The Pay Transparency Directive requires all companies to disclose information that makes it easier for those working for the same employer to compare salaries. Companies with 100 or more employees will have to find solutions if the pay gap is larger than five percent and recruiters will not be allowed to ask candidates about their current pay. The S&D Group has secured strong provisions on penalties and fines for non-compliance, which will be key to ensuring that companies actually take this directive seriously.
We also reinforced the role of social partners in the implementation of the directive and ensured that the burden of proof in cases of pay discrimination lies on companies and employers to prove the contrary.
We insisted on the ban on pay-secrecy clauses. This now enables all workers to share information on their pay internally, and externally to defend their right to equal pay.
This directive is an important step to break the pattern of pay inequalities. However, we as S&Ds would have wanted all companies – no matter their size – to be included in the whole scope of the Directive. We will fight for this in a future revision of the Directive.
The Women on Boards Directive has finally been adopted after a decade-long blockage by conservative governments and thanks to the continuous calls and negotiations for this landmark law by our Group. It sets binding targets to improve the gender balance on company boards in Europe. This is not only a success for the S&D Group but also for European businesses, because the most successful companies are those that have the most diverse boards of directors.
This Directive now introduces an open and transparent procedure to ensure a minimum of 40% of women in non-executive boards of EU companies by 2026, introducing quotas in both executive and non-executive boards, with the overall minimum requirement being 33%.
Member states have to set up a penalty system for companies failing to comply with the new laws and a list was set up whereby it will become clear which companies are complying with the targets.
It is now up to the member states to implement this Directive. The S&D Group will closely monitor it in the next mandate.
The EU has finally ratified the Istanbul Convention of the Council of Europe – the most comprehensive international instrument to combat violence against women to this day. Thanks to the insistent pressure and campaigning done by our Group, six years after the EU signed the Istanbul Convention, the Council has finally overcome the conservative minority opposition and agreed for the EU ratification and accession to parts of this treaty.
The European Parliament says women’s rights and SRHR are human rights and calls to decriminalise abortion in all member states! In a historic vote in June 2021, and despite enormous mobilisation from anti-choice and anti-gender movements, and last-minute manoeuvres by the EPP, the plenary adopted the progressive resolution. It called for guaranteed access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHRs) in the EU without discrimination, including safe and legal abortion care. We have been waiting for almost a decade to send this clear message that women are not second-class citizens.
Under the S&D Group's leadership, the European Parliament adopted a non-legislative resolution calling for an EU-wide approach on prostitution, by decriminalising people in prostitution and supporting those who want to leave it. The report is a strong signal of support to the most vulnerable in our society who are being dragged into a system of violence, and calls for measures at an EU level to end a system that benefits traffickers and pimps.
After years of our calls, the European Commission finally put forward a proposal for the first European legislation to combat violence against women and domestic violence. This proposed law takes a comprehensive approach to tackling gender-based, including sexual, violence covering prevention, protection and prosecution.
Crucially, the law proposes six crimes that would be recognised at an EU level and therefore prosecuted and defined in the same way in all EU countries. Included in this is the crime of rape based on a lack of consent, as defined in the Istanbul Convention. Currently, only 13 EU countries have laws defining rape as sex without consent. Others require victims to prove the use of force or threat for the act to qualify as rape.
It is a key priority for the S&D Group to have a consent-based definition of rape in this Directive, because we believe laws guide attitudes and create changes in societies that in the end will prevent sexual violence. EU national governments have so far refused, but we are determined to take on the fight with the objective of having an ambitious directive.
The directive also proposes the criminalisation of cyber crimes and female genital mutilation, provisions for free legal aid for victims of violence, comprehensive sexuality and relationships education with a focus on educating on consent, boundaries, and responsibility of men in the efforts to end gender-based violence through specific actions such as awareness raising campaigns to challenge gender stereotypes that help perpetuate violence against women, preventing re-occurrence of violence through developing methods to work with the perpetrators, guidelines and training for judges, prosecutors, police and all those authorities coming in contact with victims of gender-based violence.
Women’s rights need to be guaranteed to all women across the EU, which is not the case today. The S&D Group has put forward a proposal for the EU Charter of Women's Rights to set uniform, Europe-wide standards and serve as a guide towards gender equality in all policies at European and national levels. It also reaffirms the S&D Group’s commitment to achieve full gender equality in the EU and ensures the respect and protection of fundamental rights of women, whilst preventing any setbacks.
Women’s rights and access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) are in jeopardy, not only in the EU but also globally. Criminalising abortion does not lead to fewer abortions, but instead forces women to seek clandestine abortions in which they risk their health and their lives. This is a serious violation of human rights and a form of gender-based violence. Therefore, the right to free, safe and legal abortion care needs to be recognised under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Women in the EU face a scourge of sexual and gender-based violence, a widespread violation of their human rights, including the right to bodily autonomy and integrity, and the right to a life free from discrimination. Worldwide, almost one-third of women between the ages 15 and 49 who have been in a relationship have reported physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner. One in 20 women in the EU have been raped since the age of 15. Even the online world is not a safe space for women. One in 10 women in the EU have been victims of online sexual harassment since the age of 15. According to the European Institute for Gender Equality, the cost of gender-based violence in the EU exceeded 290 billion euros in 2019. As S&Ds, we keep up the fight for a tough directive to fight violence against women and gender-based violence that includes a strong consent-based definition of rape. However, our fight does not stop there. We urge the Commission to submit a proposal to the Council to identify gender-based violence as an area of EU Crime, so women everywhere in the EU are protected from all forms of gender-based violence.
We want to close the gender pay and pension gaps to strengthen women’s economic independence. Today, the gender pay gap still stands at 12.7% in the EU, and the gender pension gap is at nearly 30%. One in three women in the EU do not have a paid job. Women do a large majority of part-time work, unpaid domestic care work, and work in female dominated sectors is traditionally undervalued and low-paid. As a result, poverty is female: in Europe, more than 65 million women live in poverty compared to 57 million men, and women's poverty creates child poverty. The S&D Group will continue the fight against the systematic lower pay in female-dominated sectors by addressing the issue of equal pay for 'work of equal value'. We need guidelines that allow us to define and compare the value of work, gender-neutral job evaluation tools, and criteria.
The uneven division between men and women in unpaid care and domestic work remains an obstacle for women's participation in the labour market and their career advancement. To achieve an 'equal earner - equal carer' model in society, we are strongly committed to the implementation of the 2019 Work-Life-Balance Directive, and further develop care policies that foster equal parental and care leave schemes. The recently adopted European Care Strategy should be further developed into an ambitious European Care Deal, equipped with binding instruments and proper public investment. Its aim should be to promote decent working conditions and adequate wages for all carers in order to secure quality jobs that increase the attractiveness of working in the care sector.
Diverse groups take decisions that are better, more inclusive and more sustainable. Women in decision-making positions are important role models for the next generation. We want women, especially those facing multiple forms of discrimination, to be represented on an equal footing in the world of economic and political decision-making. To make it happen, we urge the European Council to establish a formal Council on Gender Equality. The EU needs a platform for intergovernmental exchange on gender equality by responsible ministers. We will continue to stand for enabling a fairer representation of women in politics by quota, reserved seats, and zip-lists, but also by implementing codes of conduct and party statutes to improve political culture.
