Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

AddedQ. whereas labour market segregation, as well as horizontal and vertical gender segregation in education, remains a key factor contributing to gender inequality in the work domain, while gender stereotyping is a major driver of occupational segregation68 that women face continuously while also receiving lower wages69; whereas labour market disparities, differences in employment for women and men across sectors and regions, including in outermost regions, and a lack of fair working conditions and safety for women workers are still persistent across the EU, and the existing gender pay gap is, to a large extent, the consequence of the systematic undervaluation of work carried out in female-dominated sectors in which there is a prevalence of women and only around 20 % of men participate, such as care, education, health and welfare; whereas the issue of ‘equal pay for equal work or work of equal value’ therefore needs to be tackled to close the gender pay gap; whereas education, especially tertiary education, training and social protection, is essential for gender equality, especially for women over the age of 55 and women living in rural, remote or depopulated areas who face specific and compounded obstacles; whereas education is also essential to allow everyone to adapt to labour market changes and have access to quality job opportunities;

AddedR. whereas in 2023, the gender pay gap in the European Union was 13 %70 and, on average in 2025, women in the EU earn 15 % less per hour than men; whereas the situation is worse in certain regions, for example rural areas, and in certain sectors, for example the healthcare sector where the gap stands at 24 %71 and this leads to large disparities in pension payments and contributes to differences in revenues in old age, which leads to women in the EU receiving pension incomes that are 26.1 % lower on average; whereas the right to equal pay for equal work or work of equal value is not guaranteed and the root cause of that discrimination needs to be tackled, whether by applying tools to better define and compare the value of work, protecting and enhancing labour rights, or strengthening collective bargaining, where relevant; whereas building an inclusive economy and addressing gender disparities could significantly boost the Union’s GDP per capita from 6.1 to 9.6 % by 205072;

AddedS. whereas the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has disallowed measures adopted by the Spanish Social Security Authorities to improve women's pensions and reduce the gender gap;

AddedT. whereas women and girls are still under-represented in the area of education and employment, and especially in STEM, digital and AI areas, with only one in six ICT specialists and one in three STEM graduates being women73; whereas men account for more than 80 % of professionals in STEM and in the ICT sector74 and women account for only 41 % of jobs in science and engineering within the Union; whereas even though the number of young women graduating in ICT and STEM fields has been increasing, the gender employment gap and pay gap remains significant, especially with regard to start-ups; whereas women only accounted for 22 % of global AI professionals in 2018, a problem that serves only to perpetuate and entrench stereotypes and bias75; whereas this discrepancy not only represents a missed opportunity for the EU’s technological advancement, economic growth, innovation and resilience, but also hampers women’s participation and careers in future labour markets; whereas the growing demand for STEM skills in digital, clean and circular sectors, as well as in aerospace, defence and traditional industries, calls for the strengthening of qualified female talent; whereas the EU is facing many challenges that affect its competitiveness and this underscores the need for increased economic activity that is inclusive of all; whereas access for women, in all their diversity, to all sectors, including ICT and financial sectors, is key for the competitiveness of the European economy; whereas gender equality is a driver of economic growth, innovation and social cohesion;

AddedU. whereas emerging digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, AI-generated scams, the creation and dissemination of deepfakes or nudifying tools, and cyberbullying, are becoming increasingly common and they constitute a risk factor for gender equality, and could perpetuate and deepen existing patterns of gender inequalities, discrimination and violence against women and girls; whereas gender biases are enshrined in technology, including in AI systems, and the existing business models of dominant online platforms, which are based on micro-targeted advertising, play a role in spreading and amplifying hate speech and different forms of cyberviolence; whereas social media channels and the increasingly addictive nature of their algorithms pose a risk factor to the mental well-being of young girls and women and these need to be addressed through a gendered lens; whereas these technologies, if developed ethically and in a gender sensitive manner and used appropriately, can be an opportunity for women and girls;

AddedV. whereas news media coverage often lacks a gender dimension and fails to challenge gender stereotypes; whereas women are under-represented in media sector professions at all levels of the governance structure, including in information production, decision-making processes and media ownership; whereas the Council of Europe stated that 'women represent only about a quarter of the persons heard, read about or seen in the news, they are rarely represented in an expert capacity'76; whereas the data from the 6th edition of the Global Media Monitoring Project found that, in 2020, only 2 % of stories in Europe77 clearly challenged gender stereotypes78;

AddedW. whereas across the EU, both informal and formal caregiving responsibilities continue to be disproportionately carried out by women, thereby contributing to structural gender inequalities and feeding the gender care gap by limiting women's ability to participate in the labour market, which leads to lower earnings and pensions and hinders the possibility for women to reach economic independence on equal terms with men, while exposing them to stress-related health risks79; whereas women who return to the labour market after maternity leave or extended caregiving responsibilities often face difficulties in re-entering employment, including skill obsolescence, lower earning potential, reduced career progression opportunities and workplace discrimination; whereas such barriers contribute to the gender employment, pay and pension gaps and adversely affect the well-being of children and other dependants and must be addressed through targeted policy interventions and support schemes;

AddedX. whereas almost 30 % of women in the EU work part-time; whereas women in the EU are much more likely to have to give up paid work to take care of children and/or other dependants and the unavailability, prohibitive costs and lack of high-quality childcare infrastructure and services, particularly in the public sphere, continue to be a significant barrier to the equal participation of women in all aspects of life, including work; whereas the International Labour Organization has emphasised the lack of public and private investment in childcare and other formal care services, and it stresses that long-standing unequal attitudes towards care activities at large push the economic and social cost of caregiving predominantly onto women; whereas unpaid care responsibilities keep around 7.7 million women in the EU from participating in the labour market and there is a large untapped potential in balancing the care sector for our economies, as highlighted by EIGE estimates that predict that the employment rate could increase to 80 % by 2050 if substantial improvements are made in gender equality80; whereas according to Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey, 42 % of non-working carers are in the lowest income quartile (compared to 24 % of non-carers), 59 % of non-working carers have difficulty making ends meet (compared to 46 % of non-carers) and 80 % of care is provided by informal carers, predominantly women aged 45-75, which contributes to gender inequalities in terms of employment and income; whereas approximately one in four paid care workers is a migrant, many of whom face exploitation due to a lack of adequate regularisation pathways, which is especially relevant considering that about 9 out of 10 paid care workers are women;

AddedY. whereas the establishment of a care deal for Europe, minimum wages in the care sector and access to high quality, free public services would contribute to reducing poverty and closing the gender pay gap, pension gap and care gap;

AddedZ. whereas in 2024, the CEDAW Committee issued general recommendation No. 40 on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems, and included, in the pillars of the recommendation, 50-50 parity between women and men. in all their diversity. in terms of equal access to and equal power within decision-making systems; whereas the percentage of seats held by women in national parliaments rose from 11.3 % in 1995 to only 27.2 % in 202581; whereas in the EU in 2025 only around a third of parliamentary seats are held by women82; whereas, despite many policy and legislative initiatives, women are faced with structural, cultural and institutional barriers and research shows that they are under-represented at all levels of economic and political decision-making worldwide, including at the local and regional levels, and that the achievement of gender parity and representation in political life, as well as in the business sector – particularly within boards of directors – is a distant prospect that requires targeted action at all levels of governance;

AddedAA. whereas the climate emergency and gender inequalities are interlinked and the climate crises perpetuates existing inequalities, including access to education and employment opportunities, access to and control over land and natural resources, and participation in decision-making spaces83; whereas the harmful effects of climate change and ecosystem degradation are being borne disproportionately by women and girls, notably those in already marginalised situations, including Indigenous and other natural resource-dependent communities;

AddedAB. whereas the Union is facing multiple crises, including climate disasters, armed conflicts, pandemics and populism, the effects of which are gendered; whereas armed conflicts disproportionately impact women and girls, including through the rise in the use of GBV as a weapon of war84, and have resulted in an overall deterioration of women's rights, with detrimental consequences for the full enjoyment of the human rights of women and girls globally; whereas, despite the WPS agenda being central to contemporary global peace and security challenges, women's participation and leadership in foreign policy, defence, security and peacebuilding is still lacking, to a largely unknown extent due to the shortage of data collection; whereas several projects have been developed with the aim of collecting comprehensive data, such as the #SHEcurity index, that can serve as good practices and examples for data collection at EU level; whereas women are continuously under-represented in peace negotiations and in 2022 they represented only 16 % of negotiators in active peace processes led or co-led by the United Nations85; whereas including the gender perspective in the EU's foreign and security policy means acknowledging and combating the specific gender dimensions and impact of global phenomena such as climate change, migration, trade and security, as well as putting a focus on the experiences and needs of women and groups facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and marginalisation at the centre of policymaking; whereas the gender action plan (GAP) is the EU's ambitious strategy for contributing to the SDGs, in particular SDG 5, and accelerating progress on gender equality; whereas women's empowerment is a priority of all EU external policies and actions, having also played an active role in shaping the Agenda 2030; whereas the EU's external policies include a commitment to ensure that 85 % of all new programmes contribute to gender equality and women's empowerment; whereas such a commitment is currently missing from the EU's internal policies, including at Member State level, posing a risk of unequal progress towards gender equality within the EU;

AddedAC. whereas gender equality, as one of the core values of the EU, needs to be reflected and promoted across all EU programmes, policies and activities, including in the delivery of their objectives; whereas gender equality is one of the four horizontal principles in the multiannual financial framework (MFF) 2021-2027, yet according to the European Court of Auditors, gender equality is the least well integrated horizontal priority in the EU's long-term budget86; whereas the current gender expenditure tracking methodology of the EU budget does not contain a category to capture budgetary interventions with a negative impact on gender equality; whereas EU gender budgeting has been applied primarily as a tracking mechanism, rather than being embedded throughout the entire budget cycle, from planning to evaluation; whereas this limits its transformative potential; whereas the implementation of the new post-2025 Gender Equality Strategy depends on the next MFF 2028-2034, which will therefore become a key vehicle for its execution; whereas there is a need to align the targets between the next MFF and the post-2025 Gender Equality Strategy;

AddedAD. whereas discrimination based on the characteristics listed in Article 21 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is prohibited; whereas many women, girls and vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities, people from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, people who are racialised, people from ethnic, minority or migrant backgrounds, LGBTIQ+ people, especially trans and intersex women, Roma people, and people experiencing discrimination on the basis of age (both younger and older people) (hereinafter the list of non-discrimination grounds), face intersecting inequalities and discrimination in the EU; whereas women and girls with disabilities constitute 29,2 % of the female population in the EU, and they face exclusion and discrimination in all areas of life, as well as a high rate of GBV; whereas women and LGBTIQ+ individuals, whether in transit or residing in reception facilities, are frequently exposed to specific gender-based risks, including violence, insufficient access to healthcare and legal insecurity; whereas this should be specifically addressed;

AddedAE. whereas gender inequalities are more evident in certain sectors, such as agriculture, financial and consumer services87, health and care88, STEM89, and in some areas, such as rural regions, islands and outermost regions; whereas women from these areas and sectors who experience intersectional discrimination face specific structural barriers that make it difficult to participate in the labour market and access healthcare, education, housing, digital connectivity, and essential public services and infrastructure, and in some cases these are entirely unavailable; whereas depopulation is occurring in rural areas, including in the outermost regions, with young people being more likely to leave, especially girls and women90, undermining their right to stay in those areas; whereas a targeted and intersectional approach is needed to address the persistent gender gaps, in particular in the aforementioned sectors and regions, and to ensure that women and girls are not left behind in the implementation of the Gender Equality Strategy;

AddedAF. whereas all of the Member States are bound to act in children’s best interest by safeguarding their right to family life and prohibiting discrimination based on their parents’ marital status, sexual orientation or method of conception; whereas around two million children may still face legal uncertainty in cross-border family recognition; whereas in 2022, the Commission proposed a Council regulation91 on parenthood and the creation of a European Certificate of Parenthood and this still pending in the Council;

AG. whereas the Roadmap for Women’s Rights reaffirms the EU’s strong commitment to safeguarding and advancing gender equality and women’s rights, outlining the principles and long-term vision for progress on which the post-2025 Gender Equality Strategy will rely;

Change 4

Changed1. Calls on the Commission to present an ambitious Gender Equality Strategy 2026-20302026-2030, building on the first Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, with concrete, measurable, tangible legislative and non-legislative measures and objectives in the key areas outlined below;

Gender-based violence

Change 5

Changed2. Calls on the Commission to identifysubmit gender-baseda violenceproposal to the Council to include GBV as a new area of crime listed under Article 83(1) TFEU and to effectivelyeliminate, combatwithout delay, all forms of violence against women and girls, including systemic violence, which constitutes one of the most widespread fundamental rights violations in the EU;

Change 6

Removed3. Urges the Commission to recognise femicide as a distinct crime;

Added3. Calls on the Commission to swiftly publish its recommendation on the prevention of harmful practices against women and girls, including all forms of obstetric and gynaecological violence, malpractice in medical settings, forced abortion and forced sterilisation, the denial of abortion care, and female and intersex genital mutilation, and to ensure that it complements the Directive (EU) 2024/1385;

Change 7

Changed4. Calls on the Commission to monitor and encourage a swift transposition of Directive (EU) 2024/1385 on combating violence against women and domestic violence, and to present its recommendation on the prevention of harmful practices against women and girls;violence;

Change 8

Removed5. Calls on the Commission to put forward EU legislation to criminalise rape on the basis of the absence of consent; reiterates that rape is not only a violation of women’s fundamental rights and bodily autonomy, but also a form of sexual exploitation of women and girls;

Added5. Urges the Commission to recognise femicide as a distinct and stand-alone crime and emphasises that understanding femicide as 'the killing of a woman or girl because of her gender' is critical to understanding its root causes linked to gender discrimination and power imbalances;

Added6. Calls again for the Commission to develop guidelines for Member States on the implementation of Directive (EU) 2024/1385 on combating violence against women and domestic violence and on violence in all areas of life, including clear guidelines on comprehensive and age appropriate sexuality and relationship education with a focus on consent education in line with international standards, and to pay particular attention to the full implementation and enforcement of all articles of the directive, and especially of Article 35, which addresses the distribution of consent education materials and organisation of awareness-raising campaigns or programmes to increase knowledge of the fact that non-consensual sex is considered a criminal offence;

Added7. Urges the Commission to highlight the importance of the reporting element of Directive (EU) 2024/1385, in order for the directive to work effectively in preventing and eliminating such violence against women and girls; calls on the Commission to prioritise the prevention of GBV both online and offline, while stressing the importance of adequate, targeted and timely prevention measures, through education, digital literacy, training of professionals, and information and awareness-raising campaigns as a key element in combating violence against women and girls in line with the provisions of the related EU legislation;

Added8. Calls on the Commission to address the specific needs of victims of GBV, including, but not limited to, psychosocial support, housing for victims, lifelong learning programmes and childcare, and calls for the proper protection of victims and survivors, by ensuring and increasing long-term public investments and guaranteeing effective responses, which should be structural, intersectional and survivor-centred and should address the social, economic and cultural root causes of GBV;

Added9. Calls on the Commission to urge the Member States that have not yet ratified the Istanbul Convention to do so and to expedite this process; calls on the Commission to ensure, monitor and promote the process of implementation;

Added10. Underlines that marginalised groups face a heightened risk of violence and that intersecting forms of discrimination intensify the effects of GBV and re-victimisation, including due to law enforcement practices; calls on the Commission, therefore, to develop and, in cooperation with the Member States, implement mandatory, comprehensive training for all legal professionals, including judges and prosecutors, on issues related to GBV, intersectionality and victim support to ensure that legal professionals are adequately equipped to handle cases, both offline and online, in a gender sensitive and intersectional manner and to ensure that victims are not subject to secondary victimisation during legal proceedings;

Added11. Calls on the Commission to put forward EU legislation to criminalise rape on the basis of the absence of consent in all Member States; notes that 14 Member States still require either some form of violence to criminalise rape or do not mention consent explicitly; reiterates that rape is not only a violation of women’s fundamental rights, bodily autonomy and integrity, but also a form of sexual abuse and exploitation of women and girls, which is an EU crime according to the TFEU92; calls on the Member States that still use the definition of rape based on the assumption of violence to commence legislative changes to bring the definition in line with the latest international standards and with Article 36 of the Istanbul Convention;

Added12. Underlines the Commission’s and Member States’ legal obligation to protect women’s rights and their physical integrity; urges the Commission to ensure the swift and full transposition of the revised Anti-Trafficking Directive setting out stricter rules, providing stronger tools to fight trafficking in human beings, including new forms of sexual exploitation, and organised criminal groups, such as through better cross-border communication, and especially protecting the rights of minority and migrant women; stresses that demand reduction is a key instrument for the prevention and reduction of human trafficking, as it targets financial incentives; urges, furthermore, the Commission and the Member States to support efforts to rescue and rehabilitate victims;

Added13. Stresses that a society's approach towards prostitution impacts its understanding of gender equality and women’s rights and conveys messages and norms; calls on the Commission to encourage and support efforts of the Member States to take action in the areas of prevention, decriminalisation of people and especially women in prostitution, demand reduction, punishment of clients, destigmatisation and the elimination of stereotypes, and to ensure sufficiently financed, easily accessible and high-quality exit programmes for those who wish to exit prostitution; calls on the Member States to ensure that people in prostitution are actively involved in policymaking concerning their rights; calls on the Commission to support these efforts;

Added14. Condemns the practice of surrogacy, which involves the reproductive exploitation and use of women's bodies for financial or other gain, in particular in the case of especially vulnerable women in third countries; calls on the Commission to take measures to support ending this phenomenon;

Added15. Calls on the Commission to recommend EU support for studies into the relationship between GBV, intimate partner violence and cancer;

Comprehensive gender-responsive healthcare

Change 9

Removed6. Urges the Commission to ensure universal access to gender-responsive healthcare for women and girls;

Added16. Emphasises that health is a fundamental right, and therefore everyone must have access to quality, affordable, and accessible healthcare services respecting their informed consent and bodily autonomy; urges the Commission to ensure universal access to gender-responsive and quality-, patient- and outcome-centred healthcare in line with the highest standards for women and girls, in all their diversity, in particular groups experiencing intersectional forms of discrimination, including people with disabilities and from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, victims of GBV, racialised people and people from ethnic, minority or migrant backgrounds, older, LGBTIQ+ people, especially intersex women, transgender and non-binary individuals, women in rural and remote areas and outermost regions, pregnant women and mothers, especially single mothers; stresses the need for healthcare staff to be trained in gender-sensitive health issues and to respond to gender-based and sexual violence;

Removed7. Calls on the Commission to address, at EU level, the barriers to accessing healthcare for women in all their diversity;

Added17. Calls on the Commission to urgently address the gender health gap, including by tackling gender-specific health needs and risks throughout all life stages, while paying particular attention to diseases that disproportionately affect women, addressing gender disparities and biases in medical research, training and clinical trials and encouraging more women to pursue medical careers; calls on the Commission to put forward a specific action plan to tackle these issues and to further orient forthcoming health-related initiatives towards the concept of gender medicine, as introduced by the WHO93;

Removed8. Calls on the Commission to ensure full and equal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services, including the right to safe and legal abortion, for women and girls in all their diversity;

Added18. Urges the Commission to ensure that the new Gender Equality Strategy includes a strengthened focus on gender equality in public health; calls on the Commission to build on the growing understanding of the factors that affect treatment outcomes by supporting the gathering of more and better-quality disaggregated data to identify health disparities in subgroups that might not otherwise be apparent in the population, designing health interventions addressing subgroups in which disparities exist and monitoring health outcomes in high-risk populations; notes that special attention should be paid to pregnant and breastfeeding women;

Added19. Calls on the Commission to address the persisting mental health challenges faced by women and girls and marginalised groups and urges the Commission to ensure universal access to gender-responsive mental healthcare and to increase investment in healthcare facilities in rural areas and develop adaptable solutions such as mobile health clinics;

Added20. Calls on the Commission to address – at EU level – the gaps, inequalities and barriers to accessing healthcare for women in all their diversity, including women from vulnerable groups;

Added21. Calls on EU Member States to ensure and guarantee access to essential healthcare services and medications and calls on the Commission to increase investment in gender mainstreaming in health systems; stresses that the training of all medical professionals and healthcare workers should include a gendered approach; calls on the Commission to ensure that no one, especially women with disabilities, is subjected to harmful, invasive or irreversible treatments against their will, and to establish that all medical interventions are based on each individual’s personal, free and fully informed consent;

Added22. Urges the Commission to develop a comprehensive EU strategy to address women’s highly specific health needs at every life stage and to address the factors that impact the health of women and girls, also by including health in the EU Semester;

Added23. Stresses the importance of cooperation and exchange of best practices at European level alongside the efficient use of related EU funds to address common challenges in healthcare and calls on the Commission to strengthen inter-service cooperation between relevant policy services to ensure gender equality is systematically integrated across all initiatives related to health; calls on the Commission to encourage and support Member States with the implementation or expansion of national health insurance systems that offer comprehensive and affordable care;

Added24. Calls on the Commission to develop a gender sensitive approach to healthcare and to address specific issues where challenges persist, such as mental health, cancer, endometriosis or maternal healthcare; calls on the Commission to develop common EU-wide standards in antenatal, childbirth, postnatal midwifery and newborn and maternal healthcare to update the EU Directive on Midwifery94 in alignment with international standards and to enable healthcare professionals to share best practices in this field; calls for the establishment of an EU framework on the safe use of medicines during pregnancy and lactation;

Added25. Calls on the Commission to support healthcare systems to develop, implement and evaluate gender-focused disease prevention strategies as prevention can improve women’s and girl’s quality of life; therefore, urges the Commission to implement measures that are both prevention-based and raise awareness about the right to access healthcare services;

Added26. Stresses the need to address territorial disparities in access to healthcare by ensuring the availability of gender-responsive health services in rural, remote and depopulated areas; calls on the Commission and the Member States to invest in mobile health units, telemedicine and the training and deployment of healthcare professionals in underserved regions;

Added27. Calls on the Commission to create a comprehensive, binding framework and to ensure full and equal access, to all sexual and reproductive healthcare services, for everyone in the EU regardless of their migration or residence status; notes that these services and rights include respectful and high-quality obstetric, gynaecological, antenatal, childbirth and postnatal midwifery and newborn healthcare, comprehensive information and services on family planning, gender-affirming care and access to medically assisted reproduction and fertility care and treatments, safe and affordable modern contraception methods of one’s choice and the right to safe and legal abortion care services (medical and surgical), age appropriate sexuality and relationship education, STI prevention, post-exposure prophylaxis, detection and treatment services as an integral part of their human rights, without which the rule of law cannot be upheld; emphasises that Member States must ensure these services are accessible, affordable, and non-discriminatory; calls on the Commission to recognise all violations of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights as a form of GBV;

Added28. Stresses that any equality strategy should tackle all forms of GBV, including backsliding over and violations of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights; reiterates that access to healthcare and public services, particularly access to abortion care and psychological support for women victims of violence should be considered a priority; calls on the Commission to apply sanctions in cases of regressions in women’s rights, including restrictions on SRHR, access to abortion care or sexuality education, which must be considered violations of EU values and trigger proportionate institutional responses, including infringement procedures and consequences for funding; calls on the Commission to establish a monitoring and accountability mechanism, to swiftly address any retrogressive developments or threats to gender equality and all violations of women’s rights including SRHR and LGBTIQ+ people’s rights, in Member States, as well as to use existing mechanisms to assess compliance with the rule of law or fundamental rights, or as a dedicated mechanism and to include a dedicated sub-pillar on GBV in its annual Rule of Law report; calls on the Commission to encourage and engage men as active allies in the promotion of SRHR to address the broader context of the rising backlash among young men against young women and feminism;

Added29. Calls on the Member States and the Commission to include Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, including the right to safe and legal abortion care, in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, as laid out in Parliament’s resolution of 11 April 2024;

Added30. Highlights EU citizen’s broad support for enabling everyone in the EU to have access to safe abortion care, no matter who they are or where they come from, as it is among other things reflected by the successful European citizen’s initiative (ECI) ‘My voice, my choice’ calling on the EU to pass legislation that would create a financial mechanism helping Member States that voluntarily join this policy to provide safe abortion care for all those who lack access to it; urges the Commission to take swift action and follow this ECI demand and to establish a financial solidarity mechanism between Member States to ensure women in the EU can access abortion care;

Added31. Calls on the Commission to issue Recommendations to Member States on how to combat all forms of obstetric and gynaecological violence, which encompass a variety of neglectful, demeaning, abusive or harmful practices including but not limited to the ‘husband stitch’; calls on the Commission to facilitate exchanges among Member States on the issue of obstetric and gynaecological violence and to mandate EIGE to develop a set of quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure the prevalence and manifestation of obstetric violence and to allocate sufficient resources to addressing it;

Added32. Calls on the Commission to issue, in the framework of the implementation of the Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence, clear guidelines on the provision of sexual and reproductive healthcare to victims of sexual violence, in line with international public health and human rights standards, including the WHO standards on the clinical management of rape;

Added33. Recognises that fertility is a critical aspect of women’s health, and emphasises the need to proactively address the multifaceted factors and challenges related to fertility, such as the lack of access to fertility-related healthcare and treatments, or insufficient information and support services; urges the Commission to ensure that information on fertility preservation is accessible to all;

Gender equality and women’s empowerment in the world of work

Change 10

Removed9. Calls on the Commission to monitor and encourage a swift transposition of the directives on adequate minimum wages, pay transparency and women on boards;

Added34. Calls on the Commission to follow up and report back to Parliament on the implementation of the Adequate Minimum Wage Directive95and Pay Transparency Directive96, including the guarantee of robust pay-reporting requirements, effective access to judicial remedies for victims of pay discrimination, and appropriate sanctions for non-compliance, and the transposition of the Women on Boards Directive97; urges the Commission to monitor and guarantee the proper and timely enforcement of these Directives, which is of crucial importance for women on the labour market and will enable them to enjoy equal rights and conditions throughout their career;