Budgets are not neutral. They can be indicators of the commitment to meeting women's needs, for example, and to achieving gender equality. Therefore, the EESC’s Commission for Financial and Budgetary Affairs, which I preside over, has decided to make an in-depth analysis of Gender Budgeting and look into how it could potentially be applied to the EESC budget in future.

But what is this all about? It's about incorporating a gender equality perspective into the drafting and implementation of the budget. This means promoting accountability and transparency regarding the potential gender equality impacts of spending decisions, specifying target groups of beneficiaries, to avoid discrimination or inequalities in the implementation of different policies and actions. This methodology gives a better understanding of how revenues and spending in the policies of different bodies, institutions and governments can have different impacts on women and men. This can also contribute to using public resources in a way that can make budgets and policies more efficient and effective.

Gender budgeting is based on the EU’s commitment to gender mainstreaming, and the European Parliament and the Council have repeatedly called on the Member States to introduce and implement this approach. The European Commission is also highly committed to a methodology that would make it possible to assess the gender impact of expenditure across the whole EU budget.

A study requested by the European Parliament’s BUDG Committee recommended that the EP, the European Commission and the Council take action to incorporate the principle of gender equality into the drafting of the EU budget. A European Parliament Resolution demonstrated its commitment to gender budgeting, also with the aim of influencing other EU institutions in the future.

I believe that the European Economic and Social Committee is very well placed to follow this recommendation. Of course, the European Parliament could use the budgetary and budgetary discharge debates in the plenary to call for this objective. The inclusion of gender budgeting in the budget, and its implementation by the European institutions, will inevitably require political commitment and legislative action. We will give serious consideration as to whether we, as a consultative institution representing civil society organisations, can be part of this strategic and important process.

Giulia Barbucci, EESC Vice-President for Budget