Source: European Parliament
Gender-responsive budgeting is a practical tool that can be applied systematically throughout the budgetary cycle to ensure that resources are distributed equitably and that spending supports gender equality. As well as helping to ensure that budgets deliver maximum value for citizens, gender-responsive budgeting supports other policy objectives connected with efficiency, transparency and accountability. Under the Treaties, the EU has an obligation to promote gender equality and a firm basis to use gender-mainstreaming tools, including gender-responsive budgeting, to reach this objective. During the 2019-2024 mandate, the long-running debate on the feasibility of introducing gender-responsive budgeting at EU level, begun in the early 2000s, resulted in practical action. The EU’s gender equality strategy for 2020 to 2025 included a commitment to improve gender mainstreaming in the budget process, notably by developing a methodology to track expenditure on gender equality. This gender budgeting tool was piloted for the first time in the EU’s 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework (MFF). It was applied to all spending programmes in the annual budgets for 2023, 2024 and 2025. The start of the current five-year mandate at the European Commission and the European Parliament is a good moment to reflect on how deeply rooted gender-responsive budgeting has become and how the momentum can be carried forward. The European Parliament has played an active role in the introduction of gender-responsive budgeting at EU level. Opportunities exist for Parliament to promote its further development, notably in connection with the post-2027 MFF and in its own working practices.