WIP and the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union launched the EU Women Caucus, on 2 December. The members of the EU Women Caucus are female EU Commissioners, Members of the European Parliament, female Permanent Representatives of EU Countries, and female Director Generals of the EU Institutions.
During the event at the Residence of the Italian Permanent Representative to the EU, Stefano Sannino stressed the importance of the inter-institutional aspect of the project while Silvana Koch-Mehrin, former Vice-President of the European Parliament and Founder of WIP, emphasized the need for an influential network for the women leaders of the EU.
The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, welcomed the initiative via Twitter: “Good to see strong female leadership in the European Parliament, European Commission and European Council with the launch of the EU Women Caucus today”.
The members of the EU Women Caucus released and signed a mission statement during the launch, expressing their aim to “strengthen the collaboration between politically engaged women in the EU institutions and to build a strong, permanent alliance with the mission of promoting female leadership”. (Read the full Mission Statement).
Today, 37% of the Members of the European Parliament are women and 9 out of 28 Commissioners are women. The EU Women Caucus has been created to address this unbalanced gender representation in the European Union. It is a unique cross-party and inter-institutional platform for discussion that brings together female leaders of the EU Institutions.
The new platform will be led by the Co-Chairs of the EU Women Caucus, including the Vice Presidents of the main political groups of the European Parliament: Lara Comi (EPP), Maria João Rodrigues (S&D), Helga Stevens (ECR) and Sophia In’t Veld (ALDE). Also the EP Vice President responsible for gender equality, Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE), and the Chair of the EP Women’s Rights Committee, Iratxe García Pérez (S&D).
