Europe sets out five-year plan on equality

A five-year strategy for promoting equality between women and men in Europe has been adopted by the European Commission.

The strategy translates the principles set out in the Commission’s Women’s Charter and spells out a series of actions based around five priorities: the economy and labour market; equal pay; equality in senior positions; tackling gender violence; and promoting equality beyond the EU.

The actions include getting more women into the labour market and helping to reach the Europe 2020 target employment rate of 75% overall for women and men.

The Commission is also instituting an annual European Equal Pay Day to raise awareness of the fact that women continue to earn an average of nearly 18% less than men across the EU.

There will also be initiatives to get more women into top jobs in economic decision-making, as well as the promotion of female entrepreneurship and self employment.

A yearly top-level "gender equality dialogue" involving the European Parliament, the Council presidencies, European social partners and civil society to assess progress in implementing the strategy is also planned by the Commission.

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