The multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020 from a gender equality perspective

For the enclosed five briefing notes, a gender budgeting methodology has been developed on purpose to analyze in a gender perspective the MFF proposal for 2014-2020. The MFF 2014-2020 assumes a very high relevance in the context of the financial and economic crisis as the EU Budget will finance the EU 2020 Strategy that is conceived as a pivotal tool for recovery. Despite the official declarations according to which: the EU 2020 Strategy was conceived as an opportunity to reform the economy in order to achieve more gender equality, and the intention to make gender mainstreaming the pivotal strategy for gender equality, the gender budgeting exercise has revealed that the gender perspective is far from being assumed in all policies, at all levels and at every stage of the policy making process. More precisely the analysis has been conducted the following five gender relevant policy issues: Economic Independence, Education and Training, Health/Wellbeing/Environment, Fundamental Rights, External Relations showing that the attention to gender is not evenly given by issue and that evaluation/monitoring in a gender perspective is still not as widespread as it should be to ensure an actual implementation of gender mainstreaming. The study has also revealed that it is possible to design and apply a gender budgeting methodology to the EU Budget. This is a very relevant result in view of a future introduction of gender budgeting in the EU budget procedure.