Over the last years, the EU has been facing many challenges in the realization of its core values: the rule of law, democracy, human rights, equality, gender equality and women’s rights. The upcoming years are an opportunity for the EU to reflect on the direction it wants to take, the values it should stand for, and what more it can do to uphold and defend them. The EU should strive towards a world where everyone can enjoy the same rights, and lead free and safe private and family lives, free from sexism, coercion, and violence. In this crossroads moment, the Council of the EU Presidency Trio – France, Czech Republic and Sweden – has a critical role to play to uphold EU values. We call on this Trio to adopt a feminist approach and show stronger leadership to further advance gender equality and women’s rights, including sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), in the EU and beyond.  More on our recommendations for the Trio in the factsheet below, available in English and French.

The realisation of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) is a necessary precondition for achieving economic justice. A number of different components together form the basis for economic justice. These components include safe and decent work with equal and fair pay, equal access to resources and opportunities, social protection systems, as well as the right to peaceful assembly. SRHR is often not included in these discussions while it can provide basic solutions to prevailing economic inequality. It is therefore of great importance that SRHR is given priority as an integrated topic in the discussions on economic justice, especially in the light of the growing resistance towards SRHR as well as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and its grave implications for achieving gender equality. Read our factsheet. 

A joint reaction from IPPF EN, the Center for Reproductive Rights, End FGM European Network, with the support of the European Women's Lobby. We welcome the publication of the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 by the European Commission. The adoption of this Strategy shows the political leadership and commitment of the Commission to promote gender equality within and outside the EU, with important objectives and actions for the next 5 years. As civil society organisations (CSOs) committed to advancing gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in the EU and globally, we would like to make suggestions on how the Strategy can effectively promote and support the realisation of SRHR in the EU, as this is a precondition to the achievement of gender equality. This will be particularly essential in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, as we are already observing renewed threats to women’s human rights, SRHR and increased risks of gender-based violence. These challenges will require the adoption of targeted and specific responses and actions by the EU and Member States. We stand ready to share information and ideas about these new challenges and how they can be addressed. To read our full reaction, please see the above document.

The European Parliament has today adopted its first reading on the EU 2020 budget. MEPs voted in favour of a €2,7 billion increase of the EU’s budget compared to the Commission’s proposal: an outright rejection of the Council’s proposed cuts.  A budget increase that could save lives and improve health and wellbeing  Dubbed as the last chance for the Union to meet key political commitments during this financial period, including the Sustainable Development Goals, the Parliament’s call for an ambitious budget for the last year of the current MFF is welcome news. With the support of the Committees on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, and Development, the Parliament called for an increase of €10 million in commitment to the budget line on human development compared to the Commission’s proposal. This increase will finance projects on education, tackling diseases, gender equality and access to family planning and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SHRH), focusing directly on the needs and rights of people in developing countries. In addition, the budget line on ‘civil society in development’ would be restored and the one on humanitarian aid would increase by €50 million.  Eef Wuyts, Director of European and International Affairs at IPPF EN, said: “The Human Development line is key to effectively ensuring people can access healthcare and education, and to guarantee women and girls’ access to quality sexual and reproductive health services.’’  But this additional investment falls short of commitments “While this proposed increase is a step in the right direction, it falls short of the EU’s commitment to dedicate at least 20% of its total Official Development Assistance to human development and social inclusion. We urge the Council not to cut this budget line any further’’, said Cécile Vernant, Head of the EU Office at DSW.  “Europe has a responsibility to be a global leader on these issues, and this vote today is an important first step. The upcoming Nairobi Summit in November 2019 will be another important opportunity for the EU to make further concrete commitments – including financial ones – to accelerate progress to fully implement the International Conference on Population and Development’s Programme of Action’’, said Neil Datta, Secretary at EPF. Investing in human development, in areas such as health and SRHR is key to empowering women and achieving gender equality. It is crucial that Member States support the €10 million increase proposed by the European Parliament to ensure access to healthcare and education for all.  END For more information, contact Ffion Storer Jones, Communications Officer at Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW)’s EU office on [email protected] or +32 2 504 90 62. Notes: DSW is a global development organisation that focuses on the needs and potential of the largest youth generation in history. We are committed to creating demand for and access to health information, services, supplies, and economic empowerment for youth. We achieve this by engaging in advocacy, capacity development, and reproductive health initiatives so that young people are empowered to lead healthy and self-determined lives. DSW also advocates for investment in research and innovation to fight poverty-related and neglected tropical diseases. For more information, visit www.dsw.org/en The International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network (IPPF EN) champions sexual and reproductive health and rights for all. IPPF EN and our partners work in over 40 countries across Europe and Central Asia to empower everyone, especially the most socially excluded, to live with dignity and to have access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. This access is essential to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals in all countries. For more information, visit https://www.ippfen.org/  The European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (EPF) is Europe’s only parliamentary network focusing on sexual and reproductive health and rights. EPF serves as a platform for cooperation and coordination for its 33 all-party groups in Parliaments throughout Europe to promote and defend the sexual and reproductive health and rights of all individuals, to defend and advance gender equality and equity, women’s empowerment, and to eliminate all forms of discrimination, coercion and violence against women and girls worldwide. For more information, visit https://www.epfweb.org/ The European Consensus on Development is a shared vision and framework for action for development cooperation for the European Union (EU) and its Member States. It is a blueprint which aligns the Union’s development policy with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. For more information, go here. 

Next week, the European Parliament will begin holding hearings with the candidates for European Commissioners proposed by Ursula von der Leyen. The proposed titles, allocation of portfolios, and the hierarchical structure of the European Commission are a clear departure from the current state of affairs - and present both opportunities and challenges for advancing gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights in the EU and outside of its borders. A welcome development is the creation of a specific portfolio on equality, to be held by Helena Dalli. Dalli will be tasked with leading the fight against discrimination and proposing new anti-discrimination legislation, as well as coming up with a European gender strategy to address barriers faced by women. Her biggest challenge is surely set to be securing EU accession to the Council of Europe convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the Istanbul Convention), which is currently blocked in the Council. Blocked? If member states' opposition means that the deadlock remains in place, the commissioner is expected to go around it by finding other ways to strengthen the support, protection and rights of victims of violence against women. Whatever the solution, it is clear that prompt and forceful action needs to be taken to protect women from violence in the EU, as data collected by the Fundamental Rights Agency shows that one-in-three women in the EU have suffered some form of physical and/or sexual violence since the age of 15. In their hearing with the commissioner, MEPs should make sure that strong commitments are made to address these shocking statistics. Dalli's collaboration with the commissioner for international partnerships will further be crucial to ensure that the EU continues its efforts to empower women and girls through its external and development policies - notably by continuing to implement and fund the successful Spotlight Initiative - which aims to eliminate violence against women and girls across the world, and by renewing the gender action plan, which promotes women and girls' rights in all EU external actions. It is crucial that the rights of women and girls, the work of women human rights defenders, grassroots women's organisations and organisations fighting for women's rights are further supported and mainstreamed through all of the EU's external policies, and not siloed within a few initiatives. This issue should be stressed by MEPs in their exchange with Dalli, who is explicitly tasked with mainstreaming gender equality measures across all the areas of work of the European Commission. Concerns over Suica At the same time, the creation of a post of vice president of the commission tasked with a portfolio on democracy and demography could be seen as concerning. Neither of the two issues have been explicitly taken on by the European Commission in the past, and the addition of a specific portfolio on demography raises questions on why this issue is being explicitly addressed now, when declarations on a "demographic crisis" are being increasingly used in coercive or anti-migrant discourses by actors such as Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban. While demographic changes – such as low birth rates, the ageing of societies and outwards migration – are a significant challenge that European policy-makers must face, any commissioner holding this portfolio must steer clear of rhetoric linking these to the need to boost 'family' or migration-limitation policies. Indeed, any attempts to address demographic changes in Europe must have women's reproductive freedom and the equal distribution of household responsibilities between women and men at heart, while strengthening social provisions and boosting care, education and healthcare policies. In this context, the allocation of this portfolio to Dubravka Suica is very worrying. As an MEP, Suica has a track record of voting against the inclusion of calls in support of sexual and reproductive health and rights in European parliament resolutions, going as far as proposing an alternative motion for her own resolution to exclude references to abortion care and provision of contraceptives when these were added in by her more progressive colleagues. MEPs should make sure that Suica makes a clear commitment to placing women's reproductive freedom at the heart of her demography mandate – as a commissioner tasked with responding to challenges and making the most of the opportunities brought by demographic change, her work should not be influenced by her personal convictions but by the interests of European citizens. The newly-proposed European Commission indeed has the potential to address some of the persistent challenges relating to gender (in)equality in the EU and women's access to a full range of their rights, including reproductive freedom. However, a strong oversight of the European parliament will be indispensable to ensure that these principles are held firm and included in all policy areas. Next week, as the parliament gets a first opportunity to influence the priorities of the proposed commission, is the time to show that the respect of these values is an essential precondition for the parliament's support.   By Elena Zacharenko, IPPF EN    This opinion was originally published in the EU Observer.

In 2019-2024, we call on Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to ensure that all Europeans can lead free and safe private and family lives, in a society free from sexism and discrimination. This paper lays down the areas where the EU has internal competences and where MEPs have the power to act.   Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have a critical role in promoting SRHR in EU external action and upholding the right of young women and men around the world to lead safe and dignified lives, free from coercion and harm. These are just some of the steps MEPs can take to champion SRHR.

Members of the European Parliament and representatives of MEPs for Sexual and Reproductive Rights and the pro-choice network ALL of US call on the newly elected President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to protect and further strengthen gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights in the work programme for the European Commission 2019-2024. They urge Ursula von der Leyen, the new President of the European Commission, to include the following objectives in the work programme for the European Commission 2019-2024: Adopt a binding EU Strategy for Gender Equality and an LGBTI strategy and work towards the eradication of gender inequality and violence against women and gender-based violence and ensure that standards needed to achieve this are put in place. Safeguard the right of all Europeans to live free and safe reproductive lives without discrimination and include the promotion and improvement of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the next EU’s Public Health Strategy. Firmly denounce regressive discourse and prevent the enactment of laws and policies that undermine women’s rights, gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights and LGBTI rights, reiterating that those retrograde measures have no place in a democratic XXI century Europe. Invest EU resources and make a political priority out of delivering far-reaching initiatives to change harmful social norms through education and empowerment, to defend women’s rights, gender equality and LGBTI rights. Provide political and financial support to women’s rights groups and human rights defenders, particularly those working in challenging contexts in Europe, including in EU member states and implement gender-responsive approaches to budgeting in a way that explicitly tracks what proportion of public funds are targeted on women.  

We can't achieve gender equality without having access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).  SRHR underpin the health and well-being of all Europeans, from access to contraceptives and abortion care, sexual health services, relationships and sexuality education, to being protected from violence and coercion, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. However, access to SRHR varies greatly within and between EU Member States, which is particularly harmful to those in the most vulnerable situations. Furthermore, recent years have seen a rise of coercive movements both within and outside of the EU, with gender equality, women’s rights and reproductive freedom increasingly under attack. This paper lays down the steps to be taken to counter future such attempts that seek to restrict reproductive freedom and gender equality.

MEPs play a huge role in securing reproductive freedom and gender equality in the EU and abroad. Following the election of a new European Parliament, IPPF EN will continue working closely with them to ensure that these issues remain high on the EU’s agenda.  The May 2019 elections for the European Parliament had a record high turnout of over 50% across the EU. This is the largest number of Europeans to have turned up at the ballot box in two decades. It shows that citizens recognise the importance of the EU in shaping their daily lives.  The outcomes of this election will likely elicit a shifting of the balance of power in the EU, with both centre-left and centre-right groups losing support in favour of smaller groupings. Forming a majority coalition will be more difficult and will require cooperation from more than just the two largest blocs. The far right and Eurosceptic parties have made progress in some countries (notably Italy, Hungary and Poland), but have been contained in others (Austria, Denmark and Spain). While the emergence of new parliamentary groups may still result in a greater platform for some of these movements to express their regressive beliefs, they are unlikely to be able to seriously disrupt the European Parliament’s work.  Although the proportion of progressive forces in the newly elected European Parliament has somewhat decreased compared to the previous mandate, it remains a considerable force. Any majority coalition will need to include at least two or more groups of progressive players to be stable. Progressive actors will therefore continue playing a key role in promoting and defending the EU’s fundamental values.  Indeed, in the past years, the European Parliament has stood up to defend reproductive freedoms and gender equality in the EU. In 2017, Members of the European Parliament strongly affirmed that the denial of reproductive care, including abortion care, was a form of violence against women and called for all women and girls to have control over their bodies and sexualities. In 2019, the European Parliament denounced the backlash against women’s rights and gender equality in the EU and called for a zero-tolerance policy on violence against women.  These positions are in line with the EU’s fundamental values. The principle that men and women should receive equal pay for equal work has been enshrined in the European Treaties since 1957. Today, inside the EU, its institutions work on promoting equal economic independence for women and men, closing the pay gap between women and men, promoting women’s participation in decision-making and ending gender-based violence; the EU is further promoting gender equality outside of its borders. Gender equality is enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and is close to the hearts of European citizens – according to a 2017 Eurobarometer survey, 91% of Europeans believe that promoting it is important to ensuring a fair and democratic society.  We at IPPF EN will continue to fight for these values to be at the forefront of the European Parliament’s agenda in 2019-2024.    By Elena Zacharenko, IPPF EN   Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have a critical role in promoting SRHR in EU external action and upholding the right of young women and men around the world to lead safe and dignified lives, free from coercion and harm. These are just some of the steps MEPs can take to champion SRHR. MEPs also have the power to promote and protect gender equality and sexual and reproductive rights within the EU. Here's how.

Mahnaz Alizadeh, 27, is living in a refugee camp in Serbia, where she gave birth to her third child. Credit Marko Risovic for The New York Times. This powerful NYT article highlights how our member in Serbia is ensuring vital sexual and reproductive health care in crisis situations. By Alisa Dogramadzieva, originally published in the New York Times   BELGRADE, Serbia — When Mahnaz Alizadeh married her husband in Iran, she never expected to find herself in a refugee camp in Serbia, trying to support herself and three children. Ms. Alizadeh, now 27, was born to Afghan parents who fled to Iran from their war-torn country. They settled in a rented home and sustained their family of eight by farming. Every year, they needed to pay a high price to maintain their temporary status in the country. To help her family, Ms. Alizadeh began farming at a young age and finished only four years of elementary school. When she married, Ms. Alizadeh expected that her husband would be competing internationally as a boxer. But his dreams dissolved, and he was deported to Afghanistan. Left alone, with no money to feed her two children, Ms. Alizadeh decided to leave Iran. Her husband returned from Afghanistan illegally, and together, they started their journey toward Europe in 2016. With only basic clothing, some food and a couple of blankets, they walked 12 hours through mountains to cross into Turkey. “I couldn’t walk anymore. I was scared for my children. I fell on my knees and thought that was the end,” Ms. Alizadeh said through an interpreter in an interview last month. Smugglers on horses helped them finish their ascent. The descent, she said, was even more difficult. “There was water, snow and mud, and we had to slide sitting down. We crossed a river and were totally wet, frozen, hungry and exhausted,” she continued in Farsi. At one point, they were stuck in the snow and cold with their children, then 4 and 9, for seven hours. “My 4-year-old child cried for hours and suddenly stopped crying. I was scared he had frozen. Thank God he was just exhausted and fell asleep,” Ms. Alizadeh said. Crossing the rough sea, hidden under the deck of a boat, was another obstacle in the next leg of their trip, to Greece. While they waited for the boat to leave, they heard the cries of women and children who had also endured terrible journeys. Waves splashed over the edges of the boat. Wet, with very little hope, they were on their way to Greece. Ms. Alizadeh’s family next crossed into Macedonia and Serbia, where more than a million refugees have passed through or settled since 2015. As European countries made it harder for refugees to follow the so-called Balkan route, her family was among 4,000 or so refugees stuck in the country. They eventually settled in the Krnjaca refugee camp near the Serbian capital, Belgrade, where the International Rescue Committee works with people affected by conflict or natural disasters, offering support for them to regain control over their lives. Ms. Masudi, 18, came to the Krnjaca camp from Iran.CreditMarko Risovic for The New York Times Crossing the rough sea, hidden under the deck of a boat, was another obstacle in the next leg of their trip, to Greece. While they waited for the boat to leave, they heard the cries of women and children who had also endured terrible journeys. Waves splashed over the edges of the boat. Wet, with very little hope, they were on their way to Greece. Ms. Alizadeh’s family next crossed into Macedonia and Serbia, where more than a million refugees have passed through or settled since 2015. As European countries made it harder for refugees to follow the so-called Balkan route, her family was among 4,000 or so refugees stuck in the country. They eventually settled in the Krnjaca refugee camp near the Serbian capital, Belgrade, where the International Rescue Committee works with people affected by conflict or natural disasters, offering support for them to regain control over their lives. The agency is one of the eight organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. Among the services the group provides are sexual and reproductive health in 20 counties worldwide. In Serbia, the International Rescue Committee worked this year with the Serbian Association for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. This local partner, founded in 2002, is part of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, a leader in reproductive health and services. Ms. Alizadeh is among some 800 women and girls who received advice or counseling from the partnership between the International Rescue Committee and the Serbian Association, which lasted Feb. 1 to Nov. 30. About 200 women received medical assistance, and 6,000 were helped with contraceptive measures. Moving forward, these services are supported by other partners; the International Rescue Committee said it would continue to monitor the situation and when needed advocate for the sexual reproductive health and rights of refugees. In the partnership, a monthly workshop was held in the camps to increases awareness of sexual and reproductive health. It is a service that Ms. Alizadeh came to value. Also among participants was Rukhsar Masudi, an 18-year-old from Iran, who had never been to school but taught herself to read and write. She attended and actively participated in the workshops. “I have learned a lot from these workshops. Despite the cultural sensitiveness of the subject for us, I think I have made great progress,” she said through an interpreter in Farsi. “Nevertheless, each time I come here, I have more questions to ask.” Ms. Alizadeh gave birth to a boy in Serbia. The child, Dino, has hearing problems. “Dino is not a typical name for our culture, but I named him after the manager of the camp, who is a man with a big heart and who helped me and my family,” Ms. Alizadeh said. Her wish for the future is to find a secure place for her family, to provide education for her children and medical aid for Dino. “It’s not a lot to ask for,” she said.