European Women's Lobby

Founded in 1990, the European Women’s Lobby (EWL)[3] is the largest alliance of women’s non-governmental organisation in the European Union bringing together thousands of women’s organisations throughout Europe.

The EWL works for the advancement of equality between women and men as well as the mainstreaming and monitoring of a feminist gender equality perspective in all areas of European Union policy and for the achievement of parity democracy at all levels.

The EWL’s mission is to promote the empowerment of women in all their diversity; to advance gender equality; to combat all forms of discrimination and violence against women and to ensure full access for all women to their human rights through their active involvement in society and in policy development and implementation

As of Octobre 2008, the EWL comprises 30 national co ordinations[4] in European Union countries and countries in accession to the European Union and 20 European-wide member organisations[5] and represents approximately 2000 direct member organisations.

The EWL Secretariat is based in Brussels.

History: when, by whom and why

It all started in London in November 1987 when 120 women, member of 85 organisations representing 50 millions individual members, came together and adopted two resolutions. The first called for the ‘creation of a structure for influence, open to all interested women’s organisations, to exert pressure on European and national institutions to ensure better defence and representation of women’s interest’. In a second resolution, the delegates called upon the European Commission to ‘lend its support for the organisation in early 1988 of a meeting with a view to the implementation of such a structure’. Support was granted and the European Women’s Lobby and its secretariat in Brussels were formally established in 1990. The EWL was founded in 1990 by Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom national coordinations and 17 large European-wide women’s organisations.

At the time just twelve countries formed the European Union, then known as the European Communities (EC). Over the years, as new Member States joined the EC, new national co-ordinations became members of the EWL. While the EU enlarged to countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the EWL established links and cooperation with women’s organisations in these countries and successfully continues to welcome new national members every year.

The EWL currently has national co ordinations in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia,Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. 20 European-wide member organisations are also members of the EWL. All these represent approximately 2000 direct member organisations.

The European Women’s Lobby was created in response to a growing awareness of the need to defend women’s interests at European level since:

• The scope of the European Union’s activities were and continue to be extending and affect areas with a direct impact on women’s daily lives, particularly with the arrival of the internal market.
  
  
• It became urgent for women and their organisations to participate in the programmes established by the Union and to get acquainted with European legislation affecting them.
  
  
• The creation of such an organisation and its designation of lobbying also corresponds to the particular character of the European-level decision-making process, which allows space for the creation of many organisations, founded to represent all types of interest groups and categories of the public (including various economic sectors as well as trade unions, professional and social grouping).
  
  
• These organisations were responding to a real need on the part of the European institutions. Contrary to perceived ideas, the number of European officials is low, with only around 24000 people comprising the whole of the European Commission for example. The institutions therefore often call on experts in the course of their work, due in particular to the diversity of the Member States’ people and legislation.
  
  
• As decision-makers within the European institutions are not directly elected by the citizens, with the exception of the European Parliament, the creation of and organisation such as EWL also corresponds to the need to fill the democratic gap between the EU institutions and the citizens.
  
  

The creation of the EWL was therefore linked to the creation of a new form of public space at European level and a new form of interaction between citizens and political officials.

Aims of the European Women’s Lobby

The European Women’s Lobby, through its member organisations, aims:

• To support the active involvement of women in working to achieve equality between women and men ensuring the representation of women form different parts of the European region.
  
  
• To support national members through information, lobbying resources and training to actively engage with EU policy shaping and implementation of legislation at national level.
  
  
• Through analysis, evaluation and monitoring to provide regular input on all areas of EU policy development and implementation that have an impact on women’s lives and on the promotion of equality between women and men with specific reference to the Roadmap for equality between women and men and to the United Nation Beijing Platform for Action on Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women .
  
  
• To monitor and raise awareness about the development and implementation of gender mainstreaming in order to ensure the full integration of women’s rights, interests and perspective in all areas of EU policy.
  
  
• To take into account the needs and perspective of different groups of women, and the diverse experiences of women at all stages of their life cycle. These actions take place both in its internal policy and organisational development as well as in developing partnerships and joint working relationships with organisations that represent the many women that face multiple discrimination in the European Union and globally.
  

Policy areas of the European Women’s Lobby

• Women in Decision Making [6]
  
  
• Social Policy and Employment[7]
  
  
• European Gender Equality Policies and Legislations[8]
  
  
• Women's Diversity and Anti-Discrimination[9]
  
  
• Migration and Asylum[10]
  
  
• Fundamental Rights within the European Union[11]
  
  
• Revision of European Treaties[12]
  
  
• International Action for Human Rights/United Nations[13]
  
  
• Violence Against Women [14]

External links

European Women's Lobby website[15]

European Women's Lobby 50/50 Campaign 'No Modern European Democracy without Gender Equality' [16] - The 50/50 Campaing for Democracy led by the EWL seeks to ensure the equal representation of women and men in the European Parliament to be elected in June 2009 and the upcoming European Commission.

Nordic Baltic project website[17] - The Nordic-Baltic Pilot Project is a three year programme that aims to strengthen the cooperation and develop concrete activities to support and assist women victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation in the region.

European Commission and Gender equality[18]

European Parliament Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee[19]