The European Union’s budget, valued at around €140 billion annually, is under scrutiny for its role in promoting gender equality. In 2023, only 11% of EU spending contributed to this goal, highlighting a significant opportunity for improvement. As the EU prepares for a budget overhaul next year, key figures and experts are calling for a stronger focus on gender budgeting—an approach that ensures public funds are used to reduce, rather than reinforce, gender inequalities.
The Push for Gender Budgeting
Gender budgeting, a strategy aimed at promoting equitable spending, seeks to identify and remove barriers that negatively affect women and girls within the EU. It’s a method that recognizes public spending is far from gender-neutral and that without intentional efforts, financial allocations can perpetuate existing disparities between men and women.
A spokesperson from the European Commission confirmed that the upcoming revision of the EU budget, set to begin in June 2024, will likely emphasize gender mainstreaming. An amendment to the EU's Financial Regulation is expected to require that all programs and activities be implemented with the principle of gender equality in mind. This includes ensuring that all performance indicators collected are gender-disaggregated where appropriate.
Challenges and Opportunities
Lina Gálvez, MEP and chair of the Parliament's Women's Rights Committee, emphasized that elevating gender budgeting to the highest political level will be a key challenge for the next term. Experts agree that EU spending plays a significant role in promoting equality. Mirta Baselovic, spokesperson for the European Women's Lobby (EWL), noted that considering the gendered impacts of fiscal policies can correct imbalances like unequal pay and limited access to essential services.
A gender-responsive budget, for example, would account for unpaid care work, a burden disproportionately shouldered by women in the EU. This has far-reaching effects, limiting women's participation in the labor market and affecting macroeconomic performance. Helena Morais, a researcher at the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), argues that gender budgeting is not only equitable but also economically sound. EIGE research suggests that addressing gender equality could boost per-capita growth by up to 9.6% and create 10.5 million additional jobs by 2050.
Current State and Future Steps
Despite increased attention to gender issues, only 11% of the EU budget in 2023 supported gender equality as a main or significant objective, amounting to about €48 billion. Programs like Erasmus+, the European Social Fund+, and Horizon Europe have integrated gender equality into their core objectives, with Horizon Europe requiring applicants to have a gender equality plan to be eligible for funding.
However, these requirements are not consistent across all member states, which limits the broader impact of gender budgeting. Morais stresses that making such conditionality mandatory across the EU could be a practical step forward.
The EU is legally obligated by its founding treaties to eliminate inequalities, including gender disparities, across all sectors. While the current budgetary framework (2021-2027) is more sensitive to gender issues than previous ones, full implementation of gender budgeting across all financial instruments remains a work in progress.
Baselovic from the EWL highlights that gender budgeting doesn’t necessarily entail higher costs but rather more efficient use of resources. Initial investments in training, data collection, and process adaptation will be outweighed by the long-term benefits of more equitable public spending.
As the EU moves toward its next budget cycle, gathering data and refining approaches will be crucial. Morais reminds us that this is a continuous process, with valuable lessons to be learned from the implementation of gender budgeting strategies across the EU.
Source: Euronews
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