Gender mainstreaming in the use of EU structural funds

The EU’s high-level group on gender mainstreaming met in May 2005. At the meeting, a range of best practice examples of gender mainstreaming in the use of EU structural funds were presented.

The third meeting of the high-level group on gender mainstreaming was held on 25 May 2005. This group is made up of senior civil servants from EU Member States who are responsible for promoting the gender dimension in the management of the EU’s structural funds. The two previous meetings of the group were held in June and November 2004. The work of this group consists of contributing to the development of tools and mechanisms to integrate the gender dimension at every stage of the regional and cohesion policy process. It also consults informally on a range of related issues and shares best practices. Its remit is contained in the European Commission’s Communication on the Implementation of gender mainstreaming in the Structural Funds programming documents 2000 - 2006, adopted on 20 December 2002 (COM (2002)748final).

At the May 2005 meeting, a variety of best practice examples of gender mainstreaming in the use of EU structural funds were presented. These include:

• the setting up of a gender institute in the region of Sachsen-Anhalt in eastern Germany. The role of this institute is to improve the level of training, encourage entrepreneurship and provide equal access to the labour market for women and men;

• plans to open a new pre-school in Kent, south-eastern United Kingdom. This will be situated in the local community centre and will provide community-based services, such as childcare; and

• a micro-credit scheme for female entrepreneurs in Finland.

Danuta Hübner, European Commissioner for regional policy, commented: 'Equality between men and women is one of the EU’s fundamental objectives, and we have a responsibility to see that it is taken into account in the area of regional policy, which accounts for one third of the EU budget and is one of the most visible policies for citizens. Gender mainstreaming is also part of the Lisbon strategy, because gender discrimination, both overt and latent, equates to a great waste of human resources. Eliminating discrimination will lead to gains in both employment and productivity.'

This information is made available through the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO), as a service to users of the EIROnline database. EIRO is a project of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. However, this information has been neither edited nor approved by the Foundation, which means that it is not responsible for its content and accuracy. This is the responsibility of the EIRO national centre that originated/provided the information. For details see the "About this record" information in this record.