European Commission, Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, Cannoot, P., Van de Graaf, C., Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

In November 2020, the European Commission announced its first-ever LGBTIQ Equality Strategy. Recognising that discrimination, violence and social exclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, non-binary, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people persists throughout the European Union (EU), the Commission proposed several action points to advance LGBTIQ equality in the EU, in close cooperation with the Member States. Based on a wide-scale survey among LGBTIQ people, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) reported in 2020 that significant proportions of LGBTIQ people continue to experience discrimination, harassment and violence, simply because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and/or sex characteristics.

European Union Agency for Asylum, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

Since 2015, more EU+ countries have been indicating an increase in applications from transgender and intersex persons which would justify expansion of the Research Guide to LGBTIQ. Therefore, in April 2020, a brief survey was sent out to the EASO Strategic Network (consisting of COI unit managers in the EU+ countries), including the following questions: 1. Which COI challenges do you meet in researching the situation of LGBTI persons? Which topics do you find particularly difficult to research and which ones easy?

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services, Eisele, K. European Parliament, 2023.

On 12 November 2020, the European Commission adopted the 'Union of Equality: LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025'. With its LGBTIQ equality strategy, the Commission seeks to address inequalities and challenges affecting LGBTIQ people, with the objective of moving towards a Union of equality. It underscores the diversity of needs of LGBTIQ people, including the most vulnerable groups who experience intersectional discrimination, and trans, non-binary and intersex people who are the least accepted groups in society. Conducted at the request of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), this study offers an overview of implementation of the Commission's LGBTIQ equality strategy to date. The study examines the progress made in the past 3 years. It also studies the position of the European Parliament, which has been very active as regards the protection of rights of LGBTI people in the past four decades, along with the positions of other EU institutions, stakeholders and experts.

European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) is the EU’s main tool for the measurement, monitoring and benchmarking of innovation performance of the EU, individual Member States and their regions, as well as associated countries. In the context of improving the European Innovation Scoreboard, VVA explored how the gender perspective could be introduced in the current EIS/ Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS) framework conceptually and with the use of existing and new indicators.

European Institute for Gender Equality, Bernardo, C., Fiore, A., Morais Maceira, H. et al. Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

This report presents a gender assessment of the EU recovery response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in the short and long terms. It focuses on assessing the effects on gender gaps in employment and incomes of selected short-term national policy measures (e.g. taxes and benefits) temporarily introduced by the Member States to contain the adverse economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. It also examines the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) from a gender perspective and identifies opportunities and challenges for gender equality and gender mainstreaming. The RRF is an EU instrument to support reforms and investments in the Member States with the purpose of mitigating the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. RRF funds are disbursed on satisfactory fulfilment of milestones and targets included in the national recovery and resilience plan (RRP) of each Member State, which are also the focus of this study.

European Institute for Gender Equality, Francisco Carcelén, C., Janečková, H., Carpentier, S., Traynor, L. et al., Gender-responsive evaluation for a sustainable future for all – GREENA step-by-step toolkit, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The gender-responsive evaluation for an environmental and sustainable future for all (GREENA) step-by-step toolkit provides practical know-how to assess gender impacts and the implementation of gender-responsive evaluation of EU policies and programmes. The toolkit has been contextualised to support the evaluation of European Green Deal policies with a gender perspective, given its relevance as a current EU priority and the urgency to ensure a gender-responsive green transition. Specifically, the toolkit includes examples from four policy areas: transport, energy, agriculture and the circular economy.

European Institute for Gender Equality, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

Gender equality action plans are gender mainstreaming tools that outline the specific actions an institution will take to advance gender equality in their organisation. Institutions are not gender-neutral entities, as gender inequalities may be perpetuated through policies, activities and organisational culture. Gender equality action plans enable institutions to address the identified inequalities within their organisations by integrating a gender perspective into their internal activities and external outputs. The purpose of gender equality action plans is to facilitate gender-responsive institutional transformation, defined as a ‘process that aims to integrate gender equality into the regular rules, procedures and practices of an institution’.

European Institute for Gender Equality, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

This tool provides practical step-by-step guidance to parliaments at the EU, national and regional levels to develop, implement, monitor and evaluate a gender equality action plan. The tool describes how to: plan the process of establishing a gender equality action plan from start to finish; set up the necessary support structures and conditions that are required to successfully execute a gender equality action plan; design the contents of a gender equality action plan, including the measures that parliaments can adopt; recognise the key challenges they may encounter throughout the process, and potential solutions to prevent and address these concerns. The tool supports parliaments in achieving gender-responsive institutional transformation. If you have assessed the gender-sensitivity of your parliament, develop a gender equality action plan as a next step towards achieving a gender-sensitive parliament.

European Institute for Gender Equality, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

This report assesses the state of gender equality in the European Parliament and in national parliaments in the European Union (EU). Achieving gender-sensitive parliaments requires prioritising gender equality as a social, political and economic objective and transforming parliaments’ culture, processes, practices and outputs towards advancing gender equality. This involves ensuring that women and men in all their diversity are equally represented in parliament and can equally participate in parliamentary decision-making. It also requires measures to support members of parliament (MPs) and parliamentary employees in balancing their personal and professional responsibilities and fostering safe and inclusive working environments free from gender-based violence, sexual harassment and discrimination.

European Commission, Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

To achieve the objectives of the European Green Deal, the EU's Digital Agenda, and the Union of Equality, integrating an equality dimension into the work of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) is absolutely crucial. In its Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the European Commission commits to applying equality mainstreaming to its transport policy. To support the pursuit of this commitment, DG MOVE has developed a practical handbook to help staff apply equality mainstreaming in their daily work, and, hence, to comply with their obligations to promote equality and fight discrimination under Articles 8 and 10 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Pépin, A., Andriescu, M., Buckingham, S., Moungou, A. et al., Impact of gender equality plans across the European Research Area – Policy briefs, Pépin, A.(editor), Moungou, A.(editor), Gilloz, O.(editor) and Tenglerova, H.(editor), Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

Publication metadata
This document presents seven policy briefs that complement the main report of the study ‘Impact of gender equality plans across the European Research Area’. It covers the role of national and EU policies, examines the monitoring and evaluation of the gender equality plans (GEPs) eligibility criterion in Horizon Europe, and looks at the progress made towards inclusive GEPs and policies. It also focuses on counteracting gender-based violence in research and innovation (R&I), examines intersectional approaches to achieving inclusive gender equality in R&I, and discusses the role of organisational structure and leadership support in developing and implementing GEPs.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union, Davaki, K. European Parliament, 2023.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the FEMM Committee, considers the impact the lack of gender-disaggregated data has on women and vulnerable social groups, as consumers of products and services. It examines the areas of AI-applications, health, transport, finance and consumer goods, highlighting health and safety risks. Drawing on good practices it makes recommendations for the design of products and services, gender equality and inclusion.

European Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, Driel, B., Donlevy, V., et al. Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

The Issue Paper on Gender Equality in and through Education has been produced within the framework of the European Commission’s Working Group on Equality and Values in Education and Training (2021-2015). The Working Group (WG) operates within the context of the Commission’s Communication of 30 September 2020 on Achieving the European Education Area by 20251 and the Council Resolution of 26 February 2021 on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training towards the European Education Area and beyond (2021-2030). Participants of the WG comprise representatives from Member States and candidate countries, as well as from relevant European agencies, stakeholder associations, social partners and international organisations. The WG is coordinated by DG EAC of the European Commission, supported by three consultants from Ecorys.

European Commission, Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

On 12 November 2020, the European Commission adopted its first-ever LGBTIQ equality strategy for 2020-2025 (referred to below as the ‘LGBTIQ strategy’). It strives to build a ‘Union of Equality’ where diversity is promoted and protected, and where all people can love who they want to and be themselves, without risk of discrimination, exclusion, hatred or violence. In 2019, a survey conducted by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) found that the perception of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) was increasing in the EU. Amongst the lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans people who responded, 43% said they felt discriminated against in 2019, as compared to 37% in 20123.