Hands joining - cooperation concept

EIGE is off to its fourth project with the Western Balkans and Turkey in our common path towards gender equality. We are working closely with EU candidates and potential candidates to make gender equality more visible in the region. Our focus is on improving the monitoring of gender equality in public policies, legislation and practice.

EIGE has worked with the Western Balkans and Turkey since 2013. On their way towards EU membership, EU candidates and potential candidates need to incorporate a gender perspective into their policy-making, following EU requirements. This includes improving the collection of gender statistics and especially data on gender-based violence and the protection of victims, in line with the implementation of the Istanbul convention.

EIGE provides technical expertise to the Western Balkans and Turkey to support these changes. This year, EIGE is helping with the development of national Gender Equality Indices in the region. Serbia was the first among IPA countries to develop and launch its Gender Equality Index in 2016. It is the first non-EU country to replicate EIGE’s Index, enabling a comparison with the EU and its Member States.

Our main collaboration partners are the national gender equality and statistical bodies and in the region. The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) funds the project.

EU candidates and potential candidates include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo*, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.

Further information

Read more about how EIGE works with EU candidates and potential candidates

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.

Image copyright: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.com