put forward concrete Feminist Foreign Policy actions and measures to ensure equal and meaningful participation and leadership of women in foreign policy, defence and security, and conflict prevention, management and resolution, peace negotiations, as well as peacebuilding, peacekeeping and humanitarian response; calls on the Commission to develop a common tracking methodology for collecting data on women’s participation in these sectors; as studies show the success of Feminist Foreign Policy, given that peace agreements with women signatories have higher rates of implementation and last longer102; highlights the need to ensure that the EU leads by example and ensures a balanced gender representation in its external actions;

Removed:69. Underlines that foreign policy, security and defence should be understood in their broadest sense, through a human-centred approach, including social, educational, environmental and cultural dimensions, social and climate justice, all of which require strong democracies and equality, including gender equality; stresses the need to implement the Women, Peace and Security agenda as a core principal of the EU’s common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and reiterates that all CFSP-related financing must take this into account while acknowledging the broader aspects of security; calls on the Commission to take stock of the progress made in implementing the Women, Peace and Security agenda at EU level and present its conclusions to the Council and the European Parliament; urges the Commission to put forward, based on the stock-taking exercise, a follow-up Action Plan to the Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security 2019-2024, adapting and extending it to the changing nature of conflicts and new threats and presenting actions to achieve gender-balanced and gender-responsive leadership at all EU decision-making levels and sufficient in-house capacity to systemically integrate a holistic gender perspective and conduct gender analysis; calls for the advancement of the implementation of UN Resolution 1325 through National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security (NAP 1325-IV) and calls on the Commission and the Member States to reinforce the recruitment, retention and advancement of women in national armed forces and civilian missions, and to integrate gender perspectives into all phases of security and defence policymaking, planning and implementation;

Changed:72.67. Calls on the Commission to undertake another revision of the progress achieved in implementing the current Gender Action Plan (GAP III) and to continue to implement the mechanism to track the amount of EU funding for gender equality allocated and disbursed in partner countries and report on it through GAP III; urges the Commission to keep the pace and the level of ambition for the implementation of the plan high and calls on the Commission to start preparations for an ambitious Gender Action Plan post-2027 (GAP IV) to ensure its timely adoption, including by setting aside adequate funding for the implementation of the plan in the upcoming proposal for the 2028-2034 MFF; highlights that the key principles of GAP III – a human-rights based approach, including SRHR, intersectionality and a gender-transformative approach – should be an integral part of GAP IV and their concrete implementation should be strengthened; calls on the Commission to increase political and financial support for gender-equality initiatives and UN agencies such as UN Women and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), with a specific focus on the UNFPA Supply Partnership and to ensure that the next MFF contains strengthened gender equality targets in external actions with 85 % of all EU official development assistance (ODA) mainstreaming gender (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) marker G1) and 20 % of ODA dedicated to gender-targeted projects (OECD marker 2);Partnership;

Removed:73. Stresses that gender equality and SRHR must be an indivisible and non-negotiable pillar of the EU’s feminist foreign, development and external policy, including GAP IV, and calls on the Commission to ensure adequate, predictable and long-term funding for gender equality and SRHR initiatives, particularly in low-and-middle-income countries, including by ensuring access to SRHR for survivors of GBV, to emergency contraception, safe and legal abortion, post-abortion care and comprehensive high-quality obstetric, gynaecological, antenatal, childbirth and postnatal midwifery and newborn healthcare as well as post-exposure prophylaxis in all EU-funded humanitarian responses; by supporting feminist and grassroots movements, strengthening and partnering with women’s rights organisations and civil society organisations working on SRHR in all, but especially restrictive contexts, by advocating for the removal of legal and policy barriers that criminalise abortion, same-sex relations and gender-affirming healthcare and to ensure access to education, healthcare and economic opportunities; calls on the Commission to systematically integrate a feminist dimension into its response to international crisis and conflicts, including through the strict condemnation of the use of sexual and other GBV as a weapon of war and the mobilisation of dedicated funding to eradicate this crime;

Added:68. Calls on the Commission to establish a dedicated support service operating through EU Diplomatic Representations in third countries, with a specific mandate to provide support for women’s rights defenders and organisations globally in order to counter anti-gender movements; urges the Commission and the Member States to reaffirm their commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment globally and to increase funding for women’s organisations, especially in the Global South and in regions where gender equality is under attack so as to step into the gaps in development aid for women’s rights organisations that were caused by the cuts in aid from the US Agency for International Development (USAID);

Removed:74. Calls on the Commission to establish a dedicated support service operating through EU Diplomatic Representations in third countries, with a specific mandate to provide support for women’s rights defenders and organisations globally in order to counter anti-gender movements and to allocate targeted funding to Permanent Representations to enable them to effectively carry out this task; urges the Commission and the Member States to reaffirm their commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment globally and to increase funding for women’s organisations, especially in the Global South and in regions where gender equality is under attack so as to step into the gaps in development aid for women’s rights organisations that were caused by the cuts in aid from the US Agency for International Development (USAID);

Changed:78.72. Highlights with great concern the growth of the ‘manosphere’; underlines that algorithms used by social media platforms amplify extreme misogynistic content; urges the Commission to investigate and sanction VPLOs that do not fulfil their obligations to remove harmful content; urges the Commission to explore the growing divergence in attitudes between young men and women towards feminism and gender equality, to assess its societal consequences, particularly in online spaces, and to develop measures to address and counter the rise of misogynistic, far-right values among boys and young men concerning gender equality and women’s rights; calls therefore on the Commission to promote comprehensive, age appropriate sexuality and relationship education in schools, strengthen critical media literacy, counter gender misinformation and disinformation and address gender stereotypes; stresses the need for a deeper understanding of the incel phenomenon and ideology and emphasises the importance of prevention by more active policies to counter them and their narratives together with potential underlying mental health issues and security issues;

Removed:83. Reiterates that all efforts to achieve progress in gender equality must follow the principles of gender mainstreaming, ensuring that gender perspectives are integrated into all policies, actions and processes across all levels of governance, within the EU; calls on the Commission to recommit, to gender mainstreaming in all sectors, including in non-social sectors such as trade, energy, agriculture; calls on the Commission to mainstream gender equality in all EU migration and asylum policies with special focus on women, girls and LGBTIQ+ people, and to mitigate protection risks; calls on the Commission to continue to undertake a formal evaluation of the gender impact of EU financed programmes, including modalities such as budget support, and to report back to the European Parliament; stresses that this evaluation should be based on gender-disaggregated data and that its result should be integrated in future programming; reiterates the importance of financial resources for gender mainstreaming;

Removed:84. Calls on the Commission to ensure and strengthen the application of gender mainstreaming in its structures, methods and tools, and to ensure that the gender perspective is integrated into all of the Commission’s proposals, including all budgetary procedures;

Removed:85. Calls on the Commission to support the setting up of a gender-equality policy expert group to support the existing Commission task force on addressing the specific challenges that impact women’s quality of life and participation in society, foster collaboration and exchange of best practices, drive the women’s health, social, research and education agenda across the EU and meet the EU Treaty’s goal to eliminate inequalities and promote equality;

Removed:86. Calls on the Commission to ensure, in the framework of the next MFF, a gender-budgeting approach across all pillars, funding instruments and budget lines and to ensure that they all actively contribute to gender equality goals at all stages; urges the Commission to further develop the current ‘tracking-only’ stage into fully fledged gender budgeting, embedding the gender equality perspective across the entire budget cycle, from planning and allocation to monitoring of financial resources, especially to address gaps in terms of collecting gender-disaggregated data and to clarify scoring criteria, including implementing a score category to capture budgetary interventions with a negative impact on gender equality, as this is currently lacking, and to ensure that it is done in time for the upcoming MFF 2028-2034; stresses that this requires setting clear priorities, commitments and indicators on gender equality via a targeted approach, as well as setting concrete criteria to measure progress;

Changed:89.79. Urges the Commission and the Member States to address intersectionality in all policies related to gender equality, acknowledging that GBV and discrimination are also compounded by factors such as age, race, ethnicity, minority or migration status,minority, disability, gender identity and sexual orientation, and that the intersection of these factors creates multiple and unique forms of discrimination that require targeted, context-specific measures;

Removed:90. Calls on the Commission to explicitly include trans people, especially trans women and girls, in all gender equality measures, to standardise access to legal gender recognition, and to develop specific actions against transphobia, especially in healthcare, employment and education;

Removed:93. Calls on the Commission to continue to ensure annual publication of reports on the implementation of the post-2025 Gender Equality Strategy and to present them to the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) in order to enable Parliament to contribute to the strategy’s scrutiny and oversight;

Changed:A. whereas the rights to equal treatment and non-discrimination are fundamental rights recognised in the Treaties48Treaties and in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and are essential for EU’s further development; whereas the EU has a key role in eliminating inequalities and promoting equality, as set out in the TFEU49;TFEU;

Changed:C. whereas the Member States scored on average 71.071,0 points out of 100 in the EU Gender Equality Index 2024, a score which is a very moderate improvement of 0.80,8 points compared to the previous edition of the Index; whereas there is a growing backlash against progress in gender equality and women's rights that is trying to re-establish outdated gender roles as the norm, questioning the achievements reached in gender equality and blocking further progress; whereas multiple stakeholders, including the UN General Assembly, have acknowledged the active resistance to achievements and advances in gender equality and the growing backlash against women's rights; whereas anti-gender and anti-rights movements threaten the fundamental rights of women and girls and the achievement of gender equality on a daily basis and the global backlash against women and women’s rights is also felt in the Global South, as cuts in development aid mostly affect women in developing areas and the global gag rule targets women’s rights organisations specifically; whereas there is a clear and urgent need to reaffirm, safeguard and develop gender equality and the human rights of women and girls50;girls;

Changed:E. whereas gender-based violence (GBV) is a systemic issue and is still a globally widespread and endemic phenomenon, including in the EU, and has severe consequences for victims and survivors, including women and girls, and society as a whole, as it reinforces systemic gender inequality and perpetuates harmful structures based on gender stereotype; whereas the adoption in 2024 of the Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence was an important milestone on the way toward eliminating GBV and whereas it will now be crucial to ensure its full and timely implementation by the Member States, while also recognising that we need to further develop prompt, innovative and effective responses, including through the use of digital tools and artificial intelligence technologies; whereas about one third of women in the EU who have faced sexual harassment experienced it at work53,work, with devastating consequences for the victims; whereas this shows the importance of introducing concrete legislative measures to tackle GBV in the workplace, including support for victims, as well as strong prevention measures; whereas all Member States have signed the Istanbul Convention, but five Member States have yet to ratify it; whereas the EU acceded to the Convention in 2023 as regards matters falling under its exclusive competences;

Changed:H. whereas sexual and reproductive rights are protected as human rights in international and European human rights law, such as in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the European Convention on Human Rights, and constitute an essential element of comprehensive healthcare provision; whereas, in its resolution of 11 April 2024, Parliament called for the inclusion of SRHR, including the right to abortion, in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights; whereas SRHR54SRHR are fundamental to the well-being and empowerment of individuals and they include access to contraceptive service and information, safe and legal abortion care and access to scientifically-based and accurate information, fertility treatments, comprehensive and age-appropriate sexuality and relationship education, and quality obstetric and gynaecological care; whereas despite some progress, these services and this information often remain unavailable in practice in some Member States and they have traditionally been seen as women’s issues, which undermines progress and perpetuates gender inequalities; whereas men's active engagement in SRHR can help challenge harmful gender norms, promote shared responsibility in family planning and support women’s rights and well-being;

Changed:I. whereas health rights, particularly sexual and reproductive health rights, are fundamental rights, and should be enhanced and cannot be watered down in any way or removed; whereas violations of sexual and reproductive health and rights, including denial of safe and legal abortion services and all forms of obstetric and gynaecological violence, constitute gender-based violence and breach fundamental human rights, yet more than 20 million women in the EU still lack access to safe and legal abortion and other SRHR; whereas some Member States still have highly restrictive laws prohibiting abortion except in strictly defined circumstances or have practical barriers to accessing it, resulting in women having to seek clandestine abortions, to travel to other countries or to carry their pregnancy to term against their will, which is a violation of human rights and a form of gender-based violence affecting the right to life of women and girls, their physical and mental integrity and safety, equality, non-discrimination and their health and puts them under undue economic and mental stress; whereas the European Citizen’s Initiative named My Voice, My Choice with over 1.21,2 million signatures calls on the EU to ensure access to safe and legal abortion for all, while respecting the division of competences under the Treaties, and demands that the EU pass legislation that creates a financial mechanism helping Member States that voluntarily join this policy to provide safe abortion care for all those who do not have access to it; whereas new studies on obstetric violence found that between 21 % and 81 % of the women surveyed who had given birth had experienced one or more forms of obstetric violence and the findings show that lack of informed consent, non-consented-to care, verbal and physical abuse and lack of communication are persisting issues in the Member States55;States; whereas the World Health Organization (WHO) states that quality midwifery care is crucial for improving maternal and newborn health outcomes, reducing interventions and enhancing women’s birth experiences56;experiences;

Changed:J. whereas in the EU, 31 % of women aged 18-74 experienced physical (including threats) or sexual violence in adulthood and 20 % of women experienced physical (including threats) or sexual violence by a non-partner, according to the latest EU-wide survey57survey and official reports from 17 Member States reveal that 788 women were killed by their intimate partner or a family member in 202258;2022; whereas data shows that for 57 % of victims of GBV, the violence has caused health consequences, from physical injuries to long-term psychological trauma59,trauma, while 31 % of victims of GBV never disclosed their experience to anyone; whereas the support systems for victims of GBV in the EU are still inadequate and research shows that only seven Member States provide enough counselling centres for women, while existing shelters fall far below the Istanbul Convention's recommended levels60;levels; whereas other research performed across the Member States has shown that GBV in public spaces and on collective transport is a highly significant problem and that safety measures and victim support remain insufficient;

Changed:K. whereas recorded offences related to sexual assault and rape increased between 2019 and 2022 and data shows that in 2022, there was a 25 % increase in documented cases of sexual assault against women in the EU and reported cases of rape surged by 40 % compared to 201961;2019; whereas, according to the FRA, up to 55 % of women in the European Union have experienced sexual harassment in public transport and there are a multitude of reports on sexual assaults carried out in different modes of transport, such as by the drivers of ride-hailing platforms and taxis; whereas all this data shows that women are not safe at home, at work or in any public sphere and there is an urgent need to act; whereas the collecting of uniform and comparable, gender-disaggregated data, as is provided by the EIGE, is essential to build comprehensive gender equality policies; whereas the Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence does not contain a harmonised definition of the offence of rape based on the absence of consent; whereas to pave the way for legislation containing such a definition, it is important to extend the list of areas of crime under Article 83(1) TFEU to GBV, because it meets the criteria specified in this article;

Changed:L. whereas cyberviolence against women based on gender includes a range of different forms of violence on the grounds of gender or a combination of gender and other factors, and is perpetrated through information and communication technologies (ICT) and the proliferation of artificial intelligence; whereas certain forms of cyberviolence affect women and girls disproportionately, take more severe forms and have specific and vicious consequences and a more incapacitating effect on women and girls such as silencing, censoring and alienation of women and girls and can lead to them avoiding the public sphere; whereas increasing and pervasive cyberviolence is affecting women on a daily basis in the EU and, according to the FRA, women remain the primary target for certain forms of cyberviolence, such as hate crime and hate speech online62,online, as well as gendered disinformation, while female politicians, journalists, bloggers, artists, activists, human rights defenders and other women with a public presence, as well as LGBTIQ+ people, are faced with higher levels of violence and abuse in the online world63,world, which significantly impacts women’s participation in public life and representation and poses a threat to democracy; whereas child sexual abuse and exploitation has a strong gender component, which disproportionately affects girls online, therefore qualifying as a form of GBV;

Changed:M. whereas everyone in the EU has the right of access to the highest standards of physical and mental health and support services, the right to timely, affordable and high-quality access to preventative and diagnostic healthcare, and the right to benefit from medical treatment, including SRHR; whereas the EU has an obligation to ensure a high level of human health protection across all Union policies and activities64withoutactivities without discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, sex characteristics or on any other ground;

Changed:N. whereas LGBTIQ+ people across Europe still face discrimination when accessing healthcare services, with 16 % of survey respondents reporting that they have felt discriminated against by healthcare or social services staff because of their identity and with trans people reporting especially high levels of transphobic and disrespectful behaviour towards them by healthcare personnel; whereas everyone has the right to bodily autonomy and integrity and should not be subjected to, for example, the practice of forced sterilisation or medicalisation, both of which violate human rights standards; whereas women face multiple challenges that negatively affect their well-being, including delayed diagnoses, pain bias, research disparities, limited access and barriers and challenges in accessing essential services, especially women with disabilities, women in rural areas, migrant women65women and other women facing intersectional discrimination and in vulnerable situations; whereas men are less likely to seek medical attention, as they are generally less aware of symptoms or tend to downplay them, often not reporting signs of disease or illness66;illness; whereas all Member States that are parties to the CEDAW are bound by its commitments, including access to healthcare services; whereas ensuring equitable access to healthcare services is essential to safeguarding public health, promoting social inclusion and reducing inequalities; whereas action is urgently needed to further research and address the persistent gender health gap;

Changed:O. whereas women are more likely to experience mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety and old age loneliness, which can contribute to mental health problems, compared to men; whereas, for instance, in 2019 a higher proportion of women (8.7(8,7 %) than men (5.5(5,5 %) aged 15 and over in the EU reported chronic depression67;depression; whereas four out of five people diagnosed with an autoimmune disease are women; whereas cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death globally, with women experiencing higher mortality rates and poorer outcomes following acute events, accounting for 37 % of all female deaths compared to 31 % of male deaths; whereas women with CVD are consistently underdiagnosed, undertreated and under-represented in clinical trials, leading to further and deeper inequalities in the field of public health;

Changed:P. whereas women, in all their diversity, are consistently placed at a disadvantage by structural and cultural factors and are disproportionately affected by different challenges, for example the consequences of the cost of living crisis, as they tend to be among the poorest part of the population, representing 70 % of the 1.31,3 billion people living in conditions of poverty, or austerity policies, which have disproportionately impacted women, particularly those from racialised and low-income backgrounds; whereas poverty is increasing across the EU and it is mainly women who are paid less than a living wage, rendering many unable to provide for themselves and their families, and this is especially the case for trans women who are nearly three times as likely to be unemployed; whereas nearly one in three non-EU born women work in precarious jobs in the EU; whereas 18 % of migrant women are at risk of poverty; whereas in most EU countries, long-term residence and work permits are often more accessible to those considered to be highly skilled and well-paid workers, while those relegated to 'medium and low-skilled' sectors can be at risk of exploitation and precarious work in undervalued sectors; whereas unique challenges in certain sectors put women at an initial disadvantage, for example female farmers who are faced with gender-specific obstacles such as lack of access to land, difficulty financing agricultural training and education, and equal treatment; whereas poverty and social exclusion have structural causes that need to be eradicated and reversed, in particular, through policies on employment, housing, mobility and access to public services;

Changed:R. whereas in 2023, the gender pay gap in the European Union was 13 %70% and, on average in 2025, women in the EU earn 15 % less per hour than men; whereas the situation is worse in certain regions, for example rural areas, and in certain sectors, for example the healthcare sector where the gap stands at 24 %71% and this leads to large disparities in pension payments and contributes to differences in revenues in old age, which leads to women in the EU receiving pension incomes that are 26.126,1 % lower on average; whereas the right to equal pay for equal work or work of equal value is not guaranteed and the root cause of that discrimination needs to be tackled, whether by applying tools to better define and compare the value of work, protecting and enhancing labour rights, or strengthening collective bargaining, where relevant; whereas building an inclusive economy and addressing gender disparities could significantly boost the Union’s GDP per capita from 6.16,1 to 9.69,6 % by 205072;2050;

Changed:V.U. whereas news media coverage often lacks a gender dimension and fails to challenge gender stereotypes; whereas women are under-represented in media sector professions at all levels of the governance structure, including in information production, decision-making processes and media ownership; whereas the Council of Europe stated that 'women represent only about a quarter of the persons heard, read about or seen in the news, they are rarely represented in an expert capacity'76;capacity'; whereas the data from the 6th edition of the Global Media Monitoring Project found that, in 2020, only 2 % of stories in Europe77Europe clearly challenged gender stereotypes78;stereotypes;

Changed:W.V. whereas across the EU, both informal and formal caregiving responsibilities continue to be disproportionately carried out by women, thereby contributing to structural gender inequalities and feeding the gender care gap by limiting women's ability to participate in the labour market, which leads to lower earnings and pensions and hinders the possibility for women to reach economic independence on equal terms with men, while exposing them to stress-related health risks79;risks; whereas women who return to the labour market after maternity leave or extended caregiving responsibilities often face difficulties in re-entering employment, including skill obsolescence, lower earning potential, reduced career progression opportunities and workplace discrimination; whereas such barriers contribute to the gender employment, pay and pension gaps and adversely affect the well-being of children and other dependants and must be addressed through targeted policy interventions and support schemes;

Changed:AE.AB. whereas gender inequalities are more evident in certain sectors, such as agriculture, financial and consumer services87,services, health and care88,care, STEM89,STEM, and in some areas, such as rural regions, islands and outermost regions; whereas women from these areas and sectors who experience intersectional discrimination face specific structural barriers that make it difficult to participate in the labour market and access healthcare, education, housing, digital connectivity, and essential public services and infrastructure, and in some cases these are entirely unavailable; whereas depopulation is occurring in rural areas, including in the outermost regions, with young people being more likely to leave, especially girls and women90,women, undermining their right to stay in those areas; whereas a targeted and intersectional approach is needed to address the persistent gender gaps, in particular in the aforementioned sectors and regions, and to ensure that women and girls are not left behind in the implementation of the Gender Equality Strategy;

Changed:AF.AC. whereas all of the Member States are bound to act in children’s best interest by safeguarding their right to family life and prohibiting discrimination based on their parents’ marital status, sexual orientation or method of conception; whereas around two million children may still face legal uncertainty in cross-border family recognition; whereas in 2022, the Commission proposed a Council regulation91regulation on parenthood and the creation of a European Certificate of Parenthood and this still pending in the Council;

Changed:11. Calls on the Commission to put forward EU legislation to criminalise rape on the basis of the absence of consent in all Member States; notes that 14 Member States still require either some form of violence to criminalise rape or do not mention consent explicitly; reiterates that rape is not only a violation of women’s fundamental rights, bodily autonomy and integrity, but also a form of sexual abuse and exploitation of women and girls, which is an EU crime according to the TFEU92;TFEU; calls on the Member States that still use the definition of rape based on the assumption of violence to commence legislative changes to bring the definition in line with the latest international standards and with Article 36 of the Istanbul Convention;

Changed:17. Calls on the Commission to urgently address the gender health gap, including by tackling gender-specific health needs and risks throughout all life stages, while paying particular attention to diseases that disproportionately affect women, addressing gender disparities and biases in medical research, training and clinical trials and encouraging more women to pursue medical careers; calls on the Commission to put forward a specific action plan to tackle these issues and to further orient forthcoming health-related initiatives towards the concept of gender medicine, as introduced by the WHO93;WHO;

Changed:24. Calls on the Commission to develop a gender sensitive approach to healthcare and to address specific issues where challenges persist, such as mental health, cancer, endometriosis or maternal healthcare; calls on the Commission to develop common EU-wide standards in antenatal, childbirth, postnatal midwifery and newborn and maternal healthcare to update the EU Directive on Midwifery94Midwifery in alignment with international standards and to enable healthcare professionals to share best practices in this field; calls for the establishment of an EU framework on the safe use of medicines during pregnancy and lactation;

Changed:34. Calls on the Commission to follow up and report back to Parliament on the implementation of the Adequate Minimum Wage Directive95andDirectiveand Pay Transparency Directive96,Directive, including the guarantee of robust pay-reporting requirements, effective access to judicial remedies for victims of pay discrimination, and appropriate sanctions for non-compliance, and the transposition of the Women on Boards Directive97;Directive; urges the Commission to monitor and guarantee the proper and timely enforcement of these Directives, which is of crucial importance for women on the labour market and will enable them to enjoy equal rights and conditions throughout their career;

Changed:39. Urges the Commission to strengthen efforts to address discrimination faced by the most vulnerable women, girls and persons faced with intersectional discrimination, as mentioned in the list of non-discrimination grounds and those affected by the automation of jobs; reiterates that these groups are more likely to encounter specific or disproportionate labour market challenges, such as high unemployment rates, low pay and precarious jobs and difficulties accessing labour protection, maternity leave and social security; calls on the Commission to encourage programmes ensuring equal opportunities, including access to leadership and decision-making roles for all those faced with discrimination and uncertainty in the labour market; notes that this should be done by, among other things, ensuring the implementation of the Employment Equality Directive98Directive across the Member States, strengthening equality bodies, as provided for by Directive 2024/149999(EU) 2024/1499 and ensuring access to minimum wages on an equal basis with others; stresses the need to develop targeted employment and upskilling strategies for women over the age of 55 and women living in rural or structurally disadvantaged regions, who face compounded barriers; calls on the Commission to support the Member States in designing inclusive labour market policies including through cohesion policy instruments and the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+);

Changed:41. Calls on the Commission to review the Social Security Directive 79/710079/7/EEC to ensure that it enables the adoption of positive action and contributes to closing the gender pension gap;

Changed:42. Stresses that women currently represent only one third of entrepreneurs in the EU101,EU, highlighting the need for targeted action to close the gender gap in entrepreneurship;

Changed:95.83. Urges the Commission to monitor and encourage swift implementation of the Directive on standards for equality bodies (Directive (EU) 2024/1499) and to put forward a recommendation to Member States regarding standards for their functioning and tasks in order to facilitate the correct transposition of the directive and ensure harmonisation of the set-up of equality bodies across the Union; stresses the importance of the EU’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights and calls on the Commission to take action towards achieving this goal by requesting the CJEU’s legal opinion;