European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Remarks by Executive Vice-President Mînzatu and Commissioner Lahbib on the Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030 Brussels, 5 March 2026 Executive Vice-President Mînzatu Last week we took a clear stance on providing access to support for vulnerable women who need medical care. This was a big achievement. My Voice, My Choice was heard. Today we go further and present t...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Remarks by Executive Vice-President Mînzatu and Commissioner Lahbib on the Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030 Brussels, 5 March 2026 Executive Vice-President Mînzatu Last week we took a clear stance on providing access to support for vulnerable women who need medical care. This was a big achievement. My Voice, My Choice was heard. Today we go further and present the Gender Equality Strategy for 2026-2030. Gender equality is not a nice-to-have. It is a must. At a time when we see backlash against women's rights in parts of the world, we must be crystal clear: Europe will not go backwards. These were hard-won achievements. The first goal of this Strategy is as simple as it is ambitious: to make gender equality a lived reality. We will work with Member States and stakeholders to support them and ensure that the rules we have are properly implemented. Second, we make sure we catch up with the present. Gender related violence, discrimination and bias have moved online. So must our response. Women must be as safe online as they are offline. The tools we have to fight crime offline must apply online as well. Gender equality is also about creating the best conditions for growth and fairer, more prosperous societies. Europe cannot afford to waste talent. We know investing in our human capital, in skills and in quality jobs can drive growth. One year ago, we launched the Union of Skills, with a clear target: one million girls to STEM by 2028. And we are well on track, with already over 280,000 women and girls who have benefitted from the STEM Education Strategic Plan. We launched the Quality Jobs Roadmap last autumn and are working towards a Quality Jobs Act. Creating good working conditions is essential to bring into the workforce the over 50 million people who are sitting in the margins, most of whom are women. And in the forthcoming Anti-Poverty Strategy, we will address the reality that poverty still disproportionately affects women. EU funding makes a difference for these efforts. Gender equality is a crosscutting priority for the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+). Almost 85 billion euro of ESF+ contributes towards it, out of which over 4 billion euro specifically to supporting gender equality: women in STEM,more women entering the labour market, access to quality and affordable care services, and special challenges faced by vulnerable women. If we succeed, the gains can be really significant. Closing the gender gaps in employment and pay could increase EU GDP per capita by up to 10% and create up to 10 million additional jobs by 2050. Gender equality is a team effort: we must work with Member States, social partners, civil society and international partners. In a challenging global context, the EU will continue to be a beacon for gender equality. Because gender equality is not just a legal obligation in the EU. It is a moral duty, a social and economic imperative, and part of what we stand for as a Union. Let me now give the floor to Hadja to explain in more detail the key areas of action of the Strategy. Thank you. *** Commissioner Lahbib Zan. Zendegi. Azadi. Femme. Vie. Liberté. Trois mots qui ont secoué une nation en 2022. Un élan qui a coûté la vie à Mahsa Amini . Elle avait 22 ans. Ils avaient essayé de faire taire une femme. Ils en ont réveillé des millions. L'histoire d'une femme, devint l'histoire des femmes, de tout un peuple vivant dans un pays. L'Iran. Ces trois mots devinrent le battement de cœur d'un mouvement qui résonne d'autant plus fort aujourd'hui. Et nos pensées vont vers celles et ceux qui tremblent de peur, qui tremblent d'espoir … de lendemains meilleurs. Nous sommes avec elles, avec eux. « Femme, vie, liberté » appartient à chaque femme. Partout. Parce que chaque femme mérite la liberté, la dignité et une vie épanouissante. Une autre femme iranienne, Shirin Ebadi, première Iranienne à recevoir le prix Nobel de la paix, a un jour déclaré : « La demande d'égalité des droits en Iran n'est pas une revendication occidentale. C'est une exigence humaine. » Elle a raison. L'égalité n'est pas l'est ou de l'Ouest, du nord ou du sud…Sa boussole est universelle. Ici en Europe, nous avons fait de réels progrès ces dernières années. Nous avons adopté des lois pour lutter contre la violence à l'encontre des femmes. Pour améliorer l'équilibre vie professionnelle/vie privée. Pour arriver à l'égalité salariale grâce à la transparence salariale. Et pour briser les plafonds de verre. La semaine dernière encore, nous avons franchi un pas important. Les citoyens de toute l'Europe ont envoyé un message puissant à travers l'initiative « My voice My choice», exigeant l'accès à des soins d'avortement sûrs pour chaque femme de notre Union. On avance, mais trop lentement ! Au rythme actuel, l'égalité totale des sexes dans l'UE prendra un demi-siècle. Un demi-siècle ? Rendez-vous compte ! Je serai sans doute six pieds sous terre, ma fille sera une vieille femme à la retraite… et il sera déjà trop tard même pour ma petite fille. Non, on ne peut pas continuer comme ça, et c'est pourquoi cette stratégie est si importante. Il s'agit de passer à la vitesse supérieure parce qu'il y a urgence. Urgence et danger car certain aujourd'hui sont tentés de remonter le temps et de faire reculer l'égalité… Nous ne laisserons pas cette marche arrière advenir. Et c'est pourquoi je suis si fière de présenter cette nouvelle Stratégie d'égalité des sexes pour les cinq prochaines années. One year ago, we set the direction with our Roadmap for Women's Rights: eight clear principles, from ending violence against women to strengthening women's economic opportunities. Now this Strategy is the engine that puts it into action. Thirty concrete measures to tackle the discrimination and barriers women and girls face throughout their lives. But let me be clear: Gender inequality is not a women's issue. It is a societal issue. A gender-equal world is also better for men. Because equality makes everyone stronger. True equality unites. It does not divide. And yes, men and boys are co-authors of this story. I will briefly focus on four concrete areas of action: First, ending violence against women and safer online spaces. The numbers are striking. One in three women in the EU has experienced gender-based violence. One in five has suffered physical or sexual violence from their partner, ex-partner, relative, family member, or someone in their household. And too often, it ends in the most extreme form of violence: femicide. In the EU, 18 women are killed every week simply because they are women. We are supporting Member States to implement our ground-breaking Violence Against Women Directive. We will make sure ‘no means no' everywhere in Europe. We will support national reforms that define rape clearly on the basis of consent. We will update our mapping of rape laws across the EU to identify where further action, including legislation, may be needed to ensure that sex without consent is recognised as rape everywhere in Europe. We will also support Member States in promoting education on consent. And as all Member States must develop their own plans for tackling violence against women and domestic violence by June 2029, we are ready to support them starting now. We are also tackling sexually explicit deepfakes. 98% of AI-manipulated images are pornographic. And 99% of these depict women. Gender-based online violence is a systemic risk that online platforms must address. And we are enforcing the rules. The Commission is currently investigating whether the platform X has done enough to prevent the spread of this kind of illegal content. With the Violence Against Women Directive, enforcement of the Digital Services Act, and our new cyberbullying action plan, we are building safer digital spaces. Freedom of expression must never become freedom to abuse. Our second priority is women's health. For the first time, health policy is placed in the spotlight in our Gender Equality Strategy. We are launching a new initiative with the World Health Organization to improve the quality of women's healthcare. Because women are still underdiagnosed in heart disease. Because too much medical research still ignores sex differences. Because women's pain is too often dismissed. For too long, women have been told how resilient we are. That we can tolerate pain. Enough! We had no choice. That must change. We will also improve access to care, invest in gender-sensitive research, and ensure diagnostics and treatments reflect women's real needs. And in humanitarian crises, we are stepping up too. We are launching SHIELD, Sexual and Reproductive Health in Emergencies and Life in Dignity. SHIELD will improve access to sexual and reproductive healthcare in crises and strengthen support for survivors of gender-based violence. Our third focus is economic power and competitiveness. Gender equality is not just a fundamental rights issue. It's an economic one. The employment gap costs the EU over 390 billion euros every year. That is wasted talent. And wasted growth. We need more women coding and designing the technologies of tomorrow. Because if women are missing from the design table, inequality gets coded into the system. We will launch a new Action Plan on Women in Research, Innovation and Startups. Our goal: to make Europe the top destination for women in these fields by 2030. Through the Girls Go STEM initiative, we aim to bring one million girls into STEM careers by 2028. And men and boys are not bystanders in this change. They are partners. That's why we are taking action focused on boys. To harness their talent in Health, Education, Administration and Literacy fields. Talent has no gender. We cannot afford to waste any of it. And women must be paid the same as men for the same job. And feel safe at work. More than 4 in 10 young women in the EU experience sexual harassment at work. This must stop. That is why we are consulting social partners on sexual harassment at work in preparing this year's Quality Jobs Act. And the fourth area of focus is leadership and safety in politics. Yes, we have made progress. Women lead the Commission, the Parliament, and EU diplomacy. But according to UN Women, at the current pace, it will still take 130 years to reach full gender equality in the highest positions of power across the world. And when women reach the top, they often become targets. This is especially true in politics, where one third of women politicians in Europe who face online violence leave social media. I know this personally. And many of my colleagues do too. This is unacceptable. Democracy cannot function if women are bullied out of public life. We will put forward a clear Recommendation on safety in politics. To protect political candidates and elected representatives from threats, offline and online, including disinformation. And we will confront the toxic narratives that lure young men and boys into a world of hatred. That's why we are stepping up our work with civil society and local communities. Bringing people together, especially men and boys, for honest conversations about disinformation and equality. We want a world where girls and boys, women and men, everyone can enjoy the same rights. That is the world we are building. And this Strategy moves us closer to that. A world where “Woman. Life. Freedom” is not a protest slogan. But a promise of autonomy, opportunity, and dignity. Thank you. SPEECH/26/546 Press contacts: Eva HRNCIROVA (+32 2 29 88433) Anna GRAY (+32 2 29 80873) General public inquiries: Europe Direct by phone 00 800 67 89 10 11 or by email Related media EC press conference by European Commission Executive Vice-President Roxana MÎNZATU and Commissioner Hadja LAHBIB on the Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030 EC press conference by European Commission Executive Vice-President Roxana MÎNZATU and Commissioner Hadja LAHBIB on the Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030
Speech Brief