European Women's Lobby

The European Womens Lobby (EWL), as the largest umbrella organisation of womens associations in the European Union representing more than 2,000 organisations across Europe, welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the call for evidence on the future Gender Action Plan IV (20282034).

The European Womens Lobby (EWL) welcomes the Commissions commitment to adapt employment policies to a fast-moving job market and foster quality jobs. Despite being, to some extent, gender-aware, EWL regrets that both the Quality Jobs Roadmap and the Quality Jobs Act consultation documents lack proper gender-mainstreaming.

In the context of this consultation, the European Womens Lobby (EWL) wishes to express its concern on the tendency of the EU to move towards a military/security approach. The EWL highlights that UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security will mark its 25th anniversary in 2025. This Resolution acknowledges that women are agents of peace and reconciliation.

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) recognises that this Directive proposal is a historic landmark and that it fills significant legislative gaps on violence against women and girls (VAWG) across the EU, especially on the legal definition of rape, the recognition of female genital mutilation as a criminal offence and the prosecution of key forms of online violence.

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) welcomes the European Commission’s (EC) initiative on preventing and combatting gender-based violence and domestic violence. By integrating in EU law the standards of the Istanbul Convention, this initiative is of the utmost importance as resulting legislation could save countless lives and prevent significant trauma and violence in the lives of women and girls across Europe.

Prostitution and Trafficking as Interlinked Systems of Exploitation In line with the long-standing position of the European Womens Lobby (EWL), prostitution and trafficking for sexual exploitation are structurally interconnected.

EWL believes that the current EU framework on victims’ rights does not fully grant their rights to victims of male violence against women and girls (VAWG). EWL calls for a comprehensive EU framework to ensure equal levels of protection and access to justice for all victims of VAWG, including child victims, all centered in a Directive.

The European Womens Lobby (EWL), the largest umbrella organisation of womens non-governmental organisations in the European Union (EU), welcomes the commitment of the European Commission to strengthening the support, protection and the rights of victims across the EU by developing the new Victims Rights Strategy for 2026-2030 .

The European Womens Lobby welcomes some elements made in this proposal of update of the Anti-Trafficking Directive and especially the provisions aiming at improving the identification of victims of trafficking, the liability of legal persons, the data collection and the mandatory criminalisation of the knowing use of an act provided by a victim of trafficking since very few member states have implemented this…

The EWL recognises the significance of the Anti-Trafficking Directive as a core pillar in the EU’s fight against all forms of violence against women and girls, recognising that this is a highly gendered crime given that the majority of victims are victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation (79%), and that the vast majority of those victims are women and girls (according to the UN 71% of victims are women).

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) suggests that harmful practices against women and girls should be understood in a broader way and include all kinds of violence against women and girls, whether it is because of the new forms of violence that emerged through the era of digitalisation and that was not necessarily foreseen in the Istanbul Convention - e.g.

The European Women’s Lobby welcomes the launch of this roadmap on the fitness check on the EU legislation on violence against women and domestic violence, aimed at strengthening the European legal framework and provisions. We support the European Commission's commitment to combatting violence against women and girls (VAWG) expressed in the Gender Equality Strategy (2020-2025).