The information on this page was last updated in November 2025. The information was collected in 2024 in the process of EIGE’s collection of data on institutional mechanisms for the promotion of gender equality and gender mainstreaming, and review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the EU.
European Commission
The coordination of gender mainstreaming across the European Commission’s directorates-general (DGs) is currently primarily the responsibility of DG Justice and Consumers, led by the Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib.
DG Justice and Consumers has a dedicated Gender Equality Unit (Unit D.3), which coordinates the Commission’s work in the area of gender equality, along with the Inter-service Group on Gender Equality (ISG), with members from all Commission DGs and services. The ISG coordinates the implementation of actions to promote equality between women and men in the policies and annual work programmes for the DGs’ and services’ policy areas.
The Gender Equality Unit deals with:
legal aspects (monitoring the gender equality acquis and new legislation);
policy issues, such as the exchange of good practices between the EU Member States, awareness raising and funding.
The unit is also consulted, both formally and informally, when new legislation is proposed. In the context of inter-service consultation, the Gender Equality Unit can make suggestions to reflect gender equality issues in proposals. The unit has a contact person for each DG, supporting the DGs to include a gender perspective in their activities and processes. It also supports civil-society organisations (CSOs), by providing expertise during consultations and public dialogue.
The unit gives EU CSOs a particularly important role in decision-making processes, through both formal and informal procedures. In the context of the preparation of policies, DG Justice and Consumers and the Gender Equality Unit organise public consultations and seminars with social partners on specific topics to gather input from a broad range of stakeholders.
On 5 March 2020, the Commission presented its 2020–2025 gender equality strategy. The strategy establishes policy objectives and actions to address gender equality challenges in the EU and ‘seeks to include the gender perspective across all policy areas, at all levels and in all stages of policy-making’. Additionally, in March 2025, the Commission released the roadmap for women’s rights to reaffirm the EU’s commitment to gender equality and counteract political movements that contest EU gender equality policies. The roadmap will serve to guide future EU action. This includes, in particular, the 2026–2030 gender equality strategy, which will be published in March 2026, along with EU external action. The roadmap acknowledges, in principle 8, that to be effective it must be underpinned by strengthened institutional mechanisms and strategies that promote gender equality.
Established in 1995 to support the gender mainstreaming approach of the Commission, the ISG brings together representatives from each of the Commission’s DGs. It is chaired by the structure with primary responsibility for gender equality – currently the Gender Equality Unit of DG Justice and Consumers – and coordinates the activities of Commission departments with respect to planning and implementing actions to promote equality between women and men in their policies and work programmes. The ISG is also the platform for monitoring and reporting the Commission’s activities in the area of gender equality, and it contributes to policy follow-up.
The group meets four times a year to monitor the implementation of specific actions. ISG members liaise with the Gender Equality Unit during the preparation of the annual report on equality between women and men, published every year ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March.
Established in 1991, the Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men consists of 70 members, involving representatives of the Member States, CSOs, social partner organisations and international organisations. It assists the Commission in formulating and implementing EU activities to promote equality between women and men by delivering opinions on relevant issues and ensuring that regular consultations and exchanges between bodies and institutions are taking place.
Since 2012, EIGE has attended the committee’s sessions as an observer organisation. Two representatives of the European Women’s Lobby may attend meetings as observers, while representatives of other organisations may be given observer status upon duly substantiated request. The committee normally meets twice per year.
The High-level Group on Gender Mainstreaming is an informal group created in 2001. It is composed of high-level civil servants from the Member States’ ministries responsible for gender mainstreaming at the national level, selected at the discretion of each Member State. It is chaired by the European Commission and meets twice a year, at the beginning of each new presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The group is responsible for supporting the presidency trios of the Council of the European Union in identifying relevant areas of policy and gender equality to be addressed. It is also the main forum for planning strategic follow-up to the Beijing Platform for Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and developing new sustainable development goal indicators. Since 2003, the group has assisted the Commission in the preparation of its annual report on equality between women and men, presented to the European Council.
Taking over from the European Network of Experts on Gender Equality, the Scientific Analysis and Advice on Gender Equality in the EU (SAAGE) network began its work in May 2016. SAAGE provides external expertise to the Commission in the field of gender equality policy and is composed of experts in statistics, econometrics, social protection, social inclusion and labour market economics.
SAAGE focuses on data collection and monitoring, utilising experts at the thematic and country levels from all Member States. It develops thematic reports, periodical reports and seminars, along with thematic seminars on specific gender equality themes. SAAGE covers all Member States, European Economic Area / European Free Trade Association countries, and acceding, candidate and pre-candidate countries, and is managed by Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and coordinated by the Gender Equality Unit of DG Justice and Consumers.
The European Network of Legal Experts in Gender Equality and Non-discrimination has been operating since 1983. In 2014, after a period of increasingly close cooperation, it merged two previous systems: the European Network of Legal Experts in the Non-discrimination Field and the European Network of Legal Experts in the Field of Gender Equality. The European Network of Legal Experts in Gender Equality and Non-discrimination is composed of executive committee members and independent experts (academics and practitioners) from Member States, European Economic Area / European Free Trade Association countries and candidate countries. It monitors the implementation of EU equality and non-discrimination legal acquis on a country-by-country basis, which it compiles into annual country reports and comparative analyses. The network is responsible for providing the Commission with independent advice on all grounds of discrimination covered by Council Directives 2000/43/EC and 2000/78/EC.
The network also assists in the dissemination of information on EU and national developments in this area through its annual European Equality Law Review, its website and other publications, which are presented and discussed during the network’s annual legal seminar. Overall responsibility for the management of the network rests with Human European Consultancy, Utrecht University and the Migration Policy Group. It is coordinated by Unit D.3 (Gender Equality) and Unit D.2 (Non-discrimination: Anti-Racism and Roma Coordination) of DG Justice and Consumers.
The European Network of Equality Bodies (Equinet) consists of public institutions fighting discrimination at the national level. DG Justice and Consumers founded Equinet to be a permanent network supporting and assisting 47 national equality bodies from 38 European countries, including all Member States. Equinet has a partnership agreement with the European Commission under the rights, equality and citizenship programme. Equinet works to enable peer support and capacity building among equality bodies and extracts learnings from the work of equality bodies to inform European policymaking. It has a specific commitment to the work of equality bodies in the area of gender, with a dedicated gender equality working group.
EIGE is a European autonomous agency. It was established in 2006, following the European Parliament and Council of the European Union’s adoption of Regulation (EC) No 1922/2006. The agency, located in Vilnius (Lithuania), became operational in 2010. EIGE produces independent research and shares best practices to promote gender equality and eliminate discrimination based on gender. As the EU agency for gender equality, EIGE:
provides research and collects and analyses data on gender equality with an intersectional perspective;
develops methods to improve gender statistics and data collections;
communicates comparable and reliable data and information with a hope-based approach;
measures the state of gender equality at the EU and Member State levels;
develops methodological tools and provides technical support for gender mainstreaming in all EU and national policies;
cooperates with EU institutions, Member States, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, equal opportunities organisations, universities and experts, research centres, social partners and related bodies, the media and its EU sister agencies.
EIGE also has its Experts’ Forum, which is the agency’s advisory body, and its Thematic Network on Gender Mainstreaming, which brings together gender mainstreaming experts and practitioners from national gender equality bodies, EU institutions and the Council of Europe. DG Justice and Consumers is the partner DG of EIGE.
To support its goal of improving equality and non-discrimination statistics in the EU, Eurostat has set up the Equality and Non-discrimination Statistics Task Force as a subgroup of the European directors of social statistics expert group, to which the task force will report. The subgroup is expected to complete its tasks by the end of 2026. The task force develops guidelines on and recommendations for improved comparability of statistical terminology in the EU context, with a focus on sex/gender, race or ethnic origin, religion or belief, and sexual orientation; enhances the dissemination of data; shares best practices; and suggests improvements for data coverage.
The EU High-level Group on Non-discrimination, Equality and Diversity set up the Subgroup on Equality Data to help Member States improve the collection and use of equality data. The subgroup compiles national practices, assesses data quality, supports the implementation of Commission strategies and fosters knowledge exchange. At the Commission’s request, the subgroup is facilitated by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.
The DG for Development and Cooperation (DG DEVCO) is the only unit in a DG with specific responsibility for gender issues. Within its units, it has a sector working on gender.
DG Research and Innovation houses a ‘gender sector’, which belongs to Unit D.4 (Democracy, Equality and Culture). It works to raise awareness of and build capacity for gender equality in research and innovation (R & I), both internally and externally, and integrates the gender dimension into relevant work programmes. It also devises and monitors the EU strategy on gender equality in R & I, while taking note of new and emerging policy priorities, such as fostering the innovation dimension of gender while developing an intersectional approach to gender equality.
The European research area (ERA) was created with the aim of building a single, borderless market for research, innovation and technology across the EU. One of the governance bodies of the ERA is the European Research and Innovation Area Committee (ERAC), which is a strategic policy advisory committee providing advice to the Council of the European Union, the Commission and the Member States in the early stages of policymaking on research and innovation policy issues. Part of ERAC is the Standing Working Group on Gender in Research and Innovation, the successor to the Helsinki Group on Women and Science. The working group is a policy advisory committee that provides advice to the Council of the European Union, the European Commission and Member States on policies and initiatives related to gender equality in R & I. The Council manages the secretariat of the group. The gender sector, in coordination with Member States through ERAC’s Standing Working Group on Gender in Research and Innovation, ensures that gender equality is a key priority within the ERA.
DG International Partnerships was established on 16 January 2021 as a replacement for DG International Cooperation and Development. The mission of DG International Partnerships is to contribute to sustainable development, the eradication of poverty and promote peace and the protection of human rights through international partnerships. It is also responsible for implementing the EU’s external aid instruments and coordinating the actions of the EU institutions, Member States and other EU actors around the EU’s core values, objectives and common priorities. DG International Partnerships consists of eight directorates. The Gender Equality, Human Rights and Democratic Governance Unit is part of Directorate G.
Gender Equality, Human Rights and Democratic Governance Unit (Unit G.1). The unit focuses on two core policy areas in terms of gender equality: gender equality and empowering women and girls, and ensuring freedom from gender-based violence. It develops policies, provides guidance on quality and implements thematic budget lines in greater detail. Unit BG1 also coordinates annual meetings of Member States’ gender experts, which cover the implementation of gender mainstreaming in development cooperation and involve representatives from EU delegations (embassies) in non-EU countries. The European External Action Service has appointed a gender adviser, who oversees the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda. The EU’s 2021–2025 action plan on gender equality and women’s empowerment in external action, extended to 2027, seeks to promote gender equality in all EU external actions. The action plan adopts a gender-transformative and intersectional approach. In addition, the Commission pledged to direct 85 % of new actions in external relations towards gender equality by 2027.
Network of gender focal points. This informal network of gender focal points is composed of representatives of the Commission’s DGs that deal with external relations and development cooperation, along with representatives of Commission delegations.
Group of Experts on Gender Equality in Development Cooperation. This informal group met for the first time in 1999 and is formed of Member States’ gender experts. It is chaired by the Commission and meets annually. Its aim is to discuss gender policy and developments in the context of major EU and international events.
The Advisory Group on Women in Rural Areas was created in 1998 and consists of representatives of socioeconomic organisations (agricultural producers, trade, consumers, the European Women’s Lobby and workers). It meets once a year and is coordinated by DG Agriculture and Rural Development. The common agricultural policy for 2023–2027, adopted by the Commission in 2021, promotes gender equality by encouraging the involvement of women in farming. This is the first time this aspect has been integrated into the objectives of the common agricultural policy.
The European Network to Promote Women’s Entrepreneurship (WES) has members from 31 European countries (the EU, Iceland, Norway, Türkiye and the United Kingdom). The delegates of the network represent central national governments and institutions and are responsible for promoting female entrepreneurship. WES members provide advice, guidance and information on existing support measures, and relevant contacts, for female entrepreneurs. The network also helps identify good practices. WES is coordinated by the Commission’s DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. Its activities are presented in an annual report, last released in 2012 and publicly available on the Commission’s website
The EU Anti-Trafficking Coordinator is responsible for coordination with national anti-trafficking coordinators or equivalent mechanisms, independent bodies, EU agencies and relevant CSOs. The EU Anti-Trafficking Coordinator works very closely with three networks: the EU Network of National Anti-Trafficking Coordinators and Rapporteurs, the EU Civil Society Platform against Trafficking in Human Beings and the Network of the EU Agencies’ contact points on trafficking in human beings.
European Parliament
The European Parliament is committed to gender mainstreaming in its work and organisation, a position confirmed in several resolutions since 2003. In 2019, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on gender mainstreaming. It called for the new multiannual financial framework to be ‘accompanied by a joint declaration by Parliament, the Commission and the Council’.
The parliament committed to ensuring that the annual budgetary procedures integrate gender-responsive elements that consider how the overall financial framework of the EU contributes to the objective of achieving equality and ensures gender mainstreaming. Most parliamentary committees (23 out of 24) have adopted action plans on gender mainstreaming in their work.
The European Parliament has established different bodies for implementing gender mainstreaming and promoting gender equality. In 2020, the European Parliament adopted its first gender action plan. The plan covers the political and administrative sides of the European Parliament and is an important milestone in the parliament’s commitment to gender mainstreaming. The action plan emphasises the use of gender mainstreaming tools and achieving gender balance in the parliament’s governing structures, including at the levels of committees and delegations. The parliament is now developing its second gender equality action plan.
The Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) is one of the 24 standing committees of the European Parliament. FEMM plays a crucial role in advancing gender equality and gender mainstreaming in the EU through legislating and influencing the European political agenda in the areas of equality between women and men and women’s rights. It generally collaborates on legislative processes with other committees, such as the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, by contributing opinions or amendments that introduce a gender perspective into specific legislative files.
The committee also monitors the implementation of EU directives in the area of gender equality. FEMM provides feedback on the European Commission’s gender equality strategy and programmes of action, and closely follows the Commission’s annual progress reports on equality between women and men, while also producing its own gender equality report.
FEMM also promotes gender mainstreaming by coordinating and chairing the European Parliament’s Gender Mainstreaming Network. The network was established in 2009 and includes the chair or vice-chair of each parliamentary committee, who are all appointed to implement gender mainstreaming in the work of their committees. It links members of the European Parliament with staff appointed to introduce a gender dimension into the work of committees and delegations, and it serves as a platform for sharing information and best practices.
The High-level Group on Gender Equality and Diversity was established in 2004 to promote equal representation of women and men at all levels of the European Parliament and ensure that the parliament is a safe and supportive workplace. Since 2007, its mandate has also included diversity.
One of the parliament’s vice-presidents heads the high-level group, which adopts a multiannual strategy to enhance the equal treatment of women and men in the administration of the European Parliament. The group cooperates closely with other parliamentary bodies (in particular FEMM and the Conference of Delegation Chairs). Administrative support for the high-level group is provided by the Equality, Inclusion and Diversity Unit of DG Personnel.
A standing rapporteur for gender mainstreaming was appointed in 2016. The main responsibility of the rapporteur is to draft reports on legislative proposals, documents of the European Commission or any other documents relevant to gender mainstreaming that will be presented to FEMM. In developing these documents, the rapporteur may consult with experts and other committee members to decide the political strategy to be followed.
Council of the European Union
The Council has no specific structural mechanism for gender equality. In 1994, the Member States’ ministers responsible for gender equality convened for the first time to promote gender equality as an issue to consider at the level of the European Community, while supporting preparation for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.
Member States’ ministers responsible for gender equality have the opportunity to meet as part of the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO). Among the main outcomes of EPSCO meetings are Council conclusions on subjects related to gender equality and women’s rights. The conclusions primarily focus on the areas of concern under the Beijing Platform for Action selected by the presidency country. As a substitute for a permanent gender equality council, Council of the European Unions presidencies occasionally organise informal meetings of gender equality ministers.
In May 2024, the Belgian Presidency organised the first meeting of EPSCO ministers dedicated entirely to equality issues. The presidency proposed that a reference to ‘equality’ be included in EPSCO’s name. No formal decision has yet been made.
In October 2025, the Danish Presidency organised a second meeting of EPSCO ministers dedicated solely to equality issues, producing conclusions on violence against women and domestic violence in the area of gender equality.
Other Council formations address gender equality in combination with other topics, such as human rights (the Working Party on Human Rights) or international partnerships (the Working Party on Development Cooperation and International Partnerships).