With the participation of guests speakers from the European Commission, the Commissions on Women’s Rights & Gender Equality and on Employment & Social Affairs, led by its Presidents Kirsten Lühmann and Eva Fernández Urbón respectively, reviewed progress in EU policy files which are currently under negotiation by the European Parliament and the Council or in preparation by the European Commission, including a forthcoming directive on gender-based violence, a proposal for the EU’s accession to the Istanbul Convention against Violence Against Women, measures for minimum standards for national equality bodies, a proposal for a horizontal equal treatment directive, and a directive on improved working conditions in the platform economy.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “The objective of our Commissions on Women’s Rights & Gender Equality and on Employment & Social Affairs is to help inform and guide CESI’s interest representation in horizontal EU social policy, and to provide a forum for exchange among members and with EU decision makers to this end. The positions and resolutions that they adopt are valuable for the General Secretariat to help it represent the interests of CESI’s members towards the EU institutions in a competent and targeted manner.”

The next meeting of both Commission is scheduled to take place on June 21.