European Documentation Centre (EDC)

The European Commission is calling on all citizens to participate in a public consultation on the “EU Democracy Defence Package”. Give your feedback to the European Commission and make your voice heard in the defence of democracy. Your views will be taken into account in the development and drafting of this initiative. Feedback received will also be published on this website.

The deadline for feedback is 13 April 2023.

What is the defence of European democracy initiative about

In 2022, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced this initiative in her State of the European Union address to the European Parliament.

The European Commission intends to propose a concrete legislative initiative by summer 2023. It aims to protect our democracies from entities funded by or linked to third countries that could influence public opinion and the democratic sphere. This initiative also aims to promote free and fair elections and strengthen civil society and civic engagement. At the same time, the initiative aims to take stock: Some measures have already been taken at EU level under the European Democracy Action Plan – now it is also a matter of reviewing how well they have worked!

Every year since 1911, women around the world have brought gender equality to public attention on International Women's Day.

Gender equality is also a fundamental principle of the European Union, but it is not yet a reality.

With the Gender equality strategy, the EU is pushing to accelerate gender equality, especially in the following areas:

• Promoting equal economic independence for women and men,
• closing the gender pay gap,
• advancing gender balance in decision making,
• ending gender based violence,
• promoting gender equality beyond the EU.

Access to a wealth of data aligned with the main dimensions of the Gender Equality Strategy can be found at the Gender Equality Strategy Monitoring Portal.

Progress on gender equality in the EU and its Member States is reported in the 2022 Annual Report on Gender Equality.

To strengthen and promote gender equality across the EU, the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) was established in 2010.

On the EIGE website you will find information on gender equality, the Gender Equality Index and a gender statistics database.

Also at EUROSTAT – the statistical office of the European Union, there are statistics on gender equality, a gender equality database and the interactive edition of 'The life of women and men in Europe', which gives you information on different aspects of life, such as education, work and social habits.

Equal Pay Day and the gender pay gap

Equal pay for equal work for men and women is one of the European Union’s founding principles, enshrined in Article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The implementation and enforcement of this principle remain a challenge. Owing to a lack of pay transparency, pay discrimination often goes undetected, and victims face difficulties in making claims for redress.

The EU is tackling the gender pay gap from different angles. The aim is to promote the principle of equal pay by creating new legislation and monitoring its implementation.

Women in the EU earned on average 13% less per hour than men in 2020.
Still, there are huge differences between the EU countries:

• Causes of the gender pay gap in the EU, the pay gap situation in different EU countries.
• Best practices in EU countries. Social dialogue, measuring tools and awareness-raising incentives in EU countries to promote gender pay equality and EU action for equal pay.

On 4 March 2021, the European Commission adopted a legislative proposal on binding pay transparency measures. The proposed directive to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work, or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms, focuses on measures to ensure pay transparency and better access to justice for victims of pay discrimination.
You can see the current status of the procedure here.

The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) has produced a detailed briefing on “Equal pay for equal work between men and women – pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms”.

The EU also monitors the correct transposition and enforcement of the Directive 2006/54/EC on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation and supports EU countries to properly implement existing rules. The Directive 2006/54/EC consolidated existing directives on gender equality in the field of employment together with the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Gender pay gap statistics can also be found at EUROSTAT – the statistical office of the European Union.

You can read about how the gender pay gap has developed in Hesse at the Hessian Wage Atlas of the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration.

Citizens' Panel presents 23 recommendations for less food waste

The European Commission has organised a European Citizens' Panel where citizens could make suggestions on how to reduce food waste in the EU more. At the end of three weekends of consultations, the 142 citizens submitted 23 recommendations. They aim to strengthen ongoing efforts to reduce food waste – through more cooperation in the food value chain, promoting relevant initiatives in the food industry and supporting changes in consumer behaviour.

The recommendations of the Citizens' Panel on food waste will complement the impact assessment and open public consultation that the Commission is carrying out as part of the EU initiative to revise the Waste Framework Directive with binding targets for food waste reduction.

The reduction of waste, in particular food waste, is the subject of a legislative proposal in the Commission's 2023 Work Programme, in line with the Farm to Fork strategy and the proposals of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Reactions of the EU Institutions

Feedback event in Brussels
On 2 December 2022, high-level representatives of the three institutions, the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission, presented to citizens who participated in European and national panels and events their follow-up on the Conference and its proposals.

The programme of the follow-up event is available on the Conference’s platform. The public sessions of the event is streamed here.

The European Commission adopted a notification about the Conference on the future of Europe – “Putting Vision into Concrete Action” on June 17, 2022.

As early as June 9, 2022, the European Parliament requested the European Council in a resolution to initiate a convention to revise the EU treaties in order to implement the results of the conference.

The European Council took note of the outcome of the conference in a conclusion on June 24, 2022. The EU Institutions must ensure effective follow-up to the proposals of the conference, within their respective competences and in accordance with the treaties.

Report on the final outcome

The Conference on the Future of Europe concluded its work.

A year-long journey of the Conference on the Future of Europe brought together Europeans from across the EU. And they came up with proposals for a better EU.

The report (opens in new tab) on the final outcome of the Conference, including 49 proposals and 326 measures how to achieve them, was presented to the Presidents of the three institutions on 9 May 2022.

Some 20,000 ideas were shared on the online platform, 178 recommendations were formulated by the European Citizens' Panels.
European democracy was the topic with most contributions, followed by climate change and the environment.

Background

During a final meeting, that took place from 29 April to 30 April at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the Conference Plenary reached a consensus on its final draft proposals (opens in new tab) . They are based on recommendations from the European Citizens’ Panels, the National Citizens’ Panels and events, ideas recorded on the Multilingual Digital Platform (opens in new tab) as well as discussions held during the Conference Plenary and Working Group sessions.

Further information
EP Research Service – At A Glance: The Conference on the Future of Europe (20.01.2022)
Timeline of the Conference on the Future of Europe
Free photos, video and audio material from Parliament#s Multimedia Centre