OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEN COMMISSION, SIGNED BY AGNÈS HUBERT.

SIGN THE PETITION AND RAISE YOUR VOICE!

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Dear Madam President,  

At the beginning of your first term, you stressed your deep personal commitment to advancing a Union of equality, and insisted on balanced nominations from the member states that would allow you to appoint a gender balanced Commission. 

Those efforts met with some success, which now leads us to convey our deep disappointment regarding the place of gender equality in the new Commission named to assist you during your second term.  The disappointment which I express in the name of G5+, the first European feminist think tank ,is shared by the European Women’s Lobby and its national coordinations but also politicians, policy makers and academics throughout Europe and beyond who take the EU gender equality policy as an example of a dynamic and progressive policy.

Having a designated Commissioner for Equality during your past mandate, along with an equality-oriented Vice President and internal structures like the Equality Task Force allowed you to set forth an ambitious agenda and to overcome some of the longstanding blockages in the Council. We praised your early action and commitment as an advocate for democracy based on a Union of Equality in a context which has become increasingly regressive regarding human rights and women’s rights. 

Although a Commissioner for Equality is mentioned on page 20 of the Commission’s new political guidelines, we do not understand why achieving gender equality has been reduced to a minor activity within a multi-tasking portfolio. In fact, equality was not even mentioned in your press statement of September 17th announcing the next College of Commissioners (neither was it mentioned in the press – ex Le Monde 19/09/2024).

Nor do we understand – in light of your 2019 commitment – why references to both gender mainstreaming and intersectionality have totally disappeared from the mission letters you sent to the Candidate-Commissioners. 

More than ever, Madam President, a democratic and prosperous Europe depends on the full participation of women and men of all nationalities, racial and ethnic minorities, sexual orientations, et cetera. Backlash movements (including rising gender-based violence) are on the rise, as are pushback efforts to keep women out of politics or the economy. Preventing women’s full participation will hold many negative consequences for  our common future, including  its impact on wellbeing, prosperity and demographic growth. 

In order to pursue the progressive course that you had advocated during your previous term as Commission President, we believe that you should yourself assume direct responsibility for advancing equality:  this is the only way to make sure that every other Commissioner will contribute to the mainstreaming of equality in her or his field of competence. The wealth of commitment and expertise in your administration (in DG Just, in DG Empl, in RTD, HR, in the Secretariat General) could very effectively contribute to assist you in this endeavour.

This is extremely important in order to consolidate the progress that has been made thus far with regard to gender budgeting (e.g., through the RRF and the European Semester). We need you to invest and promote the participation of women in new technologies, including artificial intelligence, to develop your caring agenda, to continue with gender balanced EU policies which eradicate violence against women, so that all might benefit from their full participation in society.

This open letter will be widely shared as a mean to gather momentum for this important request we are making.

Yours faithfully,
Agnès HUBERT, President of G5+

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