Changes from plenary report to adopted text

54. Calls on the Member States to collect gender-disaggregated data on land ownership, agricultural leadership and the informal contributions of women, so as to empower women and work towards informed policy decisions, which reflect women’s strength and talent; welcomes the Commission's plan to launch an EU Observatory on Farmland; welcomes the proposal by Commissioner Hansen in his Vision for Farming and Food to create a European Land Observatory and highlights the need for this observatory to collect gender-disaggregated data; calls on the Commission to assess the policy gaps that act as barriers for women when it comes to acquiring or inheriting land and issue policy recommendations to counteract this; calls on the Commission to propose, in particular, specific measures aimed at young female farmers under the CAP;

55. Calls on the Commission to propose specific measures to support young female farmers and agri-food entrepreneurs, including financial incentives and initiatives to address structural and cultural barriers to land access and farm succession; highlights that generational renewal is key to maintaining and developing agricultural activity, which ensures both food security and vibrant rural communities; calls for an increase in the share of the CAP budget allocated to measures specifically supporting female farmers, with a view to promoting gender equality in rural areas, and enhancing the socio-economic inclusion of women in agriculture; calls on the Commission, in particular, to propose specific measures aimed at young female farmers under the CAP, as it is currently impossible to prioritise women within the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund’s young farmer’s scheme;

56. Advocates, in particular, the inclusion of specific measures for young women farmers in the future CAP budget, in particular in the outermost regions, that facilitate access to credit, land and innovation, in order to ensure generational renewal in areas particularly vulnerable to agricultural abandonment;

57. Calls for the Member States, as well as regional and local governments, to specifically inform, train and support women in rural areas to participate in places of decision and deliberation in their areas, such as municipal, school, cooperative or trade union boards;

58. Urges gender-responsive selection criteria and dedicated measures under both CAP pillars to support women farmers and women-led rural businesses, with ring-fenced outreach and advisory services;

59. Calls on the Commission, the Member States, and regional and local authorities to ensure greater social and economic inclusion in rural areas, ensuring equal opportunities and the active participation of women and the most vulnerable groups; stresses the importance of, and calls on the Member States to ensure that, EU funds are used to develop resilient, sustainable and well-connected territories capable of guaranteeing universal access to safe, accessible and high-quality public and private goods and services, including education, healthcare, mobility, digital infrastructure and social services, in order to strengthen local economic development and regional cohesion, the attractiveness of rural areas, and their contribution to the well-being of society as a whole;

60. Stresses that good connectivity in rural areas is essential not only for economic development but also for safety and health, noting that reliable communication networks can intervene in situations of gender-based violence, ensure timely access to medical care in emergencies and enhance overall safety and well-being; calls on the Member States to prioritise investment in digital and transport connectivity as part of efforts to create inclusive and secure rural communities;

61. Reaffirms the need to strengthen the attractiveness, especially for women, of professions related to agriculture, livestock, fisheries, the maritime sector and the environment in the outermost regions, due to their organisation role at the economic, social and environmental levels, with sustained support aimed at younger generations;

62. Stresses that the design of most equipment, tools and materials used in agriculture is based on average male characteristics, which limits the possibility of women using them safely and efficiently; expresses regret that this lack of gender-sensitive design contributes to the excessive physical demands made on women and discourages them from farming; calls on the Commission and the Member States to support the development and distribution of ergonomic equipment and materials tailored to women’s needs;

63. Stresses the need to make the farming profession more attractive, especially for younger generations and for women; considers it essential to remove the stigma of farming as a profession by recognising that modern agriculture also means entrepreneurship, innovation and providing added value; calls on the Commission and the Member States to include in their strategies and initiatives measures that promote agriculture as a viable career with good prospects, and one which combines traditional and entrepreneurial dimensions;

Equal access to infrastructure, services and social protection

64. Stresses that equitable access to infrastructure and high-quality services, such as high-speed internet, reliable and sustainable transport, water services, childcare and education services, care services for elderly people and people with disabilities, timely access to essential medical and social services, as well as other basic services, such as postal and banking services, is essential to enable women living in islands, rural areas, and remote and outermost regions to participate in economic, educational and civic life; recognises the importance of ensuring that there are local schools in rural areas; calls on the Member States to consult with local populations concerning the eventual closure of public schools and to propose valid alternatives in such cases; urges the adoption of gender-sensitive rural mobility policies, including safe, reliable and affordable public transport, demand-responsive services, safe stops and routes, and measures to prevent and address harassment; calls on the Commission to develop policies and instruments that ensure the connectivity of these regions, specifically in the case of the outermost regions, through a POSEI-Transport funding programme, in order to guarantee the right to stay, creating conditions for all, and especially for women, to stay in these regions and to create and expand opportunities in education, employment, and entrepreneurship;

65. Recognises the importance of making equal sharing of domestic and care responsibilities possible in order to achieve the work-life balance necessary for women to engage in entrepreneurship and self-employment; calls on the Member States and regional and local authorities to invest in social enterprises, cooperatives and care-related business models that empower rural women while addressing local needs, and to provide appropriate childcare, eldercare and community well-being; calls on the Member States to implement the Barcelona targets, ensuring the coverage of these needs through investment in accessible and affordable high-quality care services; welcomes actions already taken by some Member States on this matter, urges them to fully transpose and implement the Work-Life Balance Directive, and calls on the Commission to monitor it effectively;

66. Underlines how women’s entrepreneurship in Europe’s mountainous and depopulated regions adds vitality to high-altitude communities, serving to keep mountain villages vibrant, protect fragile ecosystems, and ensure that living at points of high elevation remains full of opportunity and pride, with good access to women-specific resources and services;

67. Notes how seasonal economies, involving activities such as harvesting and tourism, and depopulation further increase the isolation and vulnerability of women and girls; underlines how addressing these barriers through better connectivity, targeted funding and local support networks is essential to unlocking the full potential of women entrepreneurs in mountainous areas;

68. Notes that the inadequacy of farm relief services in many Member States impacts women farmers in particular; calls on the Member States to reinforce these services;

69. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to examine new intergenerational housing concepts for rural areas that combine housing, care and community life for young families and older people and provide new impulses for rural development;

70. Stresses that limited access to healthcare, including access to sexual and reproductive health rights and services, and mental health services, disproportionately affects women living in rural and island areas and outermost regions, exacerbating existing inequalities and undermining the full exercise of their fundamental rights; underlines that the scarcity of medical infrastructure, the lack of healthcare professionals and geographical and transport barriers pose additional obstacles to the timely provision of adequate care; calls on the Member States to ensure equal, affordable and timely access to and continuity of essential healthcare services in these territories, promoting innovative solutions such as mobile clinics, local units, telemedicine, strengthening primary healthcare clinics and, where relevant, cross-border care arrangements and targeted prevention programmes, to guarantee equity in access to healthcare and social and territorial cohesion; stresses, furthermore, the importance of ensuring the availability of adequate mental health support and services tailored to the specific needs of women in these regions, in order to address the heightened risk of isolation, stress and burnout;

72. Highlights the particular economic challenges of eastern border regions, including limited employment opportunities and wage inequalities; draws particular attention to the high level of unemployment among women and young people in these regions, which is significantly above the EU average; calls on the Commission and the Member States to develop targeted programmes supporting entrepreneurship, facilitating young female farmers’ access to land and finance, and ensuring the effective use of CAP and cohesion policy instruments to strengthen the resilience and development of these regions;

73. Underlines that women still predominantly take on caregiving roles, whether caring for a sick relative, a child, or an elderly person, which too often leads them to interrupt or abandon their professional careers; stresses the need to develop and make accessible affordable and high-quality services, in particular childcare, to facilitate the reconciliation of private and professional life, including the continuation of entrepreneurial projects;

74. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to establish an integrated ‘one-stop-shop’ within the CAP, with a dedicated section for women in rural areas, making it accessible online; underlines that this facility should include an interactive map of available financial instruments, standardised application templates and advisory services for the preparation of business plans and projects;

75. Considers that cohesion policy should be more empowering for women living in the EU’s outermost regions and should promote gender equality as well as the effective implementation of the EU’s strategy on gender equality in the outermost regions;

76. Emphasises that female entrepreneurship on small islands makes a decisive contribution to social cohesion, sustainability, the strengthening of local identity and sustainable development; points out that the spatially limited market on islands and in remote areas limits the development of agriculture and, implicitly, of women’s entrepreneurial initiatives in this field and poses a challenge for entrepreneurship; calls, in this context, for EU policymakers and national authorities to direct their attention to this, to ensure a level playing field for women entrepreneurs on islands and in remote rural territories;

77. Calls on the Member States to ensure effective access to social protection for self-employed women and assisting spouses and partners in agriculture and craft micro-enterprises, including adequate pensions and family-related leave and access to maternity, parental and pension rights in line with the European Pillar of Social Rights;

Violence

78. Condemns all forms of gender-based violence as a violation of women’s fundamental rights and a barrier to women’s autonomy and economic empowerment, including through entrepreneurship; calls on the Member States to prioritise targeted support, protection measures and accessible resources for rural women affected by violence, ensuring their safety, dignity and access to justice including for those in post-conflict recovery and involved in peacebuilding efforts; highlights that the nature and terms of women’s work in rural and island areas, along with their physical isolation, increases their vulnerability to gender-based violence; calls for comprehensive prevention including awareness-raising on domestic, economic, sexual and psychological violence, and to ensure access to services such as helplines, support services and shelters and effective measures to end impunity; stresses the need for targeted campaigns in rural areas to raise awareness of and counter gender-based violence, particularly in communities where traditional gender roles and economic or family dependencies often prevent women from seeking help or leaving abusive situations; reiterates the call for the EU and all Member States to ratify, implement and adequately fund the Istanbul Convention and ensure equal access to services for women in rural and island areas and outermost regions;

79. Underlines the importance of access to confidential services in rural communities and of women’s shelters for women and children in situations of domestic violence; recalls the Istanbul Convention’s standard regarding women’s shelters of one family place per 10 000 head of population; regrets that access to such shelters in rural areas is limited; calls on the Member States and local and regional authorities to provide sufficient financial support and resources to specialist women’s organisations for the establishment and management of such shelters and for the continuity of provision in affected areas; urges the Member States and local authorities to actively promote a culture of respect, dignity and mutual understanding, with a focus on empowering rural and vulnerable communities made up of women and girls; highlights that open dialogue, survivor-centred storytelling, collective responsibility for the prevention of violence and positive educational initiatives can inspire empathy and collective healing;

80. Calls on the Member States to support the establishment of monuments or memorials dedicated to the historical pain and suffering of women in post-war conflicts, including crimes committed in geographically vulnerable areas, such as rural locations;

81. Urges the introduction of measures that support survivors’ economic independence, including targeted training, job placement, entrepreneurship grants and microcredits, so they can safely enter or re-enter the labour market;

82. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that the implementation of Directive (EU) 2024/1385 on combating violence against women and domestic violence fully addresses the specific needs of victims in rural and island areas; stresses the importance of including rural considerations in national transposition plans; urges the Member States to use EU funding instruments, including cohesion policy and rural development funds, to support efforts to address gender-based violence, including the development of targeted strategies to ensure that victims in these areas have equal access to justice, protection and support, including through mobile victim support units, rural helplines, community-based services, and awareness-raising campaigns tailored to rural populations; highlights the need to bridge the digital divide and improve infrastructure to facilitate reporting and access to services;

83. Emphasises that the absence, or inferior status, of women working on the farm of their spouse/partner contributes to their economic dependency; notes that women’s lower employment rates, obstacles to inheriting land or taking over their parents’ farms, as well as limited access to credit and funding, have a similar effect, increasing the risk of domestic and economic abuse;

84. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that women’s entrepreneurship in rural, mountainous, border and island areas and outermost regions is fully supported within the framework of the post-2027 MFF; reiterates the need for gender mainstreaming across all MFF programmes; stresses the need to ensure that EU funding programmes such as the ERDF, the ESF+, the Just Transition Fund, Interreg, and in particular the CAP, cohesion policy, Horizon Europe, and the Digital Europe programme, include specific measures aimed at promoting the active participation of women, supporting the creation and consolidation of rural enterprises, and fostering innovation and digitalisation; also underlines the importance of facilitating women’s simplified and effective access to EU funds, covering not only agricultural businesses but also cooperatives, local associations and women-led community projects, in order to strengthen territorial cohesion, gender equality, and the economic vitality of rural and island areas and outermost communities; calls in this regard on the Commission and the Member States to enhance the visibility and accessibility of funding opportunities specifically dedicated to women in rural areas, including through targeted information and promotional campaigns aimed at increasing awareness and uptake; welcomes the recent announcement by the EIB regarding the extension of its Sustainability Awareness Bond framework to include two new social objectives – gender equality and women’s economic empowerment – which represents a step forward in integrating the gender dimension into financing;

85. Opposes strongly the centralisation of cohesion policy funding, as women’s support through cohesion policy funds would then hinge on the goodwill and allocation of national governments rather than be allocated at regional level; calls in this regard on the Commission and the Member States to honour the principles of multi-level governance and place-based solutions, as well as the partnership principle, as set out in the Treaties;

86. Supports the Commission’s strategy for the savings and investments union and the creation and expansion of inclusive financial instruments, including a labelled EU Investment Savings Account (ISA) to increase and facilitate access to finance for EU companies; calls for a tailored ISA specially designed for women living in deprived areas;

87. Welcomes any examples which celebrate the dedication of women agriculturalists, and promote awareness of sustainable agricultural practices rooted in European traditions;

88. Underlines that policies promoting women’s entrepreneurship in rural and island areas and outermost regions must adopt an intersectional approach, recognising that women’s experiences and access to opportunities are shaped by multiple and intersecting factors;

89. Stresses that the different EU initiatives and EU funding schemes must be designed and implemented through an intersectional lens, addressing the multiple and overlapping barriers women face, and ensuring that no woman entrepreneur is excluded or left without adequate support;

90. Underlines the importance of mobilising all actors in the financial system to improve women’s access to funding and, for this purpose, encourages the establishment of a European charter for equal access to finance;

91. Reiterates the need for the EU to adopt a comprehensive and integrated strategy for women’s entrepreneurship in rural and island areas and outermost regions, setting out clear objectives, measurable targets, and coordinated measures across the EU’s various funding instruments; requests that this strategy be allocated specific, stable and adequate financial resources, as well as dedicated funding mechanisms adapted to the particularities of these territories, in order to ensure equal access, promote innovation and digitalisation, and strengthen the EU’s economic, social and territorial cohesion, as well as to ensure adequate support from the Member States;

92. Highlights the contribution made by LEADER and Community-led Local Development to gender equality and local empowerment; calls for these approaches to be maintained, reinforced and ring-fenced with simplified access for women-led initiatives;

93. Calls for the EU and the Member States to combat trafficking in women and forced prostitution with a comprehensive strategy that includes prevention, effective prosecution, cross-border cooperation and assistance and protection for victims; emphasises that women must be able to decide for themselves what kind of work they do;

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94. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.