Brussels, 6 June 2025
At the European Women’s Lobby’s 35th anniversary, EU Commissioner Hadja Lahbib underscored the enduring partnership between the EU institutions and women’s rights organisations. She reflected on the movement’s roots in 1990 and the landmark 1995 Beijing Declaration, noting their continued relevance today.
Lahbib pointed to recent EU milestones, including directives on pay transparency, boardroom gender balance, and combating violence against women. She credited the Lobby’s tireless advocacy and coalition-building for helping drive these achievements.
Looking ahead, the Commissioner stressed the need to protect civil society and acknowledged the rise of new threats, particularly gender-based cyber violence. She called this a “digital poison” that must be confronted with urgency.
In March, she presented a Roadmap for Women’s Rights as a forward-looking vision for equality. Lahbib promised that the next EU Gender Equality Strategy will place gender equality at the core of all EU policies. This includes mainstreaming through focal points in every Cabinet and ensuring future EU budgets apply a gender lens to spending.
She concluded with a call to action, reaffirming her commitment to support the European Women’s Lobby in breaking new ground over the next 35 years.
E-Summary by ChatGPT, prompted by Insight EU, based on the speech below
Speech by Commissioner Lahbib for the 35th Anniversary of the European Women’s Lobby
Brussels, 6 June 2025
“Check against delivery”
I am delighted to be with you on this 35th anniversary of the European Women’s Lobby. At the Commission, our support for the Lobby started right at the beginning in 1990, and our support continues to this day.
1990 feels like a long time ago. I was 20-years old and a student at the Université libre de Bruxelles. I was reading books by Simone de Beauvoir, reading newspapers made of real paper, and writing handwritten letters.
Just five years after the Lobby was born, the world came together in Beijing. The 1995 Declaration and Platform for Action became a global turning point for women’s rights. It had a simple, yet powerful message: women’s rights are human rights. I know some of you in this room were there — including Mary Collins, now the Secretary-General of the Lobby.
This year, we mark 30 years since this visionary plan took shape in Beijing and still today it stands as a progressive blueprint for women’s rights around the world.
This connection between the past and present is powerful because when I look back at the past 35 years of your work at the Lobby, I am struck by how far gender equality has come in the European Union.
The fact that I stand here today as Commissioner for Equality, working alongside the first woman President of the European Commission. And we have a woman President of the Parliament, and a woman High Representative. This is clear progress.
We have achieved major milestones in recent years: directives on pay transparency, gender balance on company boards, and combating violence against women and domestic violence. And the European Women’s Lobby has been right there with us every step of the way, always advocating, always ready to build coalitions, and always with one clear goal — achieving equality.
You have been a fierce and reliable ally and a trusted partner. You have also challenged us and held us accountable. That is a good thing. That is how we get better.
Women’s rights organisations everywhere have been engines of progress, so we need to make sure they have the space, safety, and support to keep doing their work. Civil society must be nurtured and protected.
Today we face challenges no one could have foreseen back in 1990. Take the early days of the internet — so full of hope and optimism. I don’t think any of us could have imagined how widespread gender-based cyber violence would become. It has morphed into a digital poison for millions of women and girls. What once felt like a promise has, in many ways, become a new front in the fight for women’s rights.
It is precisely because of these new challenges — and because women’s rights can never be taken for granted — that I presented the Roadmap for Women’s Rights this March. It is a vision for a more equal future.
As we start preparing for the next Gender Equality Strategy, we need to stay true to our values and keep our eyes firmly on the goal: a truly gender-equal Europe. And there is only one way to get there: we need to keep gender equality at the heart of all our policies.
I will lead by example in my double portfolio. Alongside the Equality Task Force, we now have gender equality focal points in every Cabinet to make sure gender mainstreaming happens in practice and at the political level.
If we are serious about equality, we have to put our money where our mouth is. We hope the next EU multi-annual financial framework will reflect the progress we are working for by applying a gender lens in every euro we spend.
I would like to end with a simple “thank you”. Thank you for everything you have done for 35 years to build the Europe we all believe in — fair, equal, and inclusive.
Today more than ever, we need a strong European Women’s Lobby. I know I can count on you to keep pushing boundaries and breaking down barriers for the next 35 years. You can count on me to be right by your side.
Source – EU Commission