Kirsten Lühmann from the German dbb will be a full member in the Board of Administration, Eva Fernández Urbón from the Spanish CSIF will serve as alternate. The mandates run until 2023 when new elections will take place.

CESI has been a member of the EWL since 2006. Kirsten Lühmann has already been a member and alternate in the EWL Board of Administration previously. Eva Fernández Urbón succeeds Carmen Jaffke from CESI’s Luxembourgish member organisation CGFP who held a position in the Board of Administration for CESI but who did not run again. Both Kirsten Lühmann and Eva Fernández Urbon have an extensive track record as trade unionists and supporters of gender equality and women’s rights.

Kirsten Lühmann, a Bundestag MP for the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) since 2009, is a former Equal Opportunity Commissioner of German Police Trade Union (DPolG, a member of the dbb) as well as a former member of the Executive Board and now Honorary member of the General assembly of the dbb’s Federal Women’s Council. She is also a member of the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) and the European Network of Policewomen (ENP). Within CESI, she has been a long-serving President of the statutory horizontal Commission on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality.

Eva Fernández Urbon has been National Secretary for Equality and Social Responsibility at CSIF, the Spanish Central Independent and Public Employees’ Trade Union, and is a member of the National Executive Committee since 2019. She has been working on women´s rights and gender equality as a trade unionist for the past thirteen years and has participated in many conferences and published articles related to issue such as ‘Gender gap and university: two realities that feedback’ or ‘The trade union role on the path to equality’. In 2021, she was elected President of CESI’s statutory horizontal Commission on Employment and Social Affairs.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “I am glad that CESI continues to be represented in the EWL, Europe’s chief voice of women’s rights. As highly competent and experienced trade unionists in the field, Kirsten and Eva will bring the important voice of independent trade unions to the EWL. As CESI, gender equality and equal opportunities are a central element of today’s society, and in labour markets in particular.”

The names of all elected Board of Administration members is available on the website of the EWL. The General Assembly on June 4-7 also saw the election of the EWL Executive Committee and its new President, Réka Sáfrány from the Hungarian Women’s Lobby. Further details are available here.