Building on our success over the last few years, the annual EuroGender (EIGE) – Civil Society consultation meeting took place in Vilnius on 31 January and 1 February. Parents International was represented by the Chair of the Supervisory Board The event brought together representatives of different civil society organisations in the EU, and we were invited to bring the parents’ voice to the discussion. 

The event was by inviation only and representatives of the European Women’s Lobby, Social Platform, Men Engage Europe Network and European Economic and Social Committee also joined the event.

On the first day plenary session discussion were followed by separate project laboratories focusing on a wide range of topics of joint interest. The second day of the meeting was mostly dedicated to bilateral discussionsin order to design annual cooperation plans for 2019 between participants and EIGE.

In 2019, EIGE will conduct a study to review the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) – Beijing +25. EIGE will assess the implementation of the 12 critical areas of the BPfA in the context of EU policy priorities and targets since Beijing +20 took place, and provide recommendations for further action to promote gender equality in the EU. The first insights of the findings of the study were shared with participants and discussed with possible ways forward, including ways of communicating the results once they are officially launched during Finnish Presidency of the EU.

The discussions covered the following topics: the gender pay gap, gender budgeting, gender stakeholder consultation, femicide, community policing, the upcoming European Parliament elections, shrinking space for civil society, and diversity and intersectionality.